The International Glaciological Society (IGS) has announced the Award recipients for 2020. The award scheme recognises a single person or a collaborative group/team that has made exceptional scientific contributions to glaciology.
This year’s Seligman Crystal was awarded to SCAR Vice President for Science, Catherine Ritz. Congratulations, Catherine!
Catherine Ritz has made outstanding contributions to ice sheet and paleoclimate research and particularly to ice-sheet modelling. She pioneered the development of three dimensional thermo-mechanically-coupled ice sheet models for studying large-scale evolution of ice sheets and ice core dating. She also made significant advances in the analysis of ice-sheet temperature profiles. Together, these have enabled better understanding of how ice sheets behave during glacial-interglacial cycles, the future behaviour of ice sheets in a warming world, and estimates of their future contribution to sea-level rise.
The following awards were also announced:
An Honorary Membership of the IGS was given to Michael Kuhn. Michael Kuhn has contributed more than 40 years of outstanding service as Chief Editor of Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie, the longest running glaciological journal. He has had more than 50 years involvement in glaciological and meteorological research in the Alps, the Arctic and Antarctic, with contributions to the study of radiative transfer and energy balance at a snow surface; glacier response to climate change; ice dynamics; glacier hydrology; seasonal snow cover and permafrost; katabatic wind and föhn processes.
The Richardson Medal was awarded jointly to Christina Hulbe and Eric Wolff. Christina and Eric led the decision process that completely changed the Society’s publishing operations from in-house publication of the Journal of Glaciology and Annals of Glaciology to universal open access publishing by Cambridge University Press.
The Seligman Crystal was also awarded to Andrew Fowler. Andrew has made substantial theoretical advances to understanding a diverse set of processes governing the behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of glacier sliding, subglacial hydrology, subglacial bedform evolution, glacier surging, ice sheet modelling, ice-stream dynamics, frost heave and periglacial processes leading to pattern formation, cryospheric waves, ice-age climate cycles, Dansgaard-Oeschger events, and subglacial outburst floods.
SCAR warmly congratulates all 2020 Award recipients. More information about the award scheme and the recipients can be found on the IGS website.