Cool Scientists
Dr. Matthew Sturm
Name: Matthew Sturm
Born: 1953
Organization: U.S.A. Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory
Cool Science: Geophysicist
Who Am I:
I first came to the Arctic on a Coast Guard icebreaker when I was 17. For a while I worked in the Antarctic running boats (Fig. 1). In both the Arctic and Antarctic I found the ice and snow to be important and fascinating, so I went to college and became a geologist, and later a glaciologist (one who studies frozen water).
In 1981 my wife and I moved to Fairbanks, where we have lived ever since. It is a sub-arctic town, but snow and ice are still pretty important there. In graduate school I started studying glaciers, then switched to snow cover. . .that's what we call the snow piled up on the ground. First I studied what happens to individual snow grains (Fig. 2), then I got interested in how snow effects climate, so I started leading long over-snow trips to collect data. On several month-long expeditions, my children (Skye and Eli) have helped in the field.
My first long snowmobile trip was in 1994. Since then I have led about 15 such trips and probably traveled about 8000 km. Even when I am the Chief Scientist on a trip, I like to do all types of work. Last winter, I was working on a snow project in Barrow (Fig. 4) but I still got to do the surveying, which was fun. In total, I have about 37 years of living and working in the Arctic.
My Cool Research:
I am responsible for conducting wide-ranging geophysical studies on snow in high latitudes. My work has taken me from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and I have been the leader of more than 30 expeditions in winter in pursuit of my science. I am based at the Alaska Office in Fairbanks, but collaborates with a wide range of scientists both at CRREL and elsewhere. My most recent work focuses on the role of snow cover on climate, with particular attention to snow ecology, and climate change resulting from snow-vegetation interactions.
My Cool Publications: (selected)
Tape, K., M. Sturm, and C. Racine (2006). The evidence for shrub expansion in Northern Alaska and the Pan-Arctic. Global Change Biology 12, 686-702, doi: 10.1111/j.1356-2486.2006.01128.x
Hiramatsu, K. and M. Sturm. (2005). A simple, inexpensive chamber for growing snow crystals in the the classroom. The Physics Teacher 43, 346-348, doi: 10.1119/1.2033518.
Sturm, M., J. Schimel, G. Michaelson, J. M. Welker, S. F. Oberbauer, G. E. Liston, J. Fahnestock, and V. E. Romanovsky (2005). Winter biological processes could help convert Arctic tundra to shrubland. BioScience 55 No. 1, 17- 26
Sturm, M., and T. Douglas (2005). Changing snow and shrub conditions affectr albedo with global implications. Journal of Geophsical Research 110, doi:10.1029/2005JG000013.
Sturm, M., J. B. Johnson, and J. Holmgren. (2004). Variations in the mechanical properties of arctic and subarctic snow at local (1-m) to regional (100-km) scales. International Symposium oin Snow Monitoring and Avalanches (ISSM-2004), Manali, India.
Other Cool Stuff:
Led two 1200km over-snow traverse from Nome to Barrow, Alaska (SnowSTAR-2002 and 2004).
In the winter of 1983-1984, Matthew participated in a glaciological expedition to the large ice streams of Antarctica.
Matthew developed a science curriculum for grammar-school children based on experiments on snow .
Matthew holds two patents for devices designed to measure snow properties efficiently.
