Mike Demuth originally hails from Calgary Alberta, and at the start of his snow and ice career made his home in Revelstoke, B.C. An experienced alpinist and back-country skier, Mike’s involvement in snow and ice research was cemented by his participation in the 1981 Environment Canada retrieval of an ice core from the summit plateau of Yukon’s Mount Logan with Gerry Holdsworth – Mike’s long-time mentor.
Several expeditions to Mount Logan later, including the 2001 NRCan/GSC effort to extract a new ice core whose record spans the Holocene into the Late Glacial Maximum, Mike’s research science and observational science activities concerning the Earth’s cold regions have evolved to include four major areas of activity: i) geophysical measurement at appropriate scales; ii) understanding error and managing variance; iii) cryosphere hydro-climatic processes; and iv) evolving improved methods and measures.
Mike brings to the Department four decades of service with the NRCC’s Geotechnical Section, Environment Canada’s National Hydrology Research Institute and the Geological Survey of Canada’s Terrain Sciences Division where, as a Cold Regions Specialist and Glaciology Research Scientist, he pursued studies of glacier mass change, snow and firn stratigraphy, climate change and variability, glacier hydrology and water resources, satellite and intermediate-scale remote sensing, and the material science and hydraulic aspects of river ice.
In particular, Mike led early contemporary (1990s/2000s) studies of the changing character of glacier-related water resources in the Eastern Slope of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in part, with funding obtained from the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC). These studies, emphasizing that the diminution of regions glaciers was affecting the meltwater yield at multiple scales, put a significant dent in the Myth of Abundance that had guided water policy for the region.
From 1993-2016, Mike served as the Canadian National Correspondent to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, CH; representing the Canadian community concerned with the study of glacier fluctuations. Demuth was a contributing author to the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report – Working Group 2, and a consulting author to the 2005 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment – Cryosphere – Glaciers and Ice Sheets.
Demuth and Professor Martin Sharp (U.Alberta) were co-Principal Investigators for the Canadian Cal/Val Retrieval Team for Cryosat under ESA’s Living Planet Program and Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission. An advocate for glaciers being a geological material and a geological source of water, Demuth was appointed Head of the GSC’s Glaciology Section, 2008-13.
After retiring from the GSC in 2016, Mike and Margaret Demuth now reside in Lund B.C. They have two daughters, three granddaughters and a grandson, all of whom currently live in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario.
Mike is a member of the Canadian Committee for the UN International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025, as Science Advisor, and as Liaison with the World Glacier Monitoring Service of GEMS and IHP:
Several expeditions to Mount Logan later, including the 2001 NRCan/GSC effort to extract a new ice core whose record spans the Holocene into the Late Glacial Maximum, Mike’s research science and observational science activities concerning the Earth’s cold regions have evolved to include four major areas of activity: i) geophysical measurement at appropriate scales; ii) understanding error and managing variance; iii) cryosphere hydro-climatic processes; and iv) evolving improved methods and measures.
Mike brings to the Department four decades of service with the NRCC’s Geotechnical Section, Environment Canada’s National Hydrology Research Institute and the Geological Survey of Canada’s Terrain Sciences Division where, as a Cold Regions Specialist and Glaciology Research Scientist, he pursued studies of glacier mass change, snow and firn stratigraphy, climate change and variability, glacier hydrology and water resources, satellite and intermediate-scale remote sensing, and the material science and hydraulic aspects of river ice.
In particular, Mike led early contemporary (1990s/2000s) studies of the changing character of glacier-related water resources in the Eastern Slope of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in part, with funding obtained from the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC). These studies, emphasizing that the diminution of regions glaciers was affecting the meltwater yield at multiple scales, put a significant dent in the Myth of Abundance that had guided water policy for the region.
From 1993-2016, Mike served as the Canadian National Correspondent to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, CH; representing the Canadian community concerned with the study of glacier fluctuations. Demuth was a contributing author to the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report – Working Group 2, and a consulting author to the 2005 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment – Cryosphere – Glaciers and Ice Sheets.
Demuth and Professor Martin Sharp (U.Alberta) were co-Principal Investigators for the Canadian Cal/Val Retrieval Team for Cryosat under ESA’s Living Planet Program and Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission. An advocate for glaciers being a geological material and a geological source of water, Demuth was appointed Head of the GSC’s Glaciology Section, 2008-13.
After retiring from the GSC in 2016, Mike and Margaret Demuth now reside in Lund B.C. They have two daughters, three granddaughters and a grandson, all of whom currently live in the Ottawa Valley, Ontario.
Mike is a member of the Canadian Committee for the UN International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025, as Science Advisor, and as Liaison with the World Glacier Monitoring Service of GEMS and IHP: