User:HRShami/David M. Holland

David M. Holland is a Canadian-American physical climate scientist, researcher and educator. He is Professor of Mathematics and Atmosphere-Ocean Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, Director of the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (EFDL) in New York City, and Director of the Center for global Sea Level Change (CSLC) at New York University Abu Dhabi.

Holland's research is focused on phenomena relating to the Polar Regions and their impacts on global climate and the changing sea level. He has also worked on computer modeling of the interaction of the Earth’s ice sheets with ocean waters, and the acquisition and implementation of observational data for model improvements. He has written over 100 peer-reviewed articles on polar environmental science.

In 1993, he received a Dean’s dissertation award from McGill University and at the same time from the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanic Science Society (CMOS) an award for his thesis work. In 1997, Holland received the Japanese Government Research Award for Foreign Specialist for studying ice sheet-ocean interaction. In 2001 he was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER grant for his ocean-glacier modeling research. In 2017, he was awarded along with the Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) Team a NASA recognition for their contribution to a better understanding fo Greenland’s possible future contribution to sea-level rise.

Early life and education
Holland received B.Sc. in Physics from Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1984. While studying for B.Sc., he worked as a research assistant with I. McInnis on low-energy particle physics experiments. He later worked with A. Mackenzie on investigating conductive properties of silicon wafers and then with Ian Webster on Numerical modeling of coastal-trapped waves. Following his work with A. Mackenzie, Holland started M.Sc. in Physical Oceanography from Memorial University and continued to work with Ian Webster on numerical modeling of North Atlantic Ocean recirculation. Subsequently, he worked at the Centre for Cold Oceans Resources Engineering and then at the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Owing to the need of Mathematics and Computation in his field, Holland started B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science in 1986, which he completed in 1993. In 1993, he also received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences from McGill University. His thesis title was 'Numerical Simulation of the Arctic Sea Ice and Ocean Circulation’. Subsequently, he received post-doctoral training at McGill University, Bureau of Meteorology Research Center and Hadley Center, Bracknell, England.

Career
In 1995, Holland moved to the United States and joined the Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory as an associate research scientist. There he first developed ocean and ice general circulation models, and then worked on numerical modeling of polar climate system. In 1998, he left Columbia University and joined New York University as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Atmosphere Ocean Science, becoming Associate Professor in 2003 and Full Professor in 2008.

At NYU, Holland has developed several new graduate level courses in the Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science (CAOS) within the Courant Institute. At the graduate level, these courses have included both an introductory level course on Physical Oceanography and advanced level courses, focusing on the Equation of State. He has also developed new undergraduate courses in the area of environmental science appropriate to freshman honors level mathematics and science.

In 1998, Holland established the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at New York University at the Courant Institute and has since served as its Director. From 2005 to 2012, he served as the director of Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science at New York University. In 2012, he established Centre for Global Sea Level Change at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus.

Global sea level change
In 2007, Holland wrote a paper titled 'Melting of floating ice and sea level rise' in Geophysical Research Letters. The paper marked the beginning of his research in the area of sea level change. Over the next years, he conducted research and wrote several papers in this area. He has written on how melting glaciers and sea ice effect sea level, on the rise in sea levels over the years, and how sea level rise can be predicted.

Holland has also developed models for predicting rise in sea levels. In 2009, he helped advance a model called Community Ice Sheet Model to aid in predicting the sea level rise since the models of time were not able to provide credible predictions of ice sheet retreat as underscored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.

Open-ocean polynya formation
In 2000, Open-ocean polynya formation also became a foci of Holland's research, when he wrote a paper entitled 'Transient Sea-ice Polynya Forced by Oceanic Flow Variability in Progress in Oceanography'. In a 2001 paper entitled 'Explaining the Weddell Polynya--a Large Ocean Eddy Shed at Maud Rise', published in Science, Holland explained the mechanism causing initiation of Weddell Polynya via ocean – sea mount interaction. He further conducted research in this area on the Ross Sea Summer Polynya and Maud Rise Polynya.

Sea ice-ocean and glacier-ocean interaction
In the early 1990s, Holland started conducted research on sea ice during his Ph.D. His first paper in this area was titled 'A thermodynamic-dynamic snow sea-ice model'. Most of his research in the 1990s was focused on sea ice, how sea ice interacts with ocean and how glaciers interact with ocean water. In the late 1990s, Holland discovered the arrival of warm waters in Greenland, causing rapid retreat of outlet glaciers.

In 1999, he wrote the paper 'Modeling thermodynamic ice–ocean interactions at the base of an ice shelf' in the Journal of Physical Oceanography. In the paper, he...

In 2007, Holland developed an elastic-plastic sea-ice model, published in the paper 'A 1-D elastic–plastic sea-ice model solved with an implicit Eulerian–Lagrangian method'. In the paper, he

Observation of eddy formation leading to scallop structure on icebergs. Discovery of effects of offshore winds on ocean waters leading to glacier melt.

Development of sea-ice model with embedded icebergs.

Development of coupled glacier – sea-ice – ocean model

Discovery of teleconnection between ocean surface conditions in North Atlantic ocean and the atmosphere circulation in Antarctica (done with graduate student)

Established the “Marine Ice Sheet – Ocean Modeling Intercomparison Project (MISOMIP)” as an international effort to develop coupled glacier-ocean models

Field research
For the greater part of his career, Holland has led large field programs in Greenland and Antarctica, both in the ocean and on the glaciers. In 2008, Holland began working on establishing an automated weather station network in Pine Island Glacier region on Antartica. The project took four years to install and includes automatic weather stations and GPS strain meters. The data generated from the project has been used in improving computer modeling of the interaction of the great ice sheets with warming global ocean waters leading to more robust projections of global sea level change.

Holland, along with his colleagues, has been visiting Ilulissat and Helheim Ice Fjords in Greenland every year since 2009 to conduct summertime hydrographic and glacier surveys.

In 2011, he traveled to Windless Bight in Antarctica to install Distributed Temperature Sensing.

Awards and honors

 * 1993 - Nansen Symposium Fellowship, Bergen, Norway
 * 1993 - NATO Advanced Study Institute Fellowship, Les Houches, France
 * 1993 - 1995 - Postdoctoral Fellowship, Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
 * 1994 - Canadian Graduate Student Prize in Oceanography Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) (Excellence in Ph.D. Thesis)
 * 1996 - Japanese Government Research Award for Foreign Specialist (February)
 * 1997 - American Geophysical Union, IAPSO Melbourne Congress Award (July)
 * 1997 - Japanese Government Research Award for Foreign Specialist (March)
 * 2000 - 2005 - National Science Foundation (NSF) Young-Investigator Career Award
 * 2001 - 2002 - Goddard Faculty Fellowship Award
 * 2017 - NASA Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) Team Award
 * 2018 - NYU President’s and Provost’s Science Achievement Award