Robert Hawley

Robert L. Hawley is Professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College within the Geoscience faculty. He earned a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 2005, with his dissertation titled “Borehole Investigations of Firn Processes.” Hawley began his research career in glaciology in 1995 as an undergraduate through the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program. After completing his bachelor's degree, he participated in the inaugural winter-over at Summit camp in Greenland during the 1997-1998 season. Following his Ph.D., he worked as a Research Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, from 2005 to 2008, focusing on radar altimetry.

Hawley joined Dartmouth College in 2008 as Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, advancing to Associate Professor in 2014 and Professor in 2021. He served as Chair of the Department of Earth Sciences from 2020 to 2023 and is currently Program Director for Arctic System Science at the National Science Foundation (2024-2025). His research centers on remote sensing of snow and ice, glacier and ice sheet dynamics, firn processes and densification, mass balance of glaciers and ice sheets, ice core analysis, borehole instrumentation, ice physics, and subglacial hydrology, with fieldwork in Greenland, East and West Antarctica. He directs the Glaciology Lab and has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, including “ICESat-2 surface elevation assessment with kinematic GPS and static GNSS near the ice divide in Greenland” (The Cryosphere, 2026), “Spatio-temporal patterns of accumulation and surface roughness in interior Greenland with a GNSS-IR network” (The Cryosphere, 2025), “Impacts of Differing Melt Regimes on Satellite Radar Waveforms and Elevation Retrievals” (The Cryosphere, 2024), “Declining Basal Motion Dominates the Long-Term Slowing of Athabasca Glacier, Canada” (Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 2022), and “Atmospheric Blocking Drives Recent Albedo Change Across the Western Greenland Ice Sheet Percolation Zone” (Geophysical Research Letters, 2021). Hawley has received the Jacobus Family Fellowship (2021-2022), Dean of the Faculty Scholarly Innovation and Advancement Award (2020), Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning Teaching Science Fellowship (2017-2018), NASA New Investigator Program award (2009), and Dartmouth Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year (2013). He teaches courses on ice and climate, physical glaciology, scientific computing, and science writing.

Professional Email: Robert.L.Hawley@dartmouth.edu