Profile of Eric Rignot

Abstract

Sometimes taking a step back helps to see things more clearly. Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, has found that when studying the behavior of glaciers and ice sheets, it helps to take a giant step back, all of the way into space. His use of satellite radar imaging has provided extraordinarily detailed information about how fast the ice sheets are melting and how much they contribute to sea-level rise. Rignot’s findings have shown the impact of climate change on the ice sheets and how little time there may be to stop it. His work has earned him numerous honors, including fellowship in the American Geophysical Union in 2013 and membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2018. Eric Rignot. Image credit: Ian Fenty (NASA/JPL-Caltech, Pasadena, CA). Eric Rignot grew up in what he describes as a rugged part of the French countryside, near the city of St. Etienne. Rignot partly attributes his interest in polar environments to the rough winter weather he experienced growing up. As a child, he enjoyed reading novels about polar adventures. He also recalls reading about Nobel Prize winners in an encyclopedia as a kid, which exposed him to the explosion of scientific knowledge that emerged in the early 20th century. This kindled a lifelong fascination with science and the natural world. As a student, Rignot pursued studies in mathematics, in part because in the French educational system, math promised to open up the most doors. “If you’re good in math,” he explains, “you can basically do whatever you want.” Nevertheless, Rignot was not introduced to physics until high school and for a long time wanted to become a veterinarian. At age 17, Rignot met an engineer who encouraged him to go to engineering school. “He seemed so sure, expressing …