Three Leading Antarctic Scientists Honored
Contact: Dr. Colin Summerhayes, Executive Director of SCAR, at 0011 4478 3426 9997.
Three prominent international Antarctic scientists have been honoured for their outstanding achievements by the world’s peak Antarctic science organization — the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).
The President of SCAR — Professor Jorn Thiede — presented the awards during the Committee’s 2006 meeting, which is currently underway in Hobart, Tasmania.
The President’s Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Antarctic Science was awarded to New Zealand scientist Professor Peter Barrett, who is the Director of the Victoria University’s Antarctic Research Centre in Wellington, New Zealand.
Professor Barrett is universally recognised as a leader of the geological drilling community in the Antarctic and has been Chief Scientist for several projects investigating the history of the East Antarctic ice sheet. He has done much to communicate Antarctic science to a wider public audience, including through a BBC programme on the history of the Antarctic ice sheet and emphasising its importance in the global context.
The SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research was awarded to Professor Paul Mayewski, who is the Director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine in the United States.
Professor Mayewski’s primary research interests are climate change and change in the chemistry of the atmosphere. He is the founder of a project to reconstruct Antarctic climate and atmospheric chemistry over the last 200 years and the Chair, since 1990, of the Executive Committee, which coordinates this programme.
The SCAR Medal for International Scientific Coordination was awarded to Professor David Walton from the British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom.
Dr Walton has been Chairman of the Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System since 2002; a member of the Steering Committees for the 6th and 7th SCAR Antarctica Biology Symposia and has represented SCAR at 14 Antarctic Treaty Consultative meetings since 1992. He is Editor in Chief of the scientific journal Antarctic Science and has contributed to, compiled and edited six books on research in Antarctica.