Katharine Giles Explained

Katharine Giles
Education:The Hertfordshire and Essex High School
Birth Name:Katharine Anne Giles
Birth Date:22 March 1978
Workplaces:University College London
Alma Mater:University College London (MSci, PhD)
Doctoral Advisor:Seymour Laxon
Thesis Title:Radar and laser altimeter measurements over Arctic sea ice
Thesis Url:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1445518/
Thesis Year:2005

Katharine Anne Giles (22 March 1978 - 8 April 2013) was a British climate scientist. Her research considered sea ice cover, ocean circulation and wind patterns. She was a passionate science communicator, and since 2015, the Association of British Science Writers has held a science communication award in her honour.

Early life and education

Giles was educated at The Hertfordshire and Essex High School, completing GCE A Levels in design technology, maths and physics.[1] She was awarded first class honours for her degree in earth and space science at University College London. She volunteered at the Science Museum during her undergraduate studies. She earned her PhD for research supervised by Seymour Laxon in 2005.[2] She performed the first ground-based experiments to show how to monitor sea ice thickness using satellite altimetery.[3] An altimeter monitors electromagnetic waves reflected from the surface of ice.[4]

Career and research

After completing her PhD, Giles remained at University College London as a postdoctoral researcher, studying the thickness of Arctic Ice. Giles demonstrated that sea ice floes could be used to demonstrate how winds affected the newly exposed Arctic Ocean.[5] She was awarded a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) fellowship to study wind patterns in the Arctic at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling. Giles showed that fresh water in the Arctic Ocean was due to an intensifying of the winds in Beaufort Gyre.[6] [7] [8] [9] To prove this, Giles used the European Remote-Sensing Satellite and Envisat. She calculated that the sea surface in the Western Arctic rose by 15 cm between 2002 and 2012, and sea water had increased by 8000 cubic kilometres. By using the European Space Agency CryoSat-2, Giles identified that thick sea ice had disappeared from Greenland, the Canadian Archipelago and Svalbard.[10] She found that between 2003 and 2012 the arctic sea ice volume in the winter had decreased by 9%.[11] [12] The findings confirmed the predictions of the Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modelling & Assimilation System (PIOMAS).[13]

Giles was killed whilst cycling in 2013.[14] She had just been appointed as a lecturer at University College London. Peter Wadhams believed that the death could have been an assassination, as Giles' colleagues Seymour Laxon and Tim Boyd all died within the first few months of 2013.[15] In 2016 it was proposed to name the new Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) research vessel (RV) /Royal Research Ship (RRS) Katharine Giles.[16] [17] (The vessel was finally named the RRS Sir David Attenborough).

On 3 December 2020, the Government of the British Antarctic Territory named Giles Bay, between Weaver Point and Tula Point at the northern end of Renaud Island, Biscoe Islands for Katharine Giles.[18]

The Dr Katharine Giles Fund

The Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) awards the Dr Katharine Giles science communication prize each year for the best popular article written by a scientist or engineer. As well as a cash award, the Fund offers free media training to winners.[19] The prize is funded by the Dr Katharine Giles Fund. It has been awarded to:

Family history in climate research

Giles's great, great grandfather was Edward Walter Maunder whose solar research, and in particular the period of rare sunspot activity, the Maunder Minimum, has been linked to historical variations in climate.[29]

