Dr. Lauren Zamora combines satellite observations, fieldwork, and modeling to investigate how aerosols—tiny airborne particles—affect cloud formation in polar regions. Dr. Zamora is an Associate Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), University of Maryland and through their cooperative agreement, has partnered with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center since 2014. As of 2025, Dr. Zamora co-leads the QuIESCENT international scientific group, which coordinates global research efforts to quantify Arctic aerosol-cloud interactions. She also received the 2024 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Climate and Radiation Laboratory Scientific Leadership Award for her contributions to the NASA Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction EXperiment (ARCSIX) aircraft campaign over Northern Greenland.
Her research addresses questions about polar atmospheric processes, such as: How do changing aerosol sources affect cloud cooling or warming of the surface? How can we enable Earth system models to more accurately capture these complex interactions? And what role might cloud modification play in managing polar environmental change?