A NORTHUMBRIA University academic has won a major award in recognition of his scientific contribution to the field of glaciology.

The International Glaciology Society has awarded the Seligman Crystal to Professor Adrian Jenkins of Northumbria’s department of geography and environmental sciences.

The crystal is awarded only to those who have undertaken research that has a long-lasting impact on the understanding, direction or focus of a glaciological discipline, or who have transformed the discipline in a unique way including opening a new area or radically transforming thinking.

Professor Adrian Jenkins, who is from Hexham, has had an extensive career at the forefront of research into ice-ocean interactions for more than 35 years. Having formerly worked with the British Antarctic Survey, he moved to Northumbria University in 2020 to join the university’s world-leading Cold and Palaeo Environments research group.

One of his most important contributions was leading the team that discovered an unknown world beneath West Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier in 2009.

“It really is a huge honour", said Professor Jenkins on receiving the award. "I’ve been a member of the International Glaciological Society since working on my master’s thesis in 1985.

"Since then, while I’ve been gradually ‘growing up’ as a scientist, I’ve looked up to the previous recipients of the Seligman Crystal with a sense of awe and admiration. They really are a select bunch, including the very founders of the subject as we now know it.

“It is a surreal feeling to be joining them, and I’m still not really sure it has sunk in.

"I should really acknowledge the huge debt I owe to my mentors and collaborators over the years who have contributed so much in so many ways to various aspects of the body of work that is being recognised by the award. Science is a team effort and I’ve been lucky enough to work with great friends and colleagues throughout my career.”

Ian Allison, chair of the International Glaciological Society’s awards committee, said Professor Jenkins has contributed “outstanding interdisciplinary work at the boundary of glaciology and oceanography” adding that his research in formulating and applying a plume model has been “fundamental to quantifying melting and freezing patterns under ice-shelves and in analysing marine ice deposition.”

The awards committee praised Professor Jenkins’ work on subglacial outflow and his formulation of how ocean temperature, salinity and turbulent mixing combine to control the rate of ice melting in the ocean. They also commended his pioneering work in autonomous underwater vehicle deployment and the of development phase-sensitive radio echo-sounding for ice shelf observations.

Northumbria’s Cold and Paleao Environments research group is believed to be the largest team of cold climate researchers in the UK.