Paul Andrew Mayewski, professor and director of the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, was ranked #125 in the world and #66 in the United States in the first edition of the ranking of top Earth scientists produced by Research.com, the number one online research portal for scientists.
The website determined the rankings from a field of more than 6,700 scientists’ profiles on Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Graph. The ranking is determined by the proportion of the contributions made within the given discipline in addition to the awards and achievements of the scientists.
Mayewski has more than 475 scientific publications and has written two popular books “The Ice Chronicles” and “Journey Into Climate.” In addition to his role at the Climate Change Institute, Mayewski is a distinguished professor in the Schools of Earth and Climate Sciences, Marine Sciences, Policy and International Affairs, the Business School and Law School. He has led over sixty expeditions to some of the remotest reaches of the planet including traverses over Greenland; travels throughout the high-altitude Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau and Andes Mountains; and many field seasons traveling across Antarctica with more than 100 first ascents of mountains on the continent.
Most recently, Mayewski led the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition. The expedition’s scientists, including six from UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, studied environmental changes to understand future impacts for life on Earth as global temperatures rise. UMaine research using data from the expedition showed that melting and sublimation on Mount Everest’s highest glacier due to human-induced climate change have reached the point that several decades of accumulation are being lost annually now that ice has been exposed.
Mayewski has received numerous national and international honors, including the first-ever internationally awarded Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research awarded by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Medal, the Oeschger Medal from the European Geophysical Union and the Seligman Medal from the International Glaciological Society. He is frequently featured in prominent media, such as the New York and LA Times, NOVA, NPR, BBC, CBS 60 Minutes and the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Years of Living Dangerously.”
