Rate My Professor Kathy Licht

Kathy Licht, Ph.D., serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences in the School of Science at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. She received her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1999, an M.S. in Geological Sciences from the same university in 1995, and a B.S. in Natural Science from St. Norbert College in 1992. Licht has been a faculty member at the institution for over two decades, progressing through the academic ranks to full professor and department chair. Her research specializes in glacial geology, paleoclimatology/paleoceanography, and sedimentology, with a primary focus on reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet. This involves determining the causes of its advances and retreats and integrating these changes into the broader global climate system. Active projects, funded by National Science Foundation grants, include provenance analysis of glacial sediments in the Weddell Sea region and radar data collection to characterize internal ice structures and multi-glacial cycle deposits.

Licht has led field expeditions to Antarctica for nearly 25 years. Key publications include Graly et al. (2020), 'Chemical weathering signatures from Mt. Achernar Moraine, central Transantarctic Mountains I: Subglacial sediments compared with underlying rock' (Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta); Kassab et al. (2019), 'Formation and Evolution of an extensive blue ice moraine in central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica' (Journal of Glaciology); Licht et al. (2018), 'Evidence for Extending Anomalous Miocene Volcanism at the Edge of the East Antarctic Craton' (Geophysical Research Letters); Licht and Hemming (2017), 'Analysis of Antarctic glacigenic sediment provenance through geochemical and petrologic applications' (Quaternary Science Reviews); and Kaplan et al. (2017), 'Late Pleistocene stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet, as seen from the Transantarctic Mountains' (Geology). She is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, recognized for contributions including critical fieldwork in Antarctica's interior. Her research informs international efforts to model Antarctic ice sheet evolution and assess sea level rise risks. Licht mentors undergraduate students in research, particularly women and first-generation scholars.