Who We Are

Director/Principal Greenland Expedition Leader: John Englander is an oceanographer and leading expert on sea level rise, as well as Director and Co-founder of the Rising Seas Institute. He is the author of two highly acclaimed books: High Tide on Main Street (2012) and Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward (2021), which clearly explain the science, the economic risks, and the opportunity to build a more resilient future.

John has led numerous expeditions to Greenland and the High Arctic, including dives under the polar ice cap. He has delivered high-level briefings on sea level rise to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Academy, corporate executives, and the heads of all eight Arctic nations’ Coast Guard services. His presentations have reached more than half a million people worldwide.

He has held leadership roles in both the private and nonprofit sectors, including as CEO of The Cousteau Society and The International SeaKeepers Society. John is a Fellow of both the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and The Explorers Club.

In Memoriam – Senior Scientist/Greenland Expedition Founder: Dr. Robert “Bob” Corell (1934-2025) passed away on January 16, 2025, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy of wisdom, mentorship, and an unwavering commitment to a more sustainable future. He will be profoundly missed, but his passion for science and dedication to humanity will continue to inspire us all.

He was a Co-founder of the Rising Seas Institute and began leading the Greenland expeditions in 2001. A globally recognized scientist, Bob had deep expertise in climate change, sea level rise, and the polar regions. He served as a program leader and scientific advisor to the eight-nation Arctic Council on climate change and held senior advisory roles on climate policy under both Republican and Democratic administrations, beginning with President Reagan. He was among the scientists recognized for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Senior Educational Content Developer/Program Manager/Senior Greenland Expedition Leader: Sharon Gray is a marine scientist and science communication specialist with expertise in sea level rise. She has spent more than a decade educating and raising awareness about climate change and sea level rise through writing, public engagement, and the development of educational content and curriculum for undergraduate and graduate programs, professional associations, and the general public.

Sharon began her career as a research scientist for government agencies, aquariums, and educational institutions, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Mote Marine Laboratory, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI), the Monterey Bay Aquarium, The Florida Aquarium, and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). She holds degrees in biology, chemistry, and psychology from Eckerd College, along with a technical degree in Marine Environmental Technology and advanced SCUBA diving certifications.

Sharon has led several expeditions to Greenland. She currently lives aboard a catamaran with her family, affording her firsthand exploration of the real-time impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and coastal communities. She is also writing a reader-friendly book on sea level rise for the public.

Senior Greenland Expedition Leader: Dr. Ralph Rayner is an Associate Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. He is responsible for industry outreach for the Integrated Ocean Observing System at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and serves on the advisory bodies of Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Ralph has an academic background in physical oceanography, with postgraduate research focused on the tidal dynamics of mid-Indian Ocean atolls. He plays an active role in professional bodies concerned with marine science and technology and is a fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, the Society for Underwater Technology, the Marine Technology Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the Royal Institution.

He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Operational Oceanography and helps organize several major annual ocean science conferences. Ralph has led numerous expeditions to Greenland and brings a wealth of experience in both science and leadership to the team.

Glaciology Specialist: Dr. Jason Box is a renowned glaciologist and Professor in Glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), where he has authored over 70 scientific journal articles since 2013. He has participated in 30 expeditions to Greenland, spent more than a year camping on the ice, and has installed and maintained a network of over 20 automatic weather stations on Greenland’s inland ice sheet.

Dr. Box is a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is widely recognized for his work communicating climate science to the public. He has appeared in several prominent documentaries, including Chasing Ice and Before the Flood, where he shares insights on the rapidly changing Arctic and the global implications of ice loss.

Climatology Specialist: Dr. William “Liam” Colgan is an expert in climate and sea-level change, with a particular focus on how the Greenland Ice Sheet is responding to recent climate shifts. His Ph.D. research at the University of Colorado Boulder, titled Modeling the Influence of Surface Meltwater on the Ice Dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet, laid the foundation for over a decade of work combining in-situ measurements and satellite observations of Greenland’s ice.

Dr. Colgan’s ice-loss estimates were directly incorporated into the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. He is frequently consulted by the media to provide expert commentary on the impacts and implications of climate change on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Currently affiliated with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Dr. Colgan has previously held academic and private-sector roles in Canada and the United States. He is a member of the EU Polar Experts Group and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Glaciology, Advances in Climate Change Research, and GEUS Bulletin.

Geophysics Specialist: Dr. Eric J. Rignot is a Chancellor Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine, and a Senior Research Scientist in the Radar Science and Engineering Section at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is a principal investigator on several NASA-funded projects focused on the mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, ice-ocean interactions, and the dynamic retreat of glaciers, including those in Patagonia.

His research interests include glaciology, climate change, radar remote sensing, ice sheet numerical modeling, interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR), radio echo sounding, and ice-ocean interactions. Dr. Rignot’s research group investigates the interactions between ice and climate, with particular focus on ice sheet mass balance and their current and future contributions to sea level rise.

In 2007, he contributed to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (Working Group I), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with former Vice President Al Gore.

National Security Specialist: Stuart Gold is a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and spent over twenty years as an intelligence professional in the U.S. civil service, supporting operations and decision-makers at the tactical to strategic level. He served as the daily intelligence briefer to senior military officials in the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the Director of the Joint Staff and the Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy (J5).

As a Reserve Navy Intelligence Officer, Stuart has served as the Commanding Officer of units supporting Commander Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and Submarine Forces Atlantic. After leaving civil service, he transitioned into entrepreneurship and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

He holds a B.A. in Justice from American University, a Master’s in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ocean Temperature Specialist: Dr. Josh Willis is an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in sea level rise and ocean temperature dynamics. He was the principal investigator for the NASA mission Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG), which studied how warming ocean waters affect marine-terminating glaciers around Greenland. He holds a Ph.D. in Oceanography and an M.S. in Physics, both from the University of California, San Diego.