Martin J. Siegert is a British glaciologist, a professor at Imperial College London, and co-director of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment. Siegert earned a bachelor's degree in Geological Geophysics in 1989 from Reading University, and a PhD in the numerical modelling of large ice sheets from Cambridge University in 1994. Siegert's work involves the study of large ice sheets in the past, at present and in future, using combinations of numerical modelling, satellite observations and glacier geophysical measurements. In 1996, he was part of the Russian-UK team that published an article in Nature revealing subglacial Lake Vostok in East Antarctica to be over 500 m deep. In the same year he published an inventory of Antarctic subglacial lakes that included Lake Ellsworth. He is the UK PI of the US-UK-China-Australia ICECAP programme, that uses long-range airborne geophysics to measure and characterise the ice sheet and lithosphere in previously unexplored regions of Antarctica, including Totten Glacier and the Aurora Subglacial Basin, Byrd Glacier and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, and Princess Elizabeth Land. He was the PI of a NERC-funded airborne geophysics campaign to the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica, which showed the grounding line of Institute Ice Stream to be perched on a steep reverse sloping bed. In December 2012 he led a NERC-funded attempt to sample Lake Ellsworth using a purpose built clean hot-water drill and water-sampling/measuring probe. The expedition was halted when the drill experienced technical problems preventing drilling to the lake surface. In 2002, Siegert was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Leverhulme Trust. In 2007, Siegert was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2013, Siegert was awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for excellence in Antarctic science and policy.
Selected publications
Books Siegert, M.J. Ice sheets and Late Quaternary environmental change. John Wiley, Chichester, UK, 231pp.. Florindo, F. and Siegert, M.J.. Antarctic Climate Evolution. Developments in Earth & Environmental Science, vol. 8. Elsevier, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 606pp. . Siegert, M.J., Kennicutt, M, Bindschadler, R.. Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments. AGU Geophysical Monograph 192, 246pp.. Siegert, M.J. and Bradwell, T.. Antarctic Earth Sciences. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 104, 1, 80pp.. Siegert, M.J., Priscu, J. Alekhina, I., Wadham, J. and Lyons, B.. Antarctic Subglacial Lake Exploration: first results and future plans. Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A. 374, issue 2059.. Siegert, M.J., Jamieson, S.S.R. and White, D.A.. Exploration of Subsurface Antarctica: uncovering past changes and modern processes. Geological Society of London, Special Publication, 461, 255pp.. Nuttall, M., Christensen, T. and Siegert, M.J.. Routledge Handbook of the Polar Regions. Routledge, 556pp.. Selected papers Kapitsa, A., Ridley, J.K., Robin, G. de Q., Siegert, M.J. & Zotikov, I. Large deep freshwater lake beneath the ice of central East Antarctica. Nature, 381, 684-686.. Siegert, M.J., Kwok, R., Mayer, C. & Hubbard, B. Water exchange between the subglacial Lake Vostok and the overlying ice sheet. Nature, 403, 643-646.. Siegert, M.J., Ellis-Evans, J.C., Tranter, M., Mayer, C., Petit, J.-R., Salamatin, A. & Priscu, J.C. Physical, chemical and biological processes in Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes. Nature, 414, 603-609.. Siegert, M.J. et al. Ice flow direction change in interior West Antarctica. Science, 305, 1948-1951.. Wingham, D.J., Siegert, M.J., Shepherd, A.P. and Muir, A.S. Rapid discharge connects Antarctic subglacial lakes. Nature, 440, 1033-1036. Naylor, S.K., Siegert, M.J., Dean, K. and Turchetti, S. Science, geopolitics and the governance of Antarctica. Nature Geosciences, 1, 143-145.. Bo, S. et al. The Gamburtsev Mountains and the origin and early evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nature, 459, 690-693. Young, D.A. et al. A dynamic early East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggested by ice covered fjord landscapes. Nature, 474, 72-75. Ross, N. et al. Steep reverse bed slope at the grounding line of the Weddell Sea sector in West Antarctica Nature Geoscience, 5, 393 - 396.doi: 10.1038/ngeo1468,. Bamber, J., Siegert, M.J., Griggs, J., Marshall, S., Spada, G. Mega Paleofluvial canyon beneath the central Greenland Ice Sheet. Science, 341, 997, doi: 10.1126/science.1239794. Le Brocq, A. et al. Evidence from ice shelves for channelized meltwater flow beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nature Geoscience, 6, 945-948. doi:10.1038/ngeo1977. Greenbaum, J.S. et al. Ocean access to a cavity beneath Totten Glacier in East Antarctica. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/NGEO2388.. Aitken, A.R.A. et al. Repeated large-scale retreat and advance of Totten Glacier indicated by inland bed erosion. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature17447, 19 May 2016. Rintoul, S.R., Chown, S.L., DeConto, R., England, M., Fricker, H., Masson-Delmotte, V., Naish, T., Siegert, M.J., Xavier, J. C. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in 2070: what future will we choose? Nature, 558, 233-241. Colleoni, F., De Santis, L., Siddoway, C.S., Bergamasco, A., Golledge, N., Lohmann, G., Passchier, S. and Siegert, M.J. Spatio-temporal variability of processes across Antarctic ice-bed-ocean interfaces. Nature Communications, 8, 2289. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04583-0. Jeofry, H., Ross, N., Le Brocq, A., Graham, A., Li, J., Gogineni, P., Morlighem, M., Jordan, T., and Siegert, M.J. Hard rock landforms generate 130 km ice shelf channels through water focusing in basal corrugations. Nature Communications, 9, 4576 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06679-z.
