Kiya Riverman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies

Kiya Riverman is a glaciologist who studies ice flow across many corners of the frozen world. Kiya completed a bachelor’s degree in earth systems science at Oregon State University, and a Ph.D. in geosciences from Pennsylvania State. She comes to UP after postdoctoral research at Oregon State University and previously held research fellowships at the University of Oregon and New York University. Her work predicts how glaciers contribute to sea level rise by describing flow of ice masses into the ocean using tools from geophysics, remote sensing, and numerical modeling. Kiya is the assistant director and a longtime faculty member of the Juneau Icefield Research Program, a nonprofit undergraduate research program focused on describing the changing glacier systems of Southeast Alaska. Kiya is often found on glaciers in Antarctica, Greenland, Svalbard, and Alaska. Her courses focus on frontiers of research so that students come to know science as an evolving process rather than a series of unchanging facts. Kiya is a seventh generation Oregonian who dearly loves swing dancing, outdoor adventures, fostering kittens, and cooking overly complicated meals.