Notes and References

  1. News: The short, brilliant life of climate change scientist Dr Katharine. 2018-08-19. en-GB. standard.co.uk. London Evening Standard. Susannah. Butter. 2013 .
  2. PhD. Radar and laser altimeter measurements over Arctic sea ice. Katharine Anne. Giles. 2005. ucl.ac.uk. 2018-08-19. . 500497595.
  3. News: Katharine Giles, 1978-2013. 2013-04-25. Times Higher Education. Anon. timeshighereducation.com. 2018-08-19. en.
  4. News: Arctic ice thickness 'plummets'. 2008-10-28. 2018-08-19. en-GB.
  5. Web site: UCL colleagues pay tribute to Dr Katharine Giles. ucl.ac.uk. 10 April 2013. University College London. en. 2018-08-19.
  6. News: Huge pool of Arctic fresh water could cool Europe. 2018-08-19.
  7. Giles. Katharine A.. Laxon. Seymour W.. Ridout. Andy L.. Wingham. Duncan J.. Bacon. Sheldon. 2012. Western Arctic Ocean freshwater storage increased by wind-driven spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre. Nature Geoscience. En. 5. 3. 194–197. 10.1038/ngeo1379. 1752-0894. 2012NatGe...5..194G.
  8. Giles. Katharine A.. Laxon. Seymour W.. Ridout. Andy L.. Wingham. Duncan J.. Bacon. Sheldon. 2012. Western Arctic Ocean freshwater storage increased by wind-driven spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre. Nature Geoscience. 5. 3. 194–197. 10.1038/ngeo1379. 1752-0894. 2012NatGe...5..194G.
  9. News: Radar sees Arctic freshwater dome. BBC News. en. 2018-08-20.
  10. Web site: NERC - CryoSat-2 mission reveals major Arctic sea-ice loss. nerc.ukri.org. en. 2018-08-19.
  11. Laxon. Seymour W.. Giles. Katharine A.. Ridout. Andy L.. Wingham. Duncan J.. Willatt. Rosemary. Cullen. Robert. Kwok. Ron. Schweiger. Axel. Zhang. Jinlun. 2013. CryoSat-2 estimates of Arctic sea ice thickness and volume. Geophysical Research Letters. 40. 4. 732–737. 10.1002/grl.50193. 0094-8276. 2013GeoRL..40..732L. free. 1912/5923. free.
  12. News: CryoSat-2 mission reveals major Arctic sea-ice loss - AGU Newsroom. AGU Newsroom. 2018-08-19. en-US.
  13. News: Arctic Death Spiral Bombshell: CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed. 2018-08-19. en-US.
  14. News: Gone in 2013: A Tribute to 10 Remarkable Women in Science. Weinstock. Maia. Scientific American Blog Network. 2018-08-19. en.
  15. News: Three scientists investigating melting Arctic ice may have been assassinated, professor claims. Daily Telegraph. Mendick. Robert. 2015-07-25. 2018-08-19. en-GB. 0307-1235.
  16. News: Forget Boaty McBoatface - this ship should be named after my amazing scientist sister who died. Sanghani. Radhika. 2016-04-08. The Telegraph. 2018-08-19. en-GB. 0307-1235.
  17. News: Research vessel should be named after polar researcher Dr Katharine Giles say Ipswich parents. Townsend. Emily. East Anglian Daily Times. 2018-08-19. en.
  18. Web site: Polar scientists and staff awarded place names in Antarctica.
  19. News: ABSW Science Writers' Awards 2017 now open - Medical Journalists' Association. 2017-01-30. Medical Journalists' Association. 2018-08-19. en-US.
  20. Web site: Guardian's Alex Bellos scoops best science blog award. Anon. 2016-07-24. The Guardian. en. 2018-08-19.
  21. Web site: Alex Bellos wins best science blog award . Janklow & Nesbit. janklowandnesbit.co.uk. en. 2018-08-19.
  22. News: Microbe Post has won an award!. 2017-05-26. Microbe Post. 2018-08-19. en-US.
  23. Web site: Compound Interest - About. compoundchem.com. 16 December 2013. en-GB. 2018-08-19.
  24. Web site: Lund . Arendse . Student Engagers Win 'Oscars of Science Journalism!' . 5 December 2020.
  25. Web site: Henschel . Anna . Can really *everyone* be a data scientist? . THEGIST . 5 December 2020.
  26. Web site: ABSW Awards 2020: shortlist and winners . Association of British Science Writers . 5 December 2020.
  27. Web site: Inflammation: The key factor that explains vulnerability to severe COVID.
  28. Web site: There aren’t enough trees in the world to offset society’s carbon emissions – and there never will be . . https://web.archive.org/web/20230720073908/https://theconversation.com/there-arent-enough-trees-in-the-world-to-offset-societys-carbon-emissions-and-there-never-will-be-158181 . 2023-07-20 . live .
  29. Science 18 Jun 1976:Vol. 192, Issue 4245, pp. 1189-1202

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