Sarah Wells-Moran
About Me:
I study the physics of how ice flows and breaks.
My research seeks to understand:
(1) the stresses at which fractures form and propagate, and
(2) how rifts and stress regimes on ice shelves evolve over time.
I am a Masters student at MIT, working with Dr. Brent Minchew and the MIT Glaciers Group
I am passionate about increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in glaciology and the broader geosciences. In particular, I am interested in identifying and removing barriers for scientists with disabilities. Through my own experiences and my work with climbers with disabilities, I have gained an acute awareness of the challenges posed by field work and conferences, two integral parts of our field. I have joined the AGU Cryosphere Section’s executive committee as a member at large with the goal of bringing these concerns to the table and brainstorming solutions for improving accessibility at conferences. If you would like to chat more about accessibility issues within glaciology, please feel free to reach out!
Publications
Submitted and In Preparation:
Wells-Moran, S., Ranganathan, M., & Minchew, B., Fracture criteria and tensile strength for natural glacier ice calibrated from remote sensing observations of Antarctic ice shelves, submitted, doi: https://doi.org/10.31223/X5JX2F
Published:
Wells-Moran, S., Castro, A., Ranganathan, M., & Minchew, B. (2023). When PIGs Fly: Investigating Stress States and Rift Propagation on Antarctica’s Fastest-Flowing Glacier. Undergraduate Honors Thesis, Wellesley College https://repository.wellesley.edu/object/ir2033
Research Assistant: Pepper
I adopted Pepper in Fall 2019 from the Stray Pets In Need shelter in Natick, MA. She is currently 14 years old. Her favorite activities include screaming, stepping on keyboards, nipping toes, and sleeping in sunbeams. Vets describe her as “quite a character” and as having “great lung capacity.” She enjoys editing my manuscripts and adding in extra letters and punctuation as she sees fit. During the pandemic, she mastered the art of testing gravity by swatting items off of desks, and made many appearances over Zoom. She is looking to earn her Ph.D. so she can become Dr. Pepper.