Dr. Rachel Obbard is an Assistant Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. She is a materials scientist with an educational background that spans both science and engineering and research experience in areas ranging from nanostructured thin films to the microstructure of ice. Her broad interest lies in the structure of materials, especially porous or multiphase ones, and in cross-disciplinary ways to analyze and characterize microstructure. Dr. Obbard's current research interests include ice and snow, the conservation science of cultural artifacts, and materials in sports. In her cryospheric work, she specializes in sea ice microstructure, ocean-ice-snow-air interactions, and the evolution of microstructure in ice sheets and glaciers.
Dr. Obbard holds a BS in Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines, an MS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of New Hampshire, and a PhD in Engineering from Dartmouth College. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the British Antarctic Survey, where she first began to study sea ice and ocean-ice-air interactions. When not studying snow and sea ice with her graduate and undergraduate students, she teaches courses in materials in sports equipment at Dartmouth and snowboarding at a local ski resort.
Hanover, NH
United States