Eric Rignot Scientist

Eric Rignot is Professor of Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine, and principal scientist for the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory 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. He has said that the observed speed at which glaciers in Greenland are melting is considerably faster than he had anticipated. He received the Lew Allen Award for Excellence in 1998. Rignot is a member of the American Geophysical Union, and the International Glaciological Society.In 2014 Rignot was the lead author on a widely publicized study which 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."