Martin Siegert
{{Short description|British glaciologist}}
{{Paid contributions|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Martin J. Siegert {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSE}} is a British glaciologist, and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter.{{Cite web |last=Le page |first=Michael |title=Scientists 'shocked' by extreme events in Antarctica as Earth heats up |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2386432-scientists-shocked-by-extreme-events-in-antarctica-as-earth-heats-up/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=New Scientist |language=en-US}} He co-Chairs the Diversity in Polar Science Initiative, and has spoken about socio-economic inclusion in Polar Science and indeed broader society.{{Cite web |title=Blog: Socioeconomic diversity in Polar Science |url=https://www.bas.ac.uk/blogpost/socioeconomic-diversity-in-polar-science/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=British Antarctic Survey |language=en-GB}}
He has produced over 300 academic publications and contributed to the development of an airborne surveying technology that has surveyed over half of Antarctica.{{Cite web |title=Antarctic extreme events: ‘All-time records are being shattered not from decades ago, but from the last few years and months’ |url=https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2023/08/08/antarctic-extreme-events-martin-siegert/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.frontiersin.org}}
He is credited with discovering a number of Antarctic subglacial lakes, which as of 2024 total over 600.{{cn|date=May 2024}} Siegert's research has shown that subglacial lakes are vast quantities of water frozen several kilometers beneath the surface of the Antarctic ice sheet, can be linked together hydraulically and likely store unique assemblages of microbial life and contain records of ancient ice and climate change.{{Cite journal |last=Yan |first=Shuai |last2=Blankenship |first2=Donald D. |last3=Greenbaum |first3=Jamin S. |last4=Young |first4=Duncan A. |last5=Li |first5=Lin |last6=Rutishauser |first6=Anja |last7=Guo |first7=Jingxue |last8=Roberts |first8=Jason L. |last9=van Ommen |first9=Tas D. |last10=Siegert |first10=Martin J. |last11=Sun |first11=Bo |date=2022-05-09 |title=A newly discovered subglacial lake in East Antarctica likely hosts a valuable sedimentary record of ice and climate change |url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G50009.1/613548/A-newly-discovered-subglacial-lake-in-East |journal=Geology |language=en |doi=10.1130/G50009.1 |issn=0091-7613|hdl=10044/1/96662 |hdl-access=free }}
Biography
He was born in Walthamstow in East London, Siegert was a pupil at Sudbury Upper School in the early 1980s.{{cn|date=May 2024}} He earned a bachelor's degree in Geological Geophysics in 1989 from Reading University, and a PhD in the numerical modelling of large ice sheets from Cambridge University{{cite web |author= |date= |title=Honorary Professor: Martin J Siegert |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/staff/appointments-awards/2013/martin-siergert-280613 |accessdate=26 October 2017 |website=ed.ac.uk}} in 1994.
Career
After completing his PhD, he then got a lectureship at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, followed by one at the University of Bristol, where he worked as director of Bristol Glaciology Center.{{Cite web |title=Professor Martin Siegert — Vitae Website |url=https://www.vitae.ac.uk/researcher-careers/researcher-career-stories/list-of-vitae-career-stories-on-film/professor-martin-siegert |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.vitae.ac.uk}}
He was a professor at Imperial College London from 2014 to 2022 and co-director of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment.{{cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.siegert|title=Home - Professor Martin Siegert|author=|date=|website=www.imperial.ac.uk|accessdate=26 October 2017}}
He joined the University of Exeter as a professor and now working as a deputy vice chancellor since 2022.{{Cite web |title=University of Exeter |url=https://news-archive.exeter.ac.uk/homepage/title_920747_en.html |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=news-archive.exeter.ac.uk |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Antarctica is not ‘frozen in time’, scientists warn as heatwaves bite |url=https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/08/08/the-worlds-biggest-heatwave-happened-in-antarctica-last-year-what-does-this-mean-for-our-p |website=euronews |language=en |date=8 August 2023}} His decision to move the Cornwall campus graduate from Truro Cathedral to the campus grounds has been met with widespread criticism from students and staff.
