Dustin Schroeder receives NSF CAREER Award

Dustin Schroeder, an assistant professor of geophysics, recently received a 2018 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The grant supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Schroeder leads the Radio Glaciology research group in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. The interdisciplinary team uses ice penetrating radar to study the conditions within and below rapidly changing ice sheets and their potential contribution to the rate of sea level rise.

Schroeder’s CAREER Award proposal, Cross-Instrument Synthesis of Antarctic Radar Sounding Observations, aims to develop technical tools and approaches to compare measurements among radar observations of glaciers since the 1960s. It also includes an outreach education effort to provide middle-and-high school students with improved resources and exposure to geophysical, glaciological, and remote-sensing topics through a partnership with the National Science Olympiad.

Schroeder’s research focuses on the observational science processes of instrument and survey design, data processing and analysis, modeling and inference. He holds a courtesy appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and considers himself an instrument scientist, seeking approaches to problems from both an Earth system science and radar system engineering perspective. He is also a faculty affiliate with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

The NSF CAREER Award grants faculty members like Schroeder five years of financial support to foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation’s future.