Dr. Alison Criscitiello - Ice Core Scientist
Dr. Alison Criscitiello is an ice core scientist, high-altitude mountaineer, and Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Alison Criscitiello is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at University of Alberta, and co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.
Criscitiello explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. This involves long months of living in a tent and drilling ice cores in places like Antarctica, Greenland, the Yukon, and the Canadian high Arctic. Criscitiello's work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies.
She has earned the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal, three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, and the first PhD in glaciology ever conferred by MIT.
Criscitiello and her team installed the highest weather station in North America near Mount Logan's summit in 2021, and in 2022 drilled a record-breaking 327m ice core on its summit plateau that will shed light on how climate change impacts even the world’s highest peaks.
Most recently, in spring 2025, she drilled a new ice core on Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian high Arctic. At 613m, this is the deepest ice core ever drilled in Canadian history, and will contain critical information about Arctic Ocean and climate variability over the Holocene.
Dr. Ali's Instagram: @alisoncriscitiello
Canadian Ice Core Lab: @ice_cicl
Girls on Ice Canada : @girlsonicecanada
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