Jason Eric Box

Jason Eric Box is professor in glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. For 10 years (2002-2012) he worked at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University, eventually a tenured physical climatology and geography associate professor in the department of geography. He has made more than 20 expeditions to Greenland since 1994, has spent more than one year on Greenland ice as a result of these expeditions, was for five consecutive years (2008-2012) the lead author of the Greenland section of NOAA's annual State of the Climate report, was a contributing author to the IPCC AR4, and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications focused on ice climate interactions. He is also one of the members of the team doing field work for the Extreme Ice Survey and has led the Dark Snow Project, the first Internet crowd-funded Arctic expedition. In addition, he is the former chair of the cryosphere focus group of the American Geophysical Union, of which he is a member. Scientists he has worked with include Eric Rignot.

Box was raised in suburban Denver, the son of a satellite-system engineer who worked for an aerospace company. He has an older sister, Leslie. After his parents divorced, Box's father moved to England and later to Innsbruck, taking his son with him. While attending the University of Colorado, Boulder, Box joined a band called "The Sensors," where he played guitar and sang vocals. Leslie was also in the band. Box received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1994, 1997, and 2001, respectively. He began his expeditions to Greenland as an undergraduate at the University of Colorado Boulder, helping his professor, Konrad Steffen, install automated weather stations.

Box has gone on record saying that humanity has likely already set in motion 21 m (69 feet) of sea level rise as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. He has also protested against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2011, and also signed a letter to President Obama urging him not to approve it, which was sent earlier that year and was also signed by James Hansen and Peter Gleick, among others. In 2013, Box's prediction of complete Greenland surface melting, which was later proven correct, received attention when it was covered by Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone. His research into this area was based on observations of Greenland, which revealed that its ice was becoming increasingly dark. In 2014, Box traveled to Greenland, where he discovered that the ice there was exceptionally dark, with Box himself saying that he was "stunned" when he saw it. That summer, after hearing about the ship Oden finding methane in the Arctic, Box tweeted, "If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we're f'd." This tweet was covered extensively by the media. Thomas Painter of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has said that Box "...has one very important quality as a scientist;" namely, that he "is willing to say crazy stuff and push the boundaries of conventional wisdom."

Box's work is featured in the movie Chasing Ice. He was interviewed by Ann Curry of NBC in April 2014, and appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher in July 2014.