Stephanie Pfirman

About

Stephanie Pfirman is Deputy Director and Foundation Professor at the School of Ocean Futures and a Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State University. Her research focuses on understanding and responding to the changing Arctic, developing innovative approaches to formal and informal education, and exploring the intersection between diversity and interdisciplinarity. With over 30 years of teaching experience, she has facilitated capstone and thesis projects, explored global futures, climate systems, and climate change responses, as well as the past, present, and future Arctic. Her work also includes museum exhibition design, science communication, leadership, polar exploration, environmental data analysis, energy resources, and oceanography. Pfirman has led or co-led approximately $25 million in federal and agency grants spanning research, education, and human resources. Her Arctic research emphasizes the implications of sea ice changes, including origin, drift, and melt patterns, notably the Last Ice Area, and has addressed melting glaciers and sea ice pollution. She has been recognized as a fellow of the AAAS and a lifetime National Associate of the National Research Council. Pfirman has contributed significantly to interdisciplinary and environmental education, leading initiatives such as the NSF-supported Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership and co-producing award-winning…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Ecology
• Oceanography
• Business
• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Environmental science
• Physical geography
• Climatology
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Defining the “Ice Shed” of the Arctic Ocean's Last Ice Area and Its Future Evolution

  Earth s Future · 2021 · 39 citations

  Abstract Sea ice will persist longer in the Last Ice Area (LIA), north of Canada and Greenland, than elsewhere in the Arctic. We combine earth system model ensembles with a sea‐ice tracking utility (SITU) to explore sources of sea ice (the “ice shed”) to the LIA under two scenarios: continued high warming (HW) rates and low warming (LW) rates (mean global warming below ca. 2°C) through the 21st century. Until mid‐century, the two scenarios yield similar results: the primary ice source shifts fro…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “Stickier” learning through gameplay: An effective approach to climate change education

  Journal of Geoscience Education · 2021 · 37 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  As the impacts of climate change grow, we need better ways to raise awareness and motivate action. Here we assess the effectiveness of an Arctic climate change card game in comparison with the more conventional approach of reading an illustrated article. In-person assessments with control/reading and treatment/game groups (N = 41), were followed four weeks later with a survey. The game was found to be as effective as the article in teaching content of the impacts of climate change over the short…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Arctic Highlights Our Failure to Act in a Rapidly Changing World

  Sustainability · 2022 · 14 citations

  In this perspective on the future of the Arctic, we explore actions taken to mitigate warming and adapt to change since the Paris agreement on the temperature threshold that should not be exceeded in order to avoid dangerous interference with the climate system. Although 5 years may seem too short a time for implementation of major interventions, it actually is a considerable time span given the urgency at which we must act if we want to avoid crossing the 1.5 to <2 °C global warming threshol…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of gameplay vs. reading on mental models of social-ecological systems: a fuzzy cognitive mapping approach

  Ecology and Society · 2021-01-01 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  O'Garra, T., D. Reckien, S. Pfirman, E. Bachrach Simon, G. A. Bachman, J. Brunacini, and J. J. Lee. 2021. Impact of gameplay vs. reading on mental models of social-ecological systems: a fuzzy cognitive mapping approach. Ecology and Society 26(2):25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12425-260225

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Revisiting the Last Ice Area projections from a high-resolution Global Earth System Model

  Communications Earth & Environment · 2025-01-23 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  The Last Ice Area-located to the north of Greenland and the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago-is expected to persist as the central Arctic Ocean becomes seasonally ice-free within a few decades. Projections of the Last Ice Area, however, have come from relatively low resolution Global Climate Models that do not resolve sea ice export through the waterways of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Nares Strait. Here we revisit Last Ice Area projections using high-resolution numerical simulations…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Vulnerability of the Arctic Marginal Ice Zone to Changes in Drifting Ice

  NSF · $344k · 2006–2010

• Discovering the Hudson River Estuary through an Experiential Curriculum in Environmental Science at Barnard College

  NSF · $150k · 2005–2008

• Polar Weekend Fair Baltimore MD

  NSF · $36k · 2009–2010

Frequent coauthors

• Bruno Tremblay

  McGill University

  38 shared

• R. Newton

  Environment Agency

  33 shared

• Peter Schlösser

  31 shared

• Patricia DeRepentigny

  17 shared

• Robin E. Bell

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  13 shared

• Jessica Brunacini

  Michigan State University

  11 shared

• Samar Khatiwala

  University of Oxford

  10 shared

• Hajo Eicken

  University of Alaska Fairbanks

  10 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences

  Columbia University

  1992

• M.S., Earth and Environmental Sciences

  Columbia University

  1987

• B.A., Geology

  Harvard University

  1983

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Lifetime National Associate of the National Research Council…
• Parent's Choice award for EcoChains

Similar researchers at Arizona State University

• Nicholas Batesh-86
• Roberta Martinh-66
• Jiwei Lih-43