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Intervention Manager - Cryosphere Risk Climate and environmental risks (SG1) Managing cryosphere and water risks (SG1-AAA)
Dr. Miriam Jackson is a Senior Cryosphere Specialist in Managing Cryosphere and Water Risks and has been leading ICIMOD’s cryosphere work since joining the institution in 2020. She has vast experience in the cryosphere area, including field research in Norway, Bhutan, Antarctica, Nepal, Greenland, and India.
Miriam has worked extensively on the issues that society faces due to cryosphere changes; this has involved collaborating with hydropower companies on the risks of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and developing guidelines for climate-resilient hydropower development. She has also been involved in community interactions at the local level to share knowledge concerning the implications of cryosphere change. Besides, she is associated with international initiatives such as the Ambition on Melting Ice. Miriam is also a member of the Scientific Steering Group for WCRP’s Climate and Cryosphere Initiative.
Her important scientific publications include being the lead author for the IPCC on the High Mountain Areas chapter in the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. She is also an editor of the recent HI-WISE report – Water, Ice, Society, and Ecosystems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: An Outlook.
Before joining ICIMOD, Miriam worked as a glaciologist for the Norwegian government for over twenty years and her responsibilities included leading glacier research in the Svartisen Subglacial Laboratory under 200 m of ice and leading the Norway-India collaborative project, INDICE, which is studying the response of the Indian hydrological system to climate change.
Miriam holds a PhD in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology, an MS in geosciences from the Ohio State University (USA), and a BSc (Hons) in mathematics and astronomy from the University College London.
Miriam Jackson
How do you protect the pulse of the planet?
I contribute by ensuring our work is of high quality and our results are disseminated. It is not enough to study the cryosphere, how it is changing, and the effect of these changes. This information then needs to be communicated to those people who are affected by these change as well as to policymakers.
What is your favorite part of the work you do at ICIMOD?
The variety of the work at ICIMOD means there is always something new. I love the opportunity to do most of my work in a team, with talented colleagues from many different countries with a broad range of expertise. I feel every day that we are working together towards a common goal.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate the cryosphere – glaciers, snow, ice, and permafrost. I love snow and ice, and spending time in a mountain or polar environment. Much of the cryosphere is quite inaccessible but changes in it can have effects over a wide area.
My qualifications
At university, I studied mathematics and astronomy, but after getting my BSc (Hons) at University College London, I became interested in glaciology and took an MS in geosciences at the Byrd Polar Research Centre in Ohio, followed by a PhD in geophysics at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). My masters and PhD both involved studying the dynamics of Whillans ice stream and entailed a lot of fieldwork in Antarctica.
After graduating, I moved back to Europe and worked at the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, where I was responsible for the Svartisen Subglacial Laboratory and GLOFs in Norway. I also worked in High Mountain Asia, including initiating mass balance measurements in Bhutan at Thana Glacier, and led INDICE, a joint Norwegian-Indian project that studied the response of the hydrological system in India to climate change.
In 2019, I was lead author in Chapter 2: High Mountain Areas in the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC).
