Francesca Pellicciotti
Ciao! I am Francesca, and I lead the Cryosphere and Mountain Hydrosphere research group at ISTA. I am an environmental engineer by background and have a passion for the mountains and their glaciers. Together with my wonderful team, we focus on monitoring and modelling the mountain cryosphere and its hydrological contributions.
Professor: ISTA, Austria (2023-present)
Group Leader: WSL, Switzerland (2018-2024)
Associate Professor: Northumbria U., UK (2017-2022)
PostDoc/Researcher: ETH Zürich, Switzerland (2004-2014)
PhD: Environmental Engineering, ETH Zürich, Switzerland(2004)
Catriona Fyffe
I’m a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, working as a glacier-hydrologist with a particular passion for tropical and debris-covered glaciers. I’m particularly interested in the glacier surface energy balance, the role of glaciers in the catchment water balance, and the impact of debris in influencing glacier melt and hydrology. At the moment I am focusing on understanding Peruvian glaciers, their importance for water resources now and in the future and the links between glaciers and ecosystems.
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2023-2024)
Senior Lecturer + Research Fellow: Northumbria University, UK (2017-2022)
Senior Lecturer: University of Worcester, UK (2015-2017)
PhD: ‘The hydrology of debris-covered glaciers’, University of Dundee, UK (2009-2013)
Thomas Shaw
I am a Marie-Curie, BRIDGE fellow specialising in glacier energy balance and interactions of ice and atmosphere. My research interests range from boundary layer interactions over glaciers and climate downscaling in mountain environments to remote sensing of snow/ice and glacio-hydrological modelling. My current projects focus on the cooling effects of glaciers and elevation-dependent warming using high resolution atmospheric model simulations.
PostDoc: ISTA, Austria (2023-present)
PostDoc: WSL, Switzerland (2020-2023)
PostDoc: U. Chile, Chile (2017-2020)
PhD: Glaciology, Northumbria U., UK (2017)
Msc: Polar and Alpine Change, U. Sheffield, UK (2012)
Michael McCarthy
My current research is about how mountain regions have responded, and will respond, ecohydrologically, to changes in climate. A particular focus area is drought. Towards this end, I am using process-based models together with satellite imagery and field observations. I have a PhD in glaciology and a Master’s in geology, and I have a broad interest in environmental systems and associated analytical tools.
Postdoc, Scientific researcher: WSL, Switzerland (2019-present)
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2024-present)
PhD: Glaciology, U. Cambridge, BAS, UK (2019)
MSci: Geology, U. Southampton, UK (2012)
Adrià Fontrodona
I am a Postdoc with a broad interest in the global cryosphere. I am specialised in snow hydrology, and (debris-covered) glacier melt modelling, with a focus on high-mountain and high-latitude environments. I am particularly interested in investigating the impacts of climate and global warming on snow and ice. Currently I am working on the RENOIR project, trying to map debris thickness on debris-covered glaciers at the global scale from remote sensing methods.
PostDoc: ISTA, Austria (2023-present)
PhD: University of Birmingham, UK (2019-2023)
MSc: Wageningen University, The Netherlands (2016-2018)
BSc: University of Barcelona (2011-2015)
Álvaro Ayala
I am interested in quantifying the water contribution of snow and mountain glaciers, and in understanding their variations at different spatial scales (from basins to regions) and temporal scales (from hours to decades). To do this, I combine ground data, satellite products and meteorological models to perform computational simulations of snow dynamics and glacier mass balance. I’m currently working on detailed hydrological models to simulate the response of glacierized catchments to severe droughts.
Postdoc, Scientific researcher: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland (2024-present)
Postdoc, Scientific researcher: Centre for Advanced Studies in Arid Zones (CEAZA), Chile (2018-2024)
Postdoc: VAW ETH Zurich and WSL, Switzerland (2017-2018)
PhD: Institute of Environmental Engineering (IfU), ETH Zurich, Switzerland (2012-2017)
MSc: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Chile (2010-2011)
Shaoting Ren
I am a Postdoc specializing in remote sensing and glacier modeling. I’m particularly interested in retrieving glacier parameters from satellite data, investigating long-term changes in glacier surface properties, meteorology and mass balance on a large scale. My current project focuses on inversing glacier meteorology through the integration of physical modeling and remote sensing and contributes to the IMMERSE project.
