Dr. Kelly Brunt joins OPP as Program Director (IPA)

Dr. Kelly Brunt has joined the Office of Polar Programs as a Program Director (IPA) hosted in the Arctic Sciences Section with responsibilities in both the Arctic System Sciences program and the Antarctic Glaciology Program.

Dr. Brunt is part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) mission, which is determining changes in the Earth’s polar regions. Her role with the mission includes the validation of the elevation-data accuracy. Dr. Brunt's broader research interest includes the remote-sensing and modeling of ice sheets, specifically in ice shelves and their grounded margins. Dr. Brunt brings her research experience in Antarctica, Greenland, and elsewhere to the activities of OPP.

Dr. Brunt is an Associate Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) at the University of Maryland, and the Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). She received her Ph.D. in Geophysics (Glaciology) from the University of Chicago. Prior to that, Dr. Brunt spent 4 years with the U.S. Antarctic Program support contractor, providing geographic information system and remote-sensing support to NSF-funded researchers spanning the natural-science disciplines.