Twila Moon
Senior Research Scientist, Deputy NSIDC Lead Scientist and CEEE Climate Science Engagement Lead
About Twila
Dr. Twila Moon is Senior Scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), a global leader in Earth science. Dr. Moon acts as Deputy Lead Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and founder and instructor for Engage Climate Science, which brings science-based insights and tools to professionals across business, finance, philanthropy, media, and policy.
A world-renowned glaciologist, Dr. Moon specializes in the connections across ice, climate, ocean, ecosystem, and society. Her pioneering research focuses on Greenland and the Arctic and has been published in high-impact journals such as Science and Nature and received global media coverage. She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and media contact, called upon to link the dots across climate science, societal impacts, and the strategic planning and decision making needed to realize our best possible future.
Dr. Moon has testified for the U.S. Congress, serves on the U.S. Polar Research Board, is a lead editor for the Arctic Report Card, NOAA’s highest impact annual report, and a Fellow of The Explorers Club. In 2025, she was shortlisted for the Shackleton Medal for Protection of Polar Regions and received the American Geophysical Union Pavel S. Molchanov Climate Communications Prize.
After completing degrees at Stanford and University of Washington, she received Postdoctoral Fellowships for work at the University of Colorado and University of Oregon and held a Lectureship at the University of Bristol (UK) before returning to CIRES in 2017. Additional information is available at www.changingice.com and www.engageclimatescience.org.
Specialties
Current Research
Moon conducts a wide variety of research, including discovery science and geoscience education research, and is also involved in science community organization and collaboration initiatives. Current projects include:
QGreenland: QGreenland (https://qgreenland.org/) is a Greenland data viewing, mapping, and analysis tool. QGreenland provides a curated set of multidisciplinary geospatial data for the Greenland ice sheet and terrestrial and marine areas. The QGreenland package works on the free QGIS platform and comes with complete User Guide and supporting information, so even those new to GIS can explore. Moon is the project PI. Source of support: NSF
PolarPASS: The PolarPASS geoscience education research project aims to increase polar knowledge and interest amongst undergraduate students. The project achieves this in part by evaluating how use of a 360-degree interactive environment can increase student sense of place and spatial analysis skills. Moon was the project PI. Source of support: NSF
GRISO: The Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean Science Network (GRISO, https://griso.ucsd.edu/) goal is to facilitate scientific progress by bringing together the community and leveraging international collaborations between individuals, groups and networks. Current activities include facilitating the successful outcomes for five working groups (focuses: ice forcing ocean, ocean forcing ice, data, coastal ecosystems, and paleo) and launching a Greenland science summer school. Moon is a project Co-PI. Source of support: NSF
Greenland freshwater production: In collaboration with colleagues at Boise State University and San Jose State University, this project works to understand the location and timing of freshwater fluxes from Greenland, including iceberg melt. Moon is a project Co-PI. Source of support: NSF
Greenland system science: Work across disciplines with other researchers to discover how glacial and ice environments interact with larger Arctic systems. For example, collaborative work with researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere discovered the world's 20th polar bear subpopulation in southeastern Greenland, where bears use glacial ice as key habitat. Source of support: NASA, other.
Navigating the New Arctic Community Office: The NNA-CO (https://nna-co.org/) provides leadership and coordination to support use-inspired convergence research in the Arctic—collaborative research that deeply draws on information and expertise from across disciplines and knowledge systems to solve complex challenges. Moon was project Senior Personnel. Source of support: NSF
Education
