World-Renowned Climate Scientist Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen honoured by Royal Society of Canada

“It is an unbelievable honor to become a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada,” says Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen. “It means a lot to me to be acknowledge for the research I do at the University of Manitoba.”

A Leader in Arctic Research

A Canada Excellence Research Chair at the UM Centre for Earth Observation Science, in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, Dahl-Jensen leads groundbreaking climate research. Her latest project on the Müller ice cap of Axel Heiberg Island made headlines in May 2025, after drilling the deepest ice core ever pulled in Canada.

At 613 metre deep ice core at Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut is the deepest ever drilled in Canada.

“Dr. Dahl-Jensen is one of the foremost-accomplished and influential scientists in glaciology and climate science, deciphering past climate by drilling and studying ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica, and most recently northern Canada,” says Dr. Feiyue Wang, Professor, Canada Research Chair and Associate Dean Research of the Riddell Faculty.

“Her extraordinary leadership is evident in her organization and execution of complex logistical operations in the harsh environments on the summit of ice sheets and ice caps. As a mentor, she has fostered an incredibly large number of students and scientists who are now leaders in their own fields.”

Dahl-Jensen’s findings have been widely published in prestigious academic journals including Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her publications in collaboration with co-authors all over the world have achieved a high impact, having been cited more than 23,000 times.

In Denmark, Dahl-Jensen is a Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen. She was recognized as a Knight of Danneborg 1st Order and with the International Glaciology Society’s Seligman Crystal in 2023, and the prestigious Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2024.

Canada Excellence Research Chair, Dr. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen (right), discovers ancient plant fossils during a polar ice core expedition.

Research Impacts from Pole to Pole

Dahl-Jensen’s leadership in polar climate science through the Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth at the Niels Bohr Institute has achieved truly global reach in understanding the ongoing human causes of climate change.

In 2023, Dahl-Jensen led a team who drilled a 2670-meter ice core, reaching bedrock for the first time on the North Greenland Ice Stream. The international team, including researchers from 12 countries, proved definitively that ice is melting at the base of the Ice Stream, improving predictions for the rate of sea level rise worldwide.

At the beginning of 2025 Dahl-Jensen again earned international attention, this time in Antarctica with a team that drilled to a depth more than 1.2 million years old. At 2800 meters deep, this was the oldest ice core ever retrieved.

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and team of international researchers celebrate milestone in climate change research in Greenland.

“The multinational collaborations led by Dr. Dahl-Jensen exemplify the UM Strategic Research priority for sea ice exploration and Arctic access, while positioning the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the forefront of glaciological science worldwide,” says Dr. Mario Pinto, Vice-President (Research and International).

“Her pioneering ice core research is greatly advancing public understanding of Earth’s complex climate system and provides critical insights that are informing the response to climate warming by decision makers around the world. She is a true explorer.”

Dahl-Jensen will join the Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Division of the RSC Academy III at the induction ceremony in November 2025. Two other UM community members are honoured by the Royal Society in 2025:

• Sean Carleton, Associate Professor, Department of History and Department of Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Arts is elected as a College Member.
• Humaira Jaleel, a recent graduate of the Faculty of Law, has received the Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella Prize.