Riccardo Pozzobon, a 40-year-old geologist from the University of Padua, disappeared on September 2, 2025, while working on the Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau. He had been in Alaska about a week as part of a National Geographic–funded research project studying glacier fractures as analogues for icy moons. Pozzobon was on the glacier with two colleagues when he slipped while filling a water bottle in a meltwater stream. The strong current swept him into a moulin roughly two feet wide and he was carried out of sight.

His colleagues, who did not have the team communications because Pozzobon had been carrying them, went for help. Alaska Wildlife Troopers and a Juneau Mountain Rescue team reached the site but found the moulin filled with fast, dangerous water; rescuers suspended search and recovery efforts because conditions were too hazardous. Colleagues and the scientific community remember him as a generous, cheerful and kind researcher.

Does anyone who was in Juneau or on the Mendenhall Glacier around September 2 have information that could help clarify what happened or assist those still looking?