Colin Ballantyne Explained

Colin Kerr Ballantyne (born 7 June 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish geomorphologist, geologist, and physical geographer.

Education and career

Colin K. Ballantyne graduated in 1973 with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow, where he was influenced by Robert John Price (1936–2012) to study geomorphology and Quaternary geology. Ballantyne graduated in 1975 with an M.Sc. from Ontario's McMaster University, where he was part of a team led by S. Brian McCann (1935–2004) studying high arctic hydrology and fluvial processes.[1] [2] In 1975 Ballantyne returned to Scotland and became a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh.[1] [3] [4] There he graduated in 1980 with a PhD thesis on the periglacial geomorphology of mountains in northwestern Scotland.[5] [6] His PhD thesis was supervised by Brian Sissons (1926–2018).[1] [7]

At the University of St Andrews, Ballantyne was a lecturer in geography from 1980 to 1989, a senior lecturer in geography and geology from 1989 to 1994, and a professor of physical geography from 1994 to 31 January 2015, when he retired as professor emeritus. In the School of Geography and Geosciences of the University of St Andrews, he was the head from 1998 to 2000 and the director of research from 2007 and 2012. Since 2000 he is a guest professor at University Centre Svalbard in Svalbard, Norway. He was twice an Erskine Fellow at New Zealand's University of Canterbury, where he has taught summer school courses over many years. As a professor at the University of St Andrews, Ballantyne conducted annual honours field courses in Norway — on one such occasion his students included the future Duke of Cambridge.[1]

Research

Colin K. Ballantyne is the author or co-author of more than 150 articles in refereed journals.[1] Much of Ballantyne's reputation is based upon his reconstruction of the extent and deglaciation chronology of the last British-Irish ice sheet and his 2002 model of paraglacial landscape modification. He and his co-workers have done research on geomorphological mapping, glaciation, and periglaciation, as well as many related topics such as frost weathering, nivation, solifluction, hydrology, debris flow, rockfall, slope stability, and wind erosion.[5] He was the co-author, with Charles Harris, of The Periglaciation of Great Britain (Cambridge University Press, 1994), which for the next two decades was an essential reference for periglacial research in the British Isles. In the Hebrides, Ballantyne single-handedly did field mapping and theoretical reconstruction of former glacier limits on all the major islands between Orkney and Arran. In 2012 he was the co-author, with Derek Fabel and Sheng Xu, of an important article that presented convincing evidence that periglacial trimlines, instead of representing the maximum altitude of the last ice sheet, actually represent thermal boundaries which separated wet-based ice at pressure melting point from cold-based ice on summit plateaus. The evidence consisted of establishing the dates of high-level erratic boulders above trimlines on five mountains in northwestern Scotland and empirically demonstrating that the last ice sheet overtopped the five mountains.[1] [8]

Avocations

In addition to his interest in music, history, and travel, Ballantyne is a skilled mountain climber. He climbed all the Scottish Munros at least twice (and many of them three or more times). He ascended Mount Kilimanjaro (on the summit of which he proposed to his future wife Rebecca). He climbed many mountains in New Zealand and Europe, including many of Norway's peaks over 2000 meters. Accompanied by Chris Bonington, he ascended Mount Elbrus.[1]

Family

Colin K. Ballantyne married Rebecca Josephine Trengove in August 1996. They have a son and a daughter.

Awards and honours

Ballantyne received in 1986 the Warwick Award and in 1999 the Wiley Award of the British Society for Geomorphology (formerly the British Geomorphological Research Group). The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) awarded him in 1990 the RSGS's President's Medal, in 1991 the Newbigin Prize,[5] and in 2015 the Coppock Research Medal.[1] In 1996 he received the Saltire Society's Scottish Science Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2000 he was awarded a D.Sc. from the University of St Andrews.[5] In 2010 the Edinburgh Geological Society awarded him the Clough Medal. In 2015 the Geological Society of London awarded him the Lyell Medal.[1]

Selected publications

Articles

Books and monographs

References

  1. 10.1080/14702541.2016.1157380 . A Special Issue Celebrating the Career of Professor Colin Ballantyne, MA, MSC, PHD, DSC, FRSE, FRSGS, a Uniquely Scottish Geomorphologist . 2016 . Austin . Bill . Warren . Charles . Scottish Geographical Journal . 132 . 2 . 119–129 . 2016ScGJ..132..119A .
  2. Web site: Ballantyne, Colin Kerr. Geomorphological and Hydrological Investigations in a High Arctic Drainage Basin. October 1975. McMaster University (macsphere.mcmaster.ca). (M.Sc. thesis)
  3. 10.1111/geoj.12026 . Robert John Price . 2013 . Diamond . Derek . The Geographical Journal . 179 . 2 . 195–196 . 2013GeogJ.179..195D .
  4. 10.7202/016359ar . Foreword S. Brian Mccann (1935-2004) . 2006 . Byrne . Mary-Louise . Howarth . Phil . Géographie Physique et Quaternaire . 60 . 7 .
  5. Web site: Prof. Colin Ballantyne. Sottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES) .
  6. Web site: Periglacial landforms and environments on mountains in the Northern Highlands of Scotland . 1981 . Ballantyne . Colin Kerr .
  7. News: Smith, David. Robinson, Marie. Obituary: Brian Sissons, earth scientist who contributed hugely to understanding the Scottish landscape. The Scotsman. 13 February 2018.
  8. Fabel, Derek. Ballantyne, C. K.. Xu, Sheng. 2012. Trimlines, blockfields, mountain-top erratics and the vertical dimensions of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet in NW Scotland. Quaternary Science Reviews. 55. 91–102. 10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.09.002.
  9. Web site: Kendall, Christopher G.. review of The Periglaciation of Great Britain by C. K. Ballantyne and Charles Harris. Society for Sedimentary Geology (formerly the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists), SEPM (sepmstrata.org).
  10. Jack, Chris. review of Scotland's Mountain Landscapes: A Geomorphological Perspective by Colin K. Ballantyne . 31 May 2021 . Geoscientist: The Magazine of the Geological Society of London (Geoscientist.online).

External links

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