Alison Criscitiello


Alison Criscitiello is an American ice core scientist, National Geographic Explorer, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. In addition to her academic work, she is a co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada and an avid adventurer and mountain climber. She led the first all-women ascent of Lingsarmo and has received numerous American Alpine Club grants for her pioneering expeditions.
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Early life and education

Criscitiello grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, and is a former U.S. Climbing Ranger. She has two sisters, one of whom is her identical twin. She holds a B.A. in Earth and Environmental Science from Wesleyan University, an M.A. in Geology and Geophysics from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Glaciology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hers is the first Ph.D. in Glaciology conferred by M.I.T.

Career

After completing her Ph.D., Criscitiello accepted a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary, and has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor there since 2016. She became the Director of the Ice Core Laboratory at the University of Alberta in 2017. Using ice cores from the polar regions, her research helps explain how ocean conditions impact coastal ice caps and ice sheets, and how global atmospheric teleconnections drive such variability at the poles. Newer projects involving drilling ice cores in non-polar regions contribute to a deeper understanding of climate variability as well as human impacts on remote landscapes.
Criscitiello is the Canadian national delegate to the International Partnerships in Ice Core Science, and is a member of their Steering Committee.
She is a co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.

Selected expeditions

Criscitiello has been adventuring since childhood, and is an experienced mountaineering guide and expedition leader.
  • 2021 Mount Logan
  • 2017 Dawson to Tuktayaktuk Arctic Bike
  • 2016 Borderski
  • 2010 Lingsarmo

Awards and recognition

2025 Explorers Club 50
2020 National Geographic Explorer
2018 Best Mountaineering Article Award
2017 American Alpine Club Research Grant recipient
2016 Mugs Stump Award
2015 John Lauchlan Award
2015 Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg and Scott Fischer Memorial Conservation Grant

Selected works

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