Markle

Juliana Ruef is awarded the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship

Gabe Allen — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Juliana Ruef is awarded the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship Gabe Allen Fri, 04/04/2025 - 06:00

Gabe Allen

INSTAAR is excited to announce that incoming PhD student Juliana Ruef is the 2025 recipient of the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. Ruef will use the award for snow science research on the Juneau Icefield in Alaska this summer.

The Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship was designed by Sarah Crump, a beloved INSTAAR alum who passed away in November 2022. Each year, the fellowship provides funding for one graduate student studying earth or environmental science in high-latitude or high-altitude regions.

Juliana Ruef, the recipient of the 2025 Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship, poses for a portrait.

Though Ruef hasn’t started her PhD yet, she is already at INSTAAR working on a MS degree with INSTAAR faculty Robert Anderson and Bradley Markle. Her PhD research will focus on the evolution and dynamics of rock glaciers and firn—granular ice that forms between snow and glaciers.

Ruef will use the fellowship funds to pay herself and an undergraduate research assistant to gather data for firn evolution research project this summer. The funding will also help pay for travel to and from the Juneau Icefield as well as essential supplies for data collection in the field.

Ruef’s advisors cited her focus on community-building and her high research standards in a recommendation letter.

“We can think of few students who so closely embody Sarah’s passion for scientific understanding of the alpine world as well as her commitment to making science a better community,” Markle and Anderson wrote.

You can visit this link to learn more about the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship or donate to the fund.

Juliana Ruef processes a freshly-drilled "firn core" on the Juneau Icefield in 2024.

If you have questions about this story, or would like to reach out to INSTAAR for further comment, you can contact INSTAAR Communications Specialist Gabe Allen at gabriel.allen@colorado.edu.

Ruef is the third recipient of the summer fellowship created in honor of a now-passed INSTAAR alum. She will use the funding for snow science research on the Juneau Ice Field in Alaska this summer.

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Juliana Ruef on the Juneau Ice Field in Alaska.

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Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (CU �鶹ӰԺ Today)

Gabe Allen — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:38:25 +0000

Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (CU �鶹ӰԺ Today) Gabe Allen Thu, 03/27/2025 - 14:38

An INSTAAR-led study measured water vapor in Greenland’s air, collecting data crucial for improving climate models and forecasting Arctic changes.

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Warming has more impact than cooling on Greenland's "firn" (CIRES)

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 23:26:31 +0000

Warming has more impact than cooling on Greenland's "firn" (CIRES) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/25/2024 - 17:26

Stephanie Maltarich , CIRES

A new study found Greenland's "firn" - the spongy layer between ice and snow - is more sensitive to warming than cooling. More specifically, warming temperatures are rapidly changing how efficiently firn can store meltwater, and cooling temperatures may not help it fully recover. Megan Thompson-Munson, a CIRES and ATOC PhD student, led the study alongside her advisors: CIRES Fellow Jen Kay and INSTAAR Fellow Brad Markle.

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Alaska’s top-heavy glaciers are approaching an irreversible tipping point (The Conversation)

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Alaska’s top-heavy glaciers are approaching an irreversible tipping point (The Conversation) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/04/2024 - 00:00

The melting of the Juneau Icefield in Alaska—one of North America’s largest icefields—has accelerated and could soon reach an irreversible tipping point, according to a paper by Davies et al. published in Nature Communications. Coauthors include Brad Markle of INSTAAR and Geological Sciences. He is also Director of Academics for the Juneau Icefield Research Program.

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Old core, new data: Students unlock knowledge about past Arctic climates

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 16:55:34 +0000

Old core, new data: Students unlock knowledge about past Arctic climates Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 10:55

Shelly Sommer

A team of students and scientists are reanalyzing the GISP2 ice core, drilled in Greenland during the late 1980s through the early 90s, to investigate mechanisms of abrupt climate change and extreme events of the past.

Assistant Research Professor Tyler Jones, Assistant Professor Brad Markle, and Senior Professional Research Assistant Valerie Morris of INSTAAR’s Stable Isotope Lab are leading a group of students in resampling the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) core. Water isotopes in the core were originally analyzed to give insight into environmental change in the Arctic over the past 100,000 years.

Now Jones’ group is taking samples from the same core, stored for decades, and analyzing them afresh.

Analytical techniques developed over the past decades mean the team is getting much more detailed data about Earth’s past climate, unlocked from water isotopes.

Jones says, “The original measurements yielded about 3,000 data points over 3,000 meters of ice. Now we will get millions of data points over 2,000 meters of ice.” (The researchers are analyzing two-thirds of the core.)

Jones calls the team “an amazing group.” They include CU �鶹ӰԺ grad students Rhys-Jasper León and Brooke Chase, Front Range Community College student Megan Erskine, Colorado College undergrad student Tirso Lara, and CU �鶹ӰԺ undergrads Ella Johnson and Adira Lunken.

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Tyler Jones, Brad Markle, and Valerie Morris are leading a group of students in resampling the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) core to investigate mechanisms of abrupt climate change and extreme events of the past. The original measurements (e.g., water isotopes) numbered a few thousand while the new measurements will create millions of data points.

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Photo: Tyler Jones, Rhys-Jasper León, Valerie Morris, Brooke Chase, Tirso Lara, Megan Erskine, Ella Johnson, and Adira Lunken work in the NSF Ice Core Facility, Lakewood Colorado.

Faces of the Front Range: Bruce Vaughn and Bradley Markle look to save the world by understanding it (Denver Post)

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 06:00:00 +0000

Faces of the Front Range: Bruce Vaughn and Bradley Markle look to save the world by understanding it (Denver Post) Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/11/2021 - 00:00

Denver Post profile of a visit to the Stable Isotope Lab, where Bruce Vaughn and Brad Markle shared ice cores, knowledge, and what keeps them going while researching the climate past and present. To read this article, you may need to enter your email address.

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Markle

Juliana Ruef is awarded the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship

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Drone experiment reveals how Greenland ice sheet is changing (CU �鶹ӰԺ Today)

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Warming has more impact than cooling on Greenland's "firn" (CIRES)

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Alaska’s top-heavy glaciers are approaching an irreversible tipping point (The Conversation)

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Old core, new data: Students unlock knowledge about past Arctic climates

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Faces of the Front Range: Bruce Vaughn and Bradley Markle look to save the world by understanding it (Denver Post)

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