Dr. Nicole Shibley is a physicist and Assistant Professor jointly based between the Department of Earth Sciences and Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. Her research explores the physical processes governing ocean-ice interactions on Earth and on icy moons in our solar system. Here she is interviewed by Dr Erin Martin-Jones.
You’re an interdisciplinary scientist—what originally sparked your interest in STEM subjects?
As a kid I was always curious about how things worked. I would build things: I remember wanting a pair of high heels, so I made some out of cardboard. I also loved math and would do math practice books for fun, and my family encouraged me to be creative.
I studied physics at Yale as an undergraduate. My route into Earth Science began during my sophomore year, when I reached out to Prof. Mary-Louise Timmermans, a renowned physical oceanographer in Yale’s Earth & Planetary Sciences department. Having grown up in Florida, near the ocean and where hurricanes are a regular part of life, I was interested in exploring the physics of Earth’s climate system, including the ocean or atmosphere. I began working with Prof. Timmermans as an undergraduate, going on to do my senior thesis with her, and later my PhD. She became a key academic mentor to me.
Tell us about your PhD
After pursuing Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge, I returned to Yale for a PhD in Earth and Planetary Sciences. My research focused on the physics of Arctic Ocean mixing.
This explored how a small-scale ocean mixing process known as diffusive convection moves heat vertically toward the overlying sea ice. In certain regions of the Arctic, this mixing creates a staircase pattern in the water column, with alternating layers of well-mixed and sharply stratified water. I studied these staircases across the Arctic, using a combination of observational data and mathematical modelling. One key finding was that staircases are not always present where expected, and that intermittent turbulence may disrupt them—something that may help us understand the energetic landscape of a warming and changing Arctic Ocean.
I was also lucky to participate in an expedition to the Arctic on board an icebreaker, where we measured ocean properties and took measurements of ice thickness. We were on board for 3 or 4 weeks and it was an incredible experience, showing insight into both the Arctic system and the way we take measurements.
How did you make the leap to planetary science?
As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut. During the later stages of my PhD, I often had lunch with a grad-student friend and their supervisor—an astronomer—and we’d talk about astronomy and planetary science. Eventually, the supervisor and I started working together, thinking about icy moons in the solar system, some of which are thought to have oceans beneath their surfaces. We wrote a paper on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, investigating what may drive geysers to erupt through Europa’s ice. This explored whether trapped carbon dioxide could fuel these eruptions—similar to volcanic explosions on Earth.
In reading the planetary literature, I became curious about many aspects of such icy moons. Because their oceans lie under kilometres of ice, their properties can’t be measured directly. This challenge motivated my postdoctoral research at Princeton, where, alongside inspiring collaborators, I built mathematical models to infer ocean properties from an understanding of the ice shell, drawing on what we know from Earth’s ice-ocean systems.
How are you finding your return to Cambridge?
It’s now eleven years since I first came to Cambridge. The main difference (aside from seeming as though it somehow rains more now) is that I now have an affiliation with both DAMTP and Earth Sciences. Being between two departments has opened up some exciting opportunities for collaboration, especially in areas like geochemistry and other elements of the Earth system—research areas I haven’t worked on before. I am growing my research group, with a new PhD student, and have some exciting budding collaborations, one of which is on rock-water interactions on icy moons with colleagues in both DAMTP and Earth Sciences.
Through my involvement with the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe, I’ve started imagining research that connects with bigger questions—related to the origins of life. Cambridge is an exciting place to be involved in these questions, and I am inspired by the many interdisciplinary dialogues and stimulating conversations that occur here daily.
Read more about Nicole's research here.
This article was originally published in GeoCam 2026. Read the full issue here.