Jennifer Hutchings

Jennifer Hutchings is an Associate Professor at Oregon State University specializing in Arctic climate systems. She serves as a key member of the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) Expedition Leg III team, focusing on atmosphere-sea ice interactions where she leads network deformation analysis and bridge Ice Watch coordination under National Science Foundation funding.

Her research centers on polar science with emphasis on sea ice dynamics, atmospheric processes, and climate change impacts in the Arctic. She combines field observations with modeling to understand ice deformation mechanisms and Arctic system feedbacks, driven by profound appreciation for the region's ecological beauty and urgency of climate research.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, her current work involves intensive field campaigns during MOSAiC's Leg III expedition. She collaborates with international scientists on real-time data collection from the Arctic ice floe, contributing to global climate models through direct observation of atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions.

As part of the MOSAiC Atmosphere-Sea Ice team, she operates within the distributed observational network on the research vessel, implementing specialized monitoring protocols for ice deformation events and bridge safety operations during critical winter phases of the expedition.