Eric Rignot


Eric Rignot is a Chancellor Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and Senior Research Scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Education

In 1985, Rignot studied an engineering degree at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris, France, where he took classes in physics, chemistry, math, and economics. After a year, he took Master of Science in Astronomy at the University of Paris VI Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. In 1987 and 1988 he took Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering, consecutively, in the University of Southern California. It is also in the University of Southern California where he pursued Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering in 1991.

Work

He is a principal investigator on several NASA-funded projects to study the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheets and Antarctic ice sheets by using radar interferometry and other methods; the interactions of ice shelves with the ocean; and the dynamic retreat of Patagonian glaciers. In particular, Rignot's primary research interests are glaciology, climate change, radar remote sensing, ice sheet numerical modeling, interferometric synthetic-aperture radar, radio echo sounding, and ice-ocean interactions. His research group focuses on understanding the interactions of ice and climate, ice sheet mass balance, ice-ocean interactions in Greenland and Antarctica, and current/future contributions of ice sheets to sea level change.
In 2007 he contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report WGI which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with VP Al Gore.

Awards

Rignot received several awards and honors.
An overview of Rignot's research publications can be obtained via his .
Based on study findings, he noted that the observed speed at which glaciers in Greenland are melting is considerably faster than he had anticipated. In 2014 Rignot was the lead author on a widely publicized study which based on grounding line retreat, found that the melting of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea appears to be unstoppable. Rignot said that these glaciers have "passed the point of no return."