In September, we announced the winner of the ENVRI user story competition. William David Harcourt from the University of St. Andrews will receive up to 3000 EUR support for his research. We sincerely congratulate William, his team and the SIOS research infrastructure for making such excellent science happen.
Interview with William
Hi Will, and congratulations on winning the ENVRI user story competition! Would you mind telling us a bit more about yourself and the campaign you present in the video?
Of course! I’m a final year PhD student at the University of St Andrews studying glacier change using ground-based millimetre-wave radar. I have a long-standing fascination for the Arctic and I strive to understand how it is changing by developing the latest state-of-the-art technology for monitoring purposes. These interests underpinned the essence of our field campaign – millimetre-wave radar is a new type of sensor that had never been used to monitor glaciers before and so we wanted to understand how it could be used to help organisations such as SIOS document the changing landscape in Svalbard. Our campaign also features several additional measurements which we use to obtain a detailed view of how the Hansbreen glacier is changing as a result of climate warming. This is vital for understanding how glaciers may evolve into the future.
You acknowledged SIOS research infrastructure for facilitating your fieldwork. Can you explain how SIOS supports researchers like yourself?
Our project was funded through the SIOS Access to Research Infrastructure Program, which provides researchers access to research stations and infrastructure across the Svalbard archipelago. SIOS were able to grant us access to the Polish Polar Research Station in Hornsund, which is definitely one of the more remote places in Svalbard! SIOS helped our team overcome the challenges of shipping our cargo to the research station and organising the logistics associated with travelling to the station. We could not have completed this fieldwork without the specialist knowledge SIOS have acquired over many years working in Svalbard. In particular, the SIOS Knowledge Centre have an in-depth understanding of the logistical activities in Svalbard and associated waters and can offer researchers assistance with logistics and fieldwork planning. Having a coordinating body such as SIOS based in Svalbard is vital for ensuring the safe passage of equipment and personnel from around the world into the Svalbard environment and we firmly believe that SIOS has a critical role to play in the future of Svalbard science.
You delivered a professionally looking video – do you have any experience with video-making or other science communication activities? Is there any piece of advice you would like to give to your science colleagues who want to communicate their research activities?
Believe it or not, I actually have very little experience making videos, so I was really happy (and pleasantly surprised) that our video was successful. I thoroughly enjoy communicating my science to new people though and I actively reach out to the public through blogs written on my research website, visiting schools for scientific outreach activities, contributing to public panel sessions and working with people in the arts and humanities to find innovative ways to communicate my research. The main advice I can give to someone wishing to communicate their science is: make it relatable and keep it simple. The general public wants to know why your particular topic is of interest to them and why funding it matters. For me, my work tries to solve big problems in glaciology using new remote sensing techniques so that we can better understand how glaciers are responding to 21st Century climate change.
What are your plans for the competition prize?
We plan to use this generous prize to help fund a second field season in Svalbard in 2022. We know that observations of glacier calving activity at high spatial and temporal resolution are sparse and hence we want to use our new remote sensing techniques to document the behaviour of other tidewater glaciers in Svalbard and hence compare differences between them. This is extremely important because it helps us understand the processes driving glacier retreat in the region. We are also eager to continue contributing to the SIOS observing system and develop techniques and data sets that can be used by the SIOS community to understand environmental change across the archipelago. Winning this prize will ensure we can collaborate with SIOS and contribute to their science goals for many years to come.
Thank you, William and good luck with your future campaigns.