Two of our leading geographers, Professors Colm O’Cofaigh and Dave Roberts, have received a prestigious Polar Medal from King Charles III.
The Polar Medal is awarded to individuals for outstanding achievements in the field of polar research, and particularly to those who have worked over extended periods in harsh climates.
Since 1904 it has been awarded to some of the world’s greatest explorers and polar scientists.
This includes Sir Ranulph Fiennes and members of Sir Ernest Shackleton's expeditions in the early 1900s, as well as members of Captain Scott’s expedition that reached the South Pole in 1912.
We now have three researchers in our Department of Geography to receive the Polar Medal within the past 15 years, reflecting the world-leading polar research undertaken at Durham.
Exceptional contributions
Professor Colm O’Cofaigh is an outstanding polar scientist who has made an exceptional contribution to our understanding of both Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Colm is globally renowned for his work on the glacial history of the polar ice sheets.
This includes studies on glacial and glacially-influenced sedimentation; reconstruction of past ice sheets from terrestrial and marine sedimentary archives; and developing and applying sedimentological and geophysical methods to understand the growth and decay of ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic.
His work has helped link past behaviour of ice sheets to controlling factors such as climate, ocean water temperatures, and topography.
Colm’s research on past ice sheets has provided crucial insights into processes and drivers governing modern ice sheet behaviour.
He has spent nearly two years undertaking polar fieldwork on land and at sea, recently culminating in co-leading the first Arctic science cruise of the UK’s new icebreaker, the RRS Sir David Attenborough.
He was also part of an expert group advising on science requirements for this £200m ship, one of the largest ever investments in UK polar science capability.
Wealth of fieldwork experience
Professor Dave Roberts is a world-leading glacial geologist, with a wealth of polar research experience accumulated over several decades of work in remote areas such as Greenland and Svalbard.
Dave has made an enormous contribution to furthering our scientific knowledge of glaciated landscapes.
He has made critical contributions to understanding the evolution of glacial landscapes throughout the Quaternary, especially in terms of erosional, geomorphological and sedimentary signatures of past glaciation.
His early work in Greenland helped to unravel the relative sea-level history of the Greenland margin, but his main focus has been to reconstruct and understand the dynamic behaviour of ice streams and explore ice/ocean/atmosphere feedbacks.
Dave was one of the first scientists to pioneer the use of cosmogenic isotopes to understand past behaviour of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
He has also worked in the marine realm in Baffin Bay, the Greenland Sea and the Denmark Strait, enabling the integration of offshore and onshore glacial geological records and the reconstruction of Greenland Ice Sheet history since the Last Glacial Maximum.
Colm and Dave will receive their awards at an investiture ceremony in 2026.
Main image shows, from left, Professor Dave Roberts and Professor Colm O’Cofaigh on Ile de France, Northeast Greenland.
Find out more
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/central-news-and-events-images/83431-1920X290.jpg)