Speaker Profile: Martin Siegert

Martin Siegert is Professor of Geosciences and co-Director of the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. He was formerly Head of the School of GeoSciences and Assistant Principal for Energy and Climate Change at the University of Edinburgh, and director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre at the University of Bristol. At Edinburgh he led the creation of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI). He received his from PhD Cambridge University, completing his thesis on the numerical modelling of large ice sheets at the Scott Polar Research Institute. Siegert’s research interests are in the field of glaciology. He uses geophysical techniques to quantify the flow and form of ice sheets both now and in the past. Using airborne radar he has identified and located ~400 subglacial lakes, has discovered ancient preglacial surfaces hidden beneath the existing ice and has demonstrated how sub-ice water is generated and interacts with the flow of ice above. Siegert has appeared regularly on TV and radio to discuss his research, including BBC Radio 4’s Life Scientific in August 2012. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was awarded the 2013 Martha T Muse Prize in Antarctic Science and Policy.