He formerly served as Head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh, where he is currently an Honorary Professor.{{Cite web |date=2015-10-09 |title=Honorary Professor: Martin J Siegert |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/staff/appointments-awards/2013/martin-siergert-280613 |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=The University of Edinburgh |language=en}} Siegert directed the Lake Ellsworth Consortium, a UK-NERC-funded programme that planned an experiment to study a massive subglacial lake beneath West Antarctica's ice, and is the UK principal investigator on the International ICECAP programme, which has deployed medium-range geophysical aircraft in Antarctica since 2008.{{Cite web |last=Merrington |first=Andrew |date=2023-01-11 |title=Feature: Professor Martin Siegert |url=https://news.exeter.ac.uk/uk/cornwall/feature-professor-martin-siegert/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=News |language=en-US}}
Research
His research interests focus on glaciology, and he employs geophysical techniques to assess the flow and shape of ice sheets today and in the past.{{Cite web |title=Investigating East Antarctic Ice Sheet stability in the ICECAP project - SciencePoles: polar science magazine |url=http://www.sciencepoles.org/interview/investigating-east-antarctic-ice-sheet-stability-in-the-icecap-project |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.sciencepoles.org}} Using airborne radar, he detected and located over 600 subglacial lakes. He identified old pre-glacial surfaces beneath the existing ice and proved how sub-ice water interacts with the flow of ice above it.{{Cite web |title=Welcome to Prof Martin Siegert, Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Environmental Science |url=https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2016/03/08/welcome-to-prof-martin-siegert-field-chief-editor-of-frontiers-in-environmental-science |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.frontiersin.org}} He directs the UK Natural Environment Research Council Lake Ellsworth Consortium, which seeks to physically quantify and study an ancient subglacial lake in West Antarctica.{{Cite web |title=2004: The exploration of Lake Ellsworth {{!}} News and features {{!}} University of Bristol |url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2004/1113986813.html |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=www.bristol.ac.uk |language=en-GB}}
Siegert's work involves the study of large ice sheets in the past, at present and in future, using combinations of numerical modelling, satellite observations and glacier geophysical measurements.{{Cite web |title=How The Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Changing & Why It Matters: An Interview with Martin Siegert – Bifrost |url=https://bifrostonline.org/how-the-antarctic-ice-sheet-is-changing-why-it-matters-an-interview-with-martin-siegert/ |access-date=2024-02-21 |language=en-US}} In 1996, he was part of the Russian-UK team that published an article in Nature revealing subglacial Lake Vostok in East Antarctica to be over 500 m deep.{{Cite web |date=2012-02-09 |title=Russian Scientists Breach Antarctica's Lake Vostok—Confirmed |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/120208-russians-lake-vostok-antarctica-drilling-science |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Science |language=en}} In the same year he published an inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes that included Lake Ellsworth. He is the UK PI of the US-UK-China-Australia ICECAP programme, that uses long-range airborne geophysics to measure and characterise the ice sheet and lithosphere in previously unexplored regions of Antarctica, including Totten Glacier and the Aurora Subglacial Basin, Byrd Glacier and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, and Princess Elizabeth Land.
He was the PI of a NERC-funded airborne geophysics campaign to the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica (2009-2013), which showed the grounding line of Institute Ice Stream to be perched on a steep reverse sloping bed.{{cn|date=May 2024}} In December 2012 he led a NERC-funded attempt to sample Lake Ellsworth using a purpose built clean hot-water drill and water-sampling/measuring probe.{{cn|date=May 2024}} The expedition was halted when the drill experienced technical problems preventing drilling to the lake surface. In 2002, Siegert was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Leverhulme Trust.In 2007, Siegert was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Media appearances
Siegert has featured on national television and radio to explain his study, including BBC Radio 4's Life Scientific in August 2012.{{cite web |title=Martin Siegert The Life Scientific Jim goes under the Antarctic ice |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m0ltw |website=BBC Radio 4}}
Awards
- In 2013, Siegert was awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for excellence in Antarctic science and policy.
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2007.{{Cite web |title=Martin Siegert |url=https://www.antarcticscienceplatform.org.nz/about/people/martin-siegert-phd |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Antarctica New Zealand |language=en-US}}
- 2003 Philip Leverhulme prize award.https://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfbdxa/leverhulme02.pdf Philip Leverhulme Prizes
Selected publications
Books
- Siegert, M.J. Ice sheets and Late Quaternary environmental change. John Wiley, Chichester, UK, 231pp. (2001).
- Florindo, F. and Siegert, M.J. (eds.). Antarctic Climate Evolution. Developments in Earth & Environmental Science, vol. 8. Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 606pp. {{ISBN|9780444528476}} (2008).
- Siegert, M.J., Kennicutt, M, Bindschadler, R. (eds.). Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments. AGU Geophysical Monograph 192, 246pp. (2011).
- Siegert, M.J. and Bradwell, T. (eds). Antarctic Earth Sciences. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 104, 1, 80pp. (2013).
- Siegert, M.J., Priscu, J. Alekhina, I., Wadham, J. and Lyons, B. (eds.). Antarctic Subglacial Lake Exploration: first results and future plans. Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A. 374, issue 2059. (2016).
- Siegert, M.J., Jamieson, S.S.R. and White, D.A. (eds.). Exploration of Subsurface Antarctica: uncovering past changes and modern processes. Geological Society of London, Special Publication, 461, 255pp. (2018).
- Nuttall, M., Christensen, T. and Siegert, M.J. (eds.). Routledge Handbook of the Polar Regions. Routledge, 556pp. (2018).
- Florindo, F., Siegert, M.J., De Santis, L. and Naish, T. (eds.). Antarctic Climate Evolution. Second Edition. Elsevier. 804pp. {{ISBN|9780128191095}} (2021).
References
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Category:Academics of Imperial College London
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Alumni of the University of Reading