Elizabeth Fischer

Dr. Elizabeth Fischer began her Earth Science career in 2011 as a postdoc at NASA/Columbia Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, working on coupling the GISS climate model to UAF’s Parallel Ice Sheet Model.  She first came to UAF in 2012 to attend the McCarthy Summer School in Glaciology, run by Dr. Regine Hock.  Upon return to GISS, she continued model development, addressing diverse issues including dynamic ice sheet models, coupling details, mass/energy budgets and snow/firn processes.

Elizabeth came to UAF in April 2020, hired by Dr. Andy Aschwanden for research on retreat processes in tidewater glaciers, resulting in a paper currently nearing completion.  Since August 2021, she has worked with Dr. Uma Bhatt on the EPSCoR Fire/Ice project and the use of machine learning to forecast fire weather, while writing model development papers from her time at GISS.  Elizabeth is thrilled to join CASC, to return to physics-based modelling and cryosphere research, and to continue to build a career at UAF.

Dr. Fischer also manages a remote team of quantitative researchers at a hedge fund while designing and implementing proprietary software infrastructure to support the modelling effort.  She holds degrees in Computer Science and Geophysics and has 20 years of experience in quantitative finance.  Elizabeth is an advocate for non-traditional career paths, and danced for a professional ballet company during graduate school.  Today she is privileged to apply her skills to pertinent issues facing our planet, our society and the State of Alaska.  She shares her home with her 14-year-old daughter, her 15-year old dog and the cutest puppy in the world.