Carolina student earns Gates Cambridge scholarship

Sarah Cooley’s glaciology work has taken her from the Alaskan Juneau Icefield to the Greenland ice sheet.

And now the Carolina geology student’s research will lead her to England, where the senior will earn her master’s from the University of Cambridge as a recipient of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.

“I am so excited to have the opportunity to go to Cambridge next year to be a part of the Gates community,” Cooley said. “It’s a really incredible opportunity.”

Cooley is among the 40 students selected for the scholarship, which was announced this week. The award, created with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is a merit-based scholarship that covers all expenses of graduate studies at the University of Cambridge.

“Sarah’s dedication to research is exceptional, and I believe she will continue to thrive in her studies at Cambridge,” said UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “Sarah shows students dedicated to pursing excellence what bright, motivated people can achieve, and we’re so very proud of her.”

In October, Cooley will begin studying at Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, which conducts research on polar regions and glaciers by investigating issues in the environmental and social sciences of the Arctic and Antarctica.

Unsure of what she would study when she first arrived at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar in 2011, Cooley quickly found her interest during a geology field seminar in her first semester. The weeklong seminar took her to the Sierra Nevada in eastern California where she hiked to a glacier.

“I got there and started to do a research project of glacial moraines and absolutely fell in love with it. I loved the research, loved being out in the field,” she said. “I found myself, the next semester, declaring as a geology major.”

Her interest then led her to the Juneau Icefield Research Project, during which she lived on a glacier for two months as she conducted research the summer before her junior year. That fall, while studying abroad in Denmark, Cooley visited the Greenland ice sheet to cement her interest.

You look around and all you see is ice,” she said. “It was very moving, and it made me realize that I particularly want to study how the world’s biggest glaciers are responding to climate change.”

The trips and research have enabled the Maine native to combine her interests in the classroom with those in her personal life.

“I’ve always loved math and physics — I’ve always been a science person — so the idea is to combine my love for the outdoors and my interest in glaciers, and skiing and cold, with quantitative pursuits.”

Cooley’s work at Carolina’s global hydrology lab has focused on arctic rivers and river ice breakups. Using satellite imaging, she has been studying trends and timing of river breakups of three large Siberian rivers.

“We’re thrilled about Sarah’s achievements,” said Mary Floyd-Wilson, Director of the Office of Distinguished Scholarships. “Her research in polar studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute will prove to be an important contribution to knowledge and advance our understanding of climate change.  She’s an exceptional scholar.”

Eager to begin studying at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cooley plans on continuing her glacial research and spend more time at the Greenland ice sheet.

“The Scott Polar Research Institute is a world leader in studying the Arctic,” she said.  “The second I found out about Scott Polar and the research they did, I realized it was perfect for me.

“I have a countdown on my phone with the number of days until I get to go. I’ve had a wonderful experience at UNC and I’m so grateful to the UNC Geology Department for all their support. I couldn’t be more excited to get to dive into glacier research at Cambridge in the fall.”