Sam Herreid

Sam Herreid

שמואל הריד

Biography

I am an Alaska-raised, California-based geoscientist actively working on a diverse set of climate-focused projects:

  • I work on ice sheet dynamics in Antarctica as a postdoc in Eric Rignot’s Research Group at the University of California Irvine

  • In 2024 I co-founded Rubicon Exploration, a Paris-based startup working on developing naturally occuring hydrogen as a carbon-free energy source

  • I am co-founder of Open Climate Research Collective (OCRC) a New Jersey based 501(c)(3) focused on using immersive tech for science communication and gamifying education

  • I am self-financing an Alaska Range glacier research project developing a numerical model to predict how glaciers will look several in several hundreds of years

Probably my best scientific achievement so far is turning a research question I had at age 20 into a PhD and publishing it in Nature Geoscience. A close second is self-financing a research article about a glacier in the Alaska Range on tip money from pouring latte art at a cafe on the Jersey Shore during the pandemic.

Outside of academics, I study Gemara and write music. I play piano and drums, sometimes at the same time, and sometimes for an audience. I also run a lot. I occupy that grey area of running where I can casually qualify for Boston but I’m light-years away from qualifying for the Olympic trials. My preference is to run very long distances on trails, but working on this ambitious list of science projects and השכמת בית המדרש שחרית וערבית doesn’t leave too much time to play. As a concession, I like to run ultra distances from my front door down the middle of highways through the night. An Alaskan trapped in an urban environment. I make the best of it. Which is sometimes funny. And I sometimes write comedy articles about it. Links below.

Education
  • PhD in Glaciology, 2019

    Northumbria University

  • BSc in Geology, 2014

    University of Alaska Fairbanks

Events

Running

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2024/2025 race schedule

July 4, 2024 – Irvine 4th of July 5k (6th OA in 17:13)

December 15, 2024 – Dirty December Trail Run 6HR hill climb in San Diego, CA

September 4th 2025 – Ultra Tral Du Monte Rosa (UTMR) 170k on trails in Switzerland and Italy (unconfirmed entry)

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Photo: Henwood’s Hounds. Ichan Stadium, July 13, 2023

Publications

(2021). Why is Denali (6,194 m) so big? Caught inside the tectonic wake of a migrating restraining bend. In Terra Nova.

PDF Cite onlinelibrary.wiley.com

(2021). Losing the Arctic (Book Chapter). In “Whither the Arctic Ocean” (Ed. P. Wassmann) Page 125-133.

PDF Cite amazon.com

(2021). Mapping ice cliffs on debris-covered glaciers using multispectral satellite images. In RSE.

PDF Cite

(2020). The state of rock debris covering Earth’s glaciers. In Nat Geosci..

PDF Cite Code Dataset Project Supplemental nature.com

(2018). Automated detection of ice cliffs within supraglacial debris cover. In The Cryosphere.

PDF Cite Code Project tc.copernicus.org

(2015). Satellite observations show no net change in the percentage of supraglacial debris-covered area in northern Pakistan from 1977 to 2014. In J. Glaciol..

PDF Cite cambridge.org

Projects

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Debris Cover Evolution
Modeling how glaciers will look 100s of years into the future
Debris Cover Evolution
Global scale analyses and products
Publicly available data. A refined and consistent version of the RGI and a global debris cover map.
Global scale analyses and products
Thermal imagery in glaciology
High resolution thermal data for glacier and debris cover research
Thermal imagery in glaciology
Open Climate Research Collective
A nonprofit focused on restructuring science financing
Open Climate Research Collective
ביאור על ספר בראשית
ביאור על ספר בראשית
Landslides on glaciers
Half hobby / half research interest, visiting supraglacial landslides in the Alaska Range
Landslides on glaciers
Debris Cover Tools
Python-based toolkit to include debris cover in glacier melt models
Debris Cover Tools

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Rignot Research Group, University of California, Irvine
Postdoctoral researcher
May 2024 – Present Orange County, California, USA

Responsibilities include:

  • Software development for NISAR
  • Deriving velocities and grounding lines for Antarctica
 
 
 
 
 
Rubicon Exploration
Co-founder, CTO
Jun 2024 – Present Paris, France

Responsibilities include:

  • Providing scientific and technological direction
  • Startup fundraising
  • Software development for geologic hydrogen exploration
 
 
 
 
 
Open Climate Research Collective
Co-founder, Executive Director
Jan 2022 – Present New Jersey, USA

Responsibilities include:

  • Business planning
  • Fundraising / public speaking
  • VR development
  • Scientifc direction
 
 
 
 
 
OSU Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center
Postdoctoral researcher
May 2023 – May 2024 Ohio, USA (remote)

Responsibilities included:

  • Software development for geologic hydrogen exploration
  • Machine learning for geophysical applications
 
 
 
 
 
Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft
Research Assistant
Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft
Jan 2019 – Jul 2019 Birmensdorf, Switzerland

Responsibilities included:

  • Global scale glacier analysis
  • Proposal writing

Contact