Maria Hörhold

Dr. Maria Hörhold is a Senior Scientist in Glaciology at the Alfred Wegener Institute. Her research focuses on paleo-climate proxies in polar ice cores, stable water isotopes in snow and ice, and impurities in ice. She is involved in high-profile projects such as the Beyond EPICA–Oldest Ice Core Project, aiming to retrieve a 1.2-million-year-old climate record from Antarctica. Her work combines field expeditions, ice core analysis, and advanced instrumentation to understand past climate dynamics and environmental changes.

Key contributions include studies on ice core dating, volcanic eruption impacts, solar cycle influences, and the role of topography in climate signal interpretation. She has conducted fieldwork in Antarctica (e.g., Little Dome C) and Greenland (EastGRIP project), emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to reconstruct past climates. Her research also addresses modern climate change, including recent studies on unprecedented Greenland ice sheet warming.

Dr. Hörhold collaborates globally, contributing to international initiatives like the MOSAiC expedition and publishing extensively in top-tier journals. Her expertise spans ice core drilling, isotope geochemistry, and environmental monitoring, with a focus on translating complex data into actionable climate insights.