Helen Fricker

Helen Amanda Fricker is a professor of geophysics in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. She uses satellite radar and laser altimetry to understand the evolution of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Fricker has gained wide recognition for her discovery of active Antarctic sub-glacial lakes and their dynamic hydrologic systems, including the short-term drainage of one lake into another. She received her Bachelor of Science degree with first class honors in mathematics and physics from University College London, and her Ph.D. in glaciology from the University of Tasmania, before joining Scripps as a postgraduate researcher. She belongs to the American Geophysical Union and was a member of the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Team, as well as the NASA Sea Level Change Team.