PostDoc: ISTA, Austria (2024-present)
Postdoctoral Fellow: WSL, Switzerland (2023-2024), Swiss Government Excellence Postdoc Scholarships
PostDoc: Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2021-2023)
PhD: Geography/Remote Sensing, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China (2017-2021)
PhD Exchange: WSL, Switzerland (2020)
Msc: Land Use and Information Technology, China Agricultural University, China (2014-2016)
Prateek Gantayat
I am a Postdoc, currently working on modeling the impact of and changing supraglacial debris cover on glacier evolution. My research interests include numerical modelling of ice-flow, ice-sheet hydrology and glacier mass balance.
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2024-present)
Postdoc: University of Dayton, US (2023-2024)
Postdoc: Lancaster University, UK (2019-2022)
Postdoc: Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, Mumbai, India (2018-2019)
PhD: Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India (2013-2018)
José Muñoz
I am a Postdoc, currently focused on numerical modelling of debris transport on glaciers and its effects on mass balance. My work explores the complex interplay between debris cover and glacier dynamics, aiming to improve. predictive models of glacial evolution.
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2024-present).
PhD: Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain (2019-2024)
Msc: Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Granada, Spain (2014).
Maximiliano Rodriguez
My research focuses on unravelling the potential effects of megadroughts in European catchments. With more than 5 years of experience in research projects on hydrology, ecology, and biogeochemistry, I seek to understand the consequences of future drier conditions on the cryosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere. My research interests include hydrological modelling, remote sensing, and biogeochemical processes in soils.
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2025-present).
Postdoc: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (2022-2023).
Postdoctoral Research Assistant: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (2021-2022).
PhD: Geochemistry and Paleoceanography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China (2021).
Msc: Engineering Science in Water Resources and Environment, University of Chile, Chile (2013).
Yota Sato
I am a Postdoc, currently working on glacio-hydrological modelling in the Peruvian Andes as part of the PASTURE project. My research interests include energy balance on the glacier and land surfaces, debris-covered glaciers, lake-terminating glaciers, and the response of glacierized catchments to climate change in high-mountain regions.
Postdoc: ISTA, Austria (2025-Present)
Postdoc: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan (2022-2025)
PhD: Nagoya University, Japan (2019-2022)
MSc: Nagoya University, Japan (2017-2019)
Vicente Melo
I am a PhD student currently working on debris-covered glaciers with the aim to try to determine the impact of supraglacial debris on spatial and temporal patterns of glacier melt, mass balance, and runoff at the catchment scale across different climatic settings. My research interests include, amongst other things, glacio-hydrological modelling, mountain geomorphology and paleo glaciers.
PhD: ISTA, Austria (2023-Present)
PhD: WSL, Switzerland (2022-2023)
MSc: Earth Sciences, Geology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Achille Jouberton
I am a PhD student currently working on glacierized catchments in High Mountain Asia to try to determine the impact of changing snowfall amounts on glacier melt, mass balance, and runoff across different climatic settings. My research interests include glacio-hydrological and land-surface modelling, remote sensing of snow and ice, climatic forcing reconstruction and snow processes.
PhD: ISTA, Austria (2024-Present)
PhD: WSL, Switzerland (2021-2024)
MSc: Environmental Science and Engineering, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland
Joshua Castro
I am a PhD student and FCS scholarship holder. Currently, I am studying the high-elevation ecosystems of the southern Peruvian Andes, emphasizing the ecohydrology of wetlands and how they interact with the atmosphere and cryosphere in the recent past. I am interested in the field of land surface modeling, and remote sensing of land cover.
PhD: University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2022-present)
MSc: Climate Change and Sustainable Development, UNSAAC, Peru
Haruki Hagiwara
I am a PhD student working on changes in the geodetic mass balance of glaciers in the Pamir in High Mountain Asia over the past few decades using multi-temporal high-resolution satellite imagery. My research interests cover the fusion and interpretation of large-scale satellite data, comparison and calibration with in-situ data and modeling, and the broad scientific application of these data to the field of glaciology and hydrology.
PhD: ISTA, Austria (2023-present)
MSc: Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
