Ph.D, Geophysics, University of Washington – 2015

Earth's ice sheets, especially the Greenland Ice Sheet; ice motion and subglacial hydrology; ice fracture, rifting, and crevasse propagation. I study these topics using mathematical modeling, field work, remote-sensing products, and deep learning models.

B. Reynolds, S. Nowicki, & K. Poinar. “Comprehensive assessment of stress calculations for crevasse depths and testing with crevasse penetration as damage,” The Cryosphere, 10.5194/egusphere-2024-2424.

K. Poinar, J. Box, T. Mote, X. Fettweis, B. Loomis, B. Smith, B. Medley, K. Mankoff, T. Askjaer, J. Scheller, , R. Fausto, & M. Tedesco, 2025. “The Greenland Ice Sheet” in The Arctic chapter of the BAMS State of the Climate in 2024, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 105(8). 10.1175/2025BAMSStateoftheClimate.1.

K. Poinar, J. Box, T. Mote, B. Loomis, B. Smith, B. Medley, T. Askjaer, K. Mankoff, R. Fausto, & M. Tedesco, 2024. “Greenland Ice Sheet 2024” chapter within the NOAA Arctic Report Card, edited by T. Moon, M. Druckenmiller, and R. Thoman. 10.25923/njxd-b82.

J. Mejia, K. Poinar, C. Meyer, A. Sommers, & W. Chu, 2024. “Mechanisms for upstream migration of firn aquifer drainage: preliminary observations of Helheim Glacier, Greenland,” Journal of Glaciology 71, doi:10.1017/jog.2024.78.

D. Yang, K. Poinar, S. Nowicki, & B. Csatho, 2024. “Characteristics of dynamic thickness change across diverse outlet glacier geometries and basal conditions,” Journal of Glaciology 70, 10.1017/jog.2024.50.

A. Sommers, C. Meyer, K. Poinar, & J. Mejia, M. Morlighem, H. Rajaram, K. Warburton, & W. Chu, 2024. “Velocity of Greenland’s Helheim Glacier controlled both by terminus effects and subglacial hydrology with distinct realms of influence,” Geophysical Research Letters 51(15), 1–12. 10.1029/2024GL109168.

C. Trunz, K. Poinar, L. Andrews, M. Covington, J. Mej´ıa†, J. Gulley, & V. Siegel, 2023. “Observed and modeled moulin heads in the Pˆakitsoq region of Greenland suggest subglacial channel network effects”. The Cryosphere 17, 5075–5094. 10.5194/tc-17-5075-2023.

K. Poinar, 2023. “Small lakes could destabilize Earth’s ice sheets”. Physics Today 76(10), 70–71, 10.1063/PT.3.5333.

E. Cicero, K. Poinar, R. Jones-Ivey, J. Sperhac, A. Petty, A. Patra, & J. Briner, 2023. “Firn aquifer water discharges into crevasses across Southeast Greenland”. Journal of Glaciology. 10.1017/jog.2023.25.

• ERT 102 – Climate Change
• ERT 222 – Climate Futures
• ERT 312 – Surface Processes & Hydrology
• ERT 427/527 – Statistics and Modeling of Geologic Data
• ERT 447/547 – Glaciology

• Naureen Khan, PhD 2026
• Courtney Shafer, PhD 2027
• Kniya Duncan, PhD 2029

Please see Dr. Poinar’s research website for an up-to-date list of current students.