Ulyana Horodyskyj Peña is a glaciologist and experienced science communicator. She earned her master’s degree from Brown University, where she conducted research in Iceland, and her PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, where her research focused on glaciers and glacial hazards in Nepal. She later completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, conducting National Geographic-sponsored fieldwork on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. 

In 2013-14, Ulyana received a Fulbright Fellowship, spending 10 months in Nepal finishing her doctoral research and launching The Sherpa-Scientist Initiative, a participatory science program that engaged local communities in glacier research. During her time abroad, she also authored an eight-part blog series for Scientific American. 

In 2022, Ulyana was selected as a "Voices for Science" ambassador by the American Geophysical Union. She delivered a TEDx talk at MIT, as part of a Planet Action Summit in November 2024, focused on the climate crisis. She is featured in Episode 1 "The Frozen Heart" in the upcoming PBS series Ages of Ice, premiering on September 16, 2026. When not in the office, Ulyana can be found aboard research ships in the Arctic or Antarctic, or out in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, Ricardo, climbing the state's highest peaks.