Climate Science
Date: April 7, 2025 12:00 pm
Location: Virtual
Join us for a talk with Dr. Leigh Stearns. This event is part of Central’s grant through the Climate Science in Theological Education (CSTE) Grant Initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program.
Dr. Stearns is a Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Faculty Fellow at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Dr. Stearns completed her PhD at the University of Maine, her M.S. at The Ohio State University, and her B.A. at Carleton College. Before arriving at the University of Pennsylvania, she was a Professor at the University of Kansas from 2009-2024. She has authored 67 peer-reviewed articles and has been awarded 25 competitive grants from NASA, NOAA, NSF, DoD, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Dr. Stearns uses a combination of satellite remote sensing, field observations, numerical modeling, and machine learning techniques to understand the processes that drive glacier change. She is broadly interested in how a changing climate impacts the cryosphere, and the risks associated with those changes. Her current research focuses on ice sheet dynamics and sea level rise, shifts in iceberg and sea ice distributions in Arctic shipping lanes, and glacier loss and water availability at low latitudes. She is passionate about creating equitable, inclusive, and welcoming spaces in the geosciences and in climate education and literacy for all ages.
April 7, 2025, 12:00-1:00 pm (CT)
