Merlin is an incurable tinkerer who hasn’t yet met a research topic he disliked, which means he’s in a happy place as a postdoctoral researcher in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His cryosphere work centers on designing and building new instruments—in collaboration with glaciologists, geologists, biologists, atmospheric scientists, and others—to better retrieve, measure, and analyze glacier ice and the paleoclimate indicators it holds. These devices have of late begun to incorporate high-power infrared lasers, giving Merlin hope that he will soon be promoted to Mad Scientist.