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Director’s IntroductionThe UK launch of the fourth International Polar Year(IPY) took place in March before MPs and guests inthe Dining Room of the House of Commons. I wasinvited to give one of three introductory speeches,outlining the significance of glaciers and ice sheets forglobal sea-level rise in a warming world, and ofchanging sea-ice extent and thickness in terms ofhigh-latitude energy balance and the production ofdense ocean-bottom water. Members of the Instituteare participating in a number of IPY research projectsin both the sciences and the social sciences, ourlibrary and museum activities are represented infurther international IPY activities, and three of ourstaff are members of the UK IPY Committee. TheInstitute will, therefore, be playing a full part in thisimportant event, which encompasses thousands ofresearchers from 60 nations participating in over 200approved projects.Our field research programmes continue to besupported by grants from the UK research councilsand other funding agencies. Early in the year, I led aresearch cruise of the UK’s ice strengthened researchvessel, James Clark Ross, to waters offshore of theAntarctic Peninsula. The aim was to make the first useof Britain’s new Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV),named Isis, in investigations of the sea floor at waterdepths from a few hundred to several thousandmetres. Stunning images showing both past glacialactivity and marine life were obtained from thecameras aboard the ROV, which was operated fromthe parent ship via an umbilical cable severalkilometres long. The robotic vehicle used thrusters tomove over the sea floor and had two mechanicalmanipulator arms that collected geological andbiological samples. This innovative work, which wascollaborative with several UK institutions, wasfeatured in BBC Radio 4’s Material World, with aninterview by satellite from the ship, and in the newssection of Science.Field parties from the Institute were also active in theArctic during 2007, making geophysicalmeasurements of the state of balance of glaciers andice caps in Iceland and Svalbard. In each area, theevidence acquired from both field and satelliteobservations showed that the ice was retreating andthinning. Numerical model simulations of theresponse of the ice sheets on Greenland andAntarctica to various future warming trends,undertaken in our science laboratory, also suggestthat the rate of ice-sheet response to warming islikely to increase during the coming century. Thesefield and modelling investigations will augment thescholarly papers which continue to be published in awide range of international journals by Institute staffand research students.In the Institute, the private correspondence betweenCaptain Scott and Kathleen Scott, generously giftedby the Scott family, was first exhibited in January.Contained within the bound volume was the lastletter written by Captain Scott to his wife, which wasfound with his body. Huge international press interestin these letters was followed by several months ofunprecedented numbers of Museum visitors to viewboth the letters and also the camera whichaccompanied Scott and his four companions to theSouth Pole – again a gift from the Scott family.In the late spring, Bonhams generously enabled us toexhibit in London a selection of items from theInstitute’s collections, including Scott’s last letter,alongside the ‘Antarctic paintings of Edward Seago’,lent by kind permission of The Chancellor, HRH TheDuke of Edinburgh. The exhibition took place atBonhams gallery in New Bond Street, London from 27May to 15 June 2007. Several evening receptionswere held to promote the work of the Institute. TheChancellor attended a private view of the paintingsand a royal visit by Her Majesty the Queen was aparticular highlight. This exhibition attracted a largenew audience and provided an opportunity to launchthe new book of the same name, written by theDirector and Librarian.By a coincidence of timing, receptions at theBonhams exhibition also provided the setting for twofurther developments for the Institute. The first wasnotification from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) ofthe success of our Stage 1 bid to fund the planningphase of the complete redesign and redevelopmentof SPRI’s Polar Museum galleries and curatorialspaces. Robert Smith was appointed in September asMuseum Project Manager, with the remit to developthe full £1 million Stage 2 bid to the HLF by June2008. A second important development was theformal establishment of a Museum Acquisitions Fund,with a first instalment of £25,000 presented to theInstitute by Robin Back, Chair of the Friends of SPRI.2

The Director aboard the RRS James Clark Ross off the Antarctic PeninsulaThis support has already enabled us to bid successfullyfor matching funds from other grant-giving bodies,and to augment our collections of polar art works,documents and artefacts with important newadditions such as the logbooks kept by Scott when amidshipman, which include very fine watercolourillustrations. Through a grant of over £400,000 fromthe UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC),we have also begun the ‘Freeze Frame’ project todigitize about 20,000 of our historic polarphotographs in order to make them more accessible.The year has also seen more special exhibitions thanever before in the Foyer and Museum of the Institute.Notable among these were ‘Keith Shackleton: A PolarRetrospective’ and ‘Art of Exploration: The PolarVision of Sir Wally Herbert’. It is particularly sad torecall the death of Sir Wally Herbert in June 2007. Hisachievement in leading the first crossing of the ArcticOcean in 1968-69 has particular resonance today,given that reductions in Arctic sea-ice cover nowrender the journey almost impossible.Finally, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the efforts putin by members of the Institute in mounting the seriesof exhibitions that many visitors to our Museum haveenjoyed, in the provision of library, archival andinformation services to the international polarcommunity, and towards the further understanding ofthe changing natural and human environments of theArctic and Antarctic.Professor Julian Dowdeswell3

