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Corinne Benedek

Corinne Benedek

PhD Student

Biography

Corinne's research combines radar and optical remote sensing with surface mass balance modelling to study the rate of surface melt-water in the percolation zone.

Corinne studied agricultural and biological engineering at Cornell University and was involved in research on non-point source pollution from dairy farms in the watershed surrounding New York City's main water supply.

At the end of her undergraduate work, she became involved in the sustainable building industry and worked for ten years promoting and designing energy efficient buildings with major commercial and institutional construction projects including laboratories, museums, concert halls, and libraries.

In 2013 she returned to work in the natural sciences by beginning an MPhil at the Scott Polar Research Institute investigating the energy balance of lakes on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet. In 2015 she was awarded the Howard Research Studentship at Sidney Sussex College through the Cambridge Trust to pursue a PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Her PhD research focuses on the use of Sentinel-1 radar to follow surface melt-water retention, runoff, and refreezing in the percolation zone of both the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctic Peninsula Ice Shelves.

Career

  • 2014 - 2015: Researcher at Cryospheric Processes Laboratory, City College of New York
  • 2012 - 2013: Independent contractor, Commercial building energy modelling consulting, California, USA.
  • 2007 - 2012: Senior Mechanical Engineer, Arup, New York, USA.
  • 2005 - 2007: Graduate student researcher, Center for the Built Environment, Berkeley, USA.
  • 2002 - 2005: Project engineer, Southface, Georgia, USA.

Qualifications

  • 2015 - Present: PhD candidate (provisional) in Polar Studies. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College), UK
  • 2013 - 2014: M.Phil. in Polar Studies. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College), UK
  • 2005 - 2007: M.S. in Architecture. Center for the Built Environment, University of California, Berkeley, USA.
  • 1998 - 2002: B.S. in Biological Engineering. Cornell University, New York, USA.
  • 2012: Professional Engineer, Mechanical. California, USA.

Research

Corinne's PhD research investigates surface melt-water retention, runoff, and refreezing in the firn layer of the percolation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctic Peninsula Ice Shelves. She is developing methods to use Sentinel-1 radar satellites to track melt-water presence at high spatial and temporal resolutions and combining this data with surface mass balance modelling in efforts to close the water budget of the percolation zone.

Her work is supported by the Howard Research Studentship at Sidney Sussex College through the Cambridge Trust.

Publications

Conference contributions

  • Haggard, E., Willis, I., Benedek, C., and Banwell, A. (2017). Surface and subsurface meltwater ponding and refreezing on the Bach Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. Geophysical Research Abstracts (EGU General Assembly)
  • Miles, K.E., Benedek, C., Tedesco, M., and Willis, I. (2016). Analysis of the surface hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet using Synthetic Aperture imagery. Geophysical Research Abstracts (EGU General Assembly), 18, abstract no. EGU2016-14575
  • Benedek, C. and Tedesco, M. (2015). Over-wintering of Supraglacial Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet from Sentinel-1 and Landsat-8 Data. Geophysical Research Abstracts (American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting), abstract no. C51B-0712.

External activities

  • International Glaciological Society
  • American Geophysical Union
  • Association of Polar Early Career Scientists
  • 2012 - 2015: Whitewater raft guide with OARS in Oregon, USA