Clare Eayrs, PhD

What’s the work that you do?

I am a Research Scientist at the Center for Global Sea Level Change, NYU Abu Dhabi. I use satellite datasets and model outputs to examine sea ice variability at seasonal to interannual timescales and its relationship to the climate system. I’m also interested in processes at the grounding zone, the transition zone where a marine-based ice sheet goes from being grounded on the seafloor to abruptly terminating into, or going afloat on, the ocean. I’m currently using information from radar instruments to look at melt rates across the grounding zone at Thwaites Glacier.

What keeps you going?

I enjoy the intellectual challenge of my job and the fact that I am working on scientific issues that can impact communities across the globe. I especially like working with interesting people from all over the world due to the international and interdisciplinary nature of polar research. It doesn’t always make for convenient meeting times when you are trying to work across multiple time zones, but it is great to be able to discuss how your research fits into different contexts and contributes to wider issues.

What’s your message to the world?

Always work on developing your connections, as you never know in what circumstance you will meet people again and how you might be able to help each other out. I found my current position in Abu Dhabi through someone I did an Italian language course with on a different continent and I am part of a large and productive international collaborative team working on process studies in the Antarctic marginal ice zone through someone I met while I was doing ecosystem modeling of European Shelf Seas at a fisheries lab!