Alison is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. This involves long months of living in a tent and drilling ice cores in places like Antarctica, Alaska, and the Canadian High Arctic.
As part of Perpetual Planet Expeditions—a partnership between the National Geographic Society and Rolex—Alison led two expeditions to Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain. In 2021, she anchored an all-female team of scientists to install the highest weather station in North America near the mountain’s peak. Alison returned in 2022 to successfully retrieve a record-breaking 1,072-foot-long ice core that could contain one of the continent’s most important climate records and will shed light on how climate change impacts even the world’s highest peaks. Alison is an assistant professor and the director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at University of Alberta, founder and co-director of Girls on Ice Canada.
