Scientist wins Polar Medal for Arctic research
A distinguished scientist has won royal recognition for his pioneering glaciological work in the Arctic.
Professor Pete Nienow, of the University’s School of GeoSciences, joins the ranks of Sir Captain Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary in being awarded the Polar Medal.
The accolade, which is approved by The Queen, is given to explorers who have undertaken expeditions in conditions of extreme hardship and to scientists who have made an important contribution to scientific knowledge of the Polar regions.
It was first awarded in 1904 as a reward to those who took part in Captain Scott's first expedition to Antarctica.
Arctic research
Professor Nienow is a glaciologist specialising in how glaciers and ice sheets respond to climate change.
His research in and passion for the Arctic began in 1995 with a visit to remote Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic, with its population of just 150 people on an island almost the size of Britain.
Since 2004, he has been on over 10 expeditions to the Greenland Ice Sheet; firstly to undertake fieldwork to help calibrate the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite and more recently, to improve our understanding of the links between ice melt, ocean circulation and how ice masses will respond in a warming world.
Ice loss
During the two decades that he has been working in the Arctic, the ice masses there have been losing ice at an increasing rate as a result of global warming, which is amplified in the Arctic regions.
Professor Nienow’s work is focussed on improving our understanding of the processes that are driving this ice mass loss and in enhancing our ability to predict future ice volume and thus sea-level change.
I am very honoured to be awarded the Polar Medal, which is in reality the result of the wonderful support that I have received over many years from numerous colleagues, and especially my PhD students and post-docs. It makes those times spent holed up in a tent enduring blizzards at -35ºC on the Greenland Ice Sheet worthwhile. The medal will also inspire my continued efforts in researching the Arctic region as it undergoes a period of intense change.