Not from an academic background, Cazenave was not destined to work in the sciences.[1] However, she achieved a postgraduate doctorate in fundamental astronomy (Paris, 1969) as well as receiving her Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Toulouse in 1975.[2]
From 1975 until the mid-1990s, Cazenave researched temporal and spatial variations of gravity. She used satellite altimetry data from SEASAT, ERS-1, and TOPEX/Poseidon to devise gravity models of deep ocean geodynamic processes. The models were used to investigate marine tectonic features such as geoid height variations across deep ocean trenches and fracture zones, lithospheric cooling and subsidence, and the isostatic compensation of seamount chains.[3]
Cazenave turned her focus to space oceanography in the 1990s. Using data sets from the satellite altimetry missions TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1, and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission of Jason-2, she has addressed the problem of global sea level rise. She was among the first scientists to use the satellite altimetry data to extrapolate a rate of sea level rise of approximately three mm/year. She addressed the problem of balancing the global sea level budget by incorporating time-dependent gravity field data from the GRACE satellite system into her analyses. She has also been involved in studying terrestrial bodies of water from space.[3] Cazenave is interested in "measuring temporal changes of the Earth gravity field using space gravimetry and in applications to ice sheet mass balance and change in total land water storage."[4]
Cazenave was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 2004.[7] She was the 2012 recipient of the William Bowie Medal. She is foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), of the Indian National Academy of sciences (India) and Royal Academy of Belgium.
Cazenave has authored more than 200 scientific articles for international peer-reviewed journals.
A. Cazenave, ed. (1986). Earth Rotation: Solved and Unsolved Problems. Nato Science Series C: vol. 187 (Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Earth Rotation: Solved and Unsolved Problems, Château de Bonas, Gers, France, 11–13 June 1985). Springer Netherlands. ISBN978-90-277-2333-8.
A. Cazenave, K. Feigl, Formes et Mouvements de la Terre, Belin Editions, 1994. ISBN2701117135
A. Cazenave, D. Massonnet, La Terre vue de l'espace, Belin Editions, 2004. ISBN2842450353
^↑ Aurélie Luneau, "From the blue of the sky blue oceans: the life of Anny Cazenave," broadcast March of science on France Culture, November 26, 2015, 8 min 30 s.
