Dr. Alison Criscitiello is a world-renowned ice core scientist, glaciologist, advocate for gender equity, mother, and high-altitude mountaineer. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta, co-founder of Girls* on Ice Canada – and received the first PhD in glaciology ever conferred by MIT.
As a scientist, her work has taken her to ice caps around the world including Antarctica, Greenland, and the Canadian High Arctic, not to mention the summit of Canada’s highest peak, Mount Logan. Criscitiello explores the history of climate and glaciers in polar and high-alpine regions by tracking environmental contaminant histories using ice core chemistry. Many of the glaciers she has visited are at extreme risk due to climate change and Criscitiello is at the forefront of data capture and documentation of ice loss in these volatile zones.
Criscitiello’s expedition to collect ice core samples from close to the summit of Mount Logan was groundbreaking (and back-breaking) work. While polar ice coring science has been around for half a century, no one had conducted such an extensive collection from such a high altitude. Alongside her academic and scientific accolades, she is also an exceptional storyteller whose work has appeared in high-impact film projects, print, television, and her article Contraindications won a Banff Mountain Book Competition award in 2018.
Criscitiello is committed to making science more accessible to young women as well. As a founder of the Girls* on Ice Canada program, Criscitiello hopes to merge science, art, and adventure to inspire leadership, curiosity, and confidence in the next generation of leaders. Her work has motivated a community of young women to pursue their interests in science and dive into their passions in the outdoors.
In 2021, she was elected to the Royal Canadian Geographic Society’s College of Fellows and she is Fellow International with The Explorer’s Club. She was recently awarded a Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for her significant contributions to Arctic climate research. She has been the recipient of three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, The John Lauchlan Award, and the Mugs Stump alpine climbing award.