Christina Hulbe


Christina Hulbe, an Antarctic researcher, serves as Professor
and Dean of Surveying at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Hulbe was previously Chair of the Geology Department at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She leads the NZARI project to drill through the Ross Ice Shelf and is the namesake of the Hulbe glacier.

Early life and education

Hulbe grew up in Sacramento, California, spending a lot of time in the Sierra Nevada and the Warner Mountains to the north. Her father was a geologist and professor. She completed a degree in geological engineering from the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. She completed her MSc in 1994 at Ohio State University followed in 1998 by a Geophysics PhD from the University of Chicago.

Career and impact

In 1998 she held a NRC Research Associateship, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. From there she moved to Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.
Her work in the late 1990s constituted the first melding together of the types of ice-sheet thermomechanical models. She contributed to the understanding of ice-shelf instability, with some of the first papers that identified surface meltwater as an agent in the break-up of Larsen B ice shelf.
She has developed methods used to identify ice-shelf and ice-stream flow variability as observed by the geometry of flow streaks and other indicators, and this is one of the few ways in which the history of glacial flow over the “medium past”.
Hulbe's work in the understanding of Heinrich Events of the North Atlantic was informed by her experience with Antarctic-based ice-shelf and ice-stream instability, and this has led to a mechanism that is currently popular in understanding Heinrich Events. Most recently, Hulbe is lead investigator in a New Zealand project seeking to drill through the Ross Ice Shelf which would be the first mid-shelf penetration since J9 in the late 1970s.
Hulbe has been heavily involved with the International Glaciological Society and oversaw its transition from a mode of service to the community to an open access publishing provider.

Awards and honours

Hulbe was Vice President of the International Glaciological Society as well as a Fulbright Senior Scholar. She was awarded the Portland State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, John Elliot Allen Outstanding Teaching Award in 2004 and 2007. She also chairs the University of Otago Equity Advisory Committee and has written a history of women in glaciology and has campaigned extensively against armed conflict.
The Hulbe Glacier on the Siple Coast is named after her.