Institute StaffSenior Academic and Related StaffProfessor Julian DowdeswellDirector and Professor of Physical GeographyDr Neil ArnoldUniversity LecturerDr Michael BravoUniversity LecturerDr Poul ChristoffersenUniversity LecturerMrs Heather LaneLibrarian and Acting Keeper of CollectionsProfessor Elizabeth Morris, OBESenior Research AssociateDr Gareth ReesUniversity Senior LecturerDr Ian StoneEditor, Polar RecordDr Piers VitebskyAssistant Director of ResearchDr Ian WillisUniversity Senior LecturerResearch StaffMr Toby BenhamResearch AssociateMr Frank BowlesResearch AssistantDr Marion BougamontResearch AssociateDr Jeff Evans Research Associate (to April 2007)Dr Huw Lewis-JonesResearch AssociateDr Bob HawleyResearch AssociateDr Riko NoormetsResearch AssociateDr Martina TyrellBritish Academy Research FellowLibrary and Archive StaffMs Naomi BonehamMr Mark GilbertMs Lucy MartinMs Jenny NewburyMs Shirley SawtellMs Rebecca StancombeMs Hilary ShibataMrs Isabella WarrenMr Jeremy WongSupport StaffMs Claire LampittMr Stanley ChapmanMrs Liz CrilleyMr Shane HarveyMrs Judy HeathMs Jamie HorsleyMs Marion JeffriesMr Martin Lucas-SmithDr Alison MaguireMr Brian SmithMs Rosalyn WadeArchives ManagerLibrary AssistantPicture Library ManagerDigital Information AssistantInformation AssistantLibrary AssistantAntarctic BibliographerRussian BibliographerArctic BibliographerReceptionist/SecretaryMaintenanceDirector’s AssistantComputer OfficerChief Accounts ClerkAdministratorMaintenanceWeb ManagerAdministratorMaintenanceSchools Liaison Office & Museum Shop Manager4

Doctoral StudentsMr John AshMs Narelle BakerMs Liz BeiswengerMs Fiona DanksMr Peter EvansMs Janne FloraMr Jorge Guzman GutierrezMs Kelly HoganMr Adrian McCallumMs Dinah Molloy ThompsonMs Ruth MugfordMr Steven PalmerMr Hugo ReinertMr Cameron RyeMs Christina SawchukMs Olga UlturgashevaMr Laur VallikiviMr Kostas ZorbasM.Phil. StudentsMs Tiffany LundayMr Martin O’LearyMr Chistopher RimmerInstitute AssociatesDr Lawson BrighamDr Hugh BrodyDr Liz CruwysMr Robert HeadlandMr Keith HillDr Neil KentDr Beau RiffenburghDr Clive SmallmanDr Florian StammlerDr John TichotskyDr Olga TutubalinaDr Emma WilsonEmeritus AssociatesDr Peter ClarksonMr Michael GormanMr Harry KingDr Simon OmmanneyMr Peter SpeakDr Bernard StonehouseDr Charles SwithinbankDr Janet WestProfessor Peter WilliamsOther organisations based at SPRIWorld Data Centre for Glaciology, CambridgeMr Rick FrolichManagerInternational Glaciological SocietyDr Magnús Már MagnússonMrs Linda GormanSecretary GeneralAssistant to the Secretary GeneralScientific Committee on Antarctic ResearchDr Colin SummerhayesExecutive DirectorDr Marzena Kaczmarska Executive Officer (to April 2007)Dr. Michael Sparrow Executive Officer (from July 2007)Mrs Karen Smith Senior Clerk (to September 2007)Mrs Rosemary Nash Senior Clerk (from October 2007)5

Polar ResearchResearch Group StructureThe research work of the Institute continues to focus aroundits research groups, each of which has a mix of senioracademic staff, post-doctoral researchers and postgraduatestudents. During 2007, the Circumpolar History and PublicPolicy Group was established, reflecting our increasingactivity in the polar social sciences and humanities. The workof the groups is supported by a number of externally fundedresearch grants, which are listed below. In addition, theInstitute contributes to the NERC Centre for PolarObservation and Modelling (in collaboration with UCL andBristol University). The groups are:Institute staff organise seminar series in both polar physicalsciences and social science and humanities. Speakers fromuniversities and research centres in the UK and overseas,together with Cambridge colleagues, have contributedduring the year. The seminars are well attended by staff andresearch students from a number of Cambridgedepartments and from, for example, the British AntarcticSurvey. A selection of the physical and social scienceresearch projects in which we are currently engaged isoutlined briefly below.• Glaciology and Climate Change• Glacier-Influenced Marine Sedimentary Environments• Polar Landscapes and Remote Sensing• Polar Social Science and Humanities• Circumpolar History and Public PolicyPolar Physical ScienceIceberg calving flux and mass balance of Austfonna, Nordaustlandet, SvalbardSatellite radar interferometry, 60 MHz airborne icepenetratingradar data and visible-band satellite imagerywere used to calculate the velocity structure, ice thicknes,and changing ice-marginal extent of Austfonna, the largestice cap in the Eurasian Arctic at 8,120 km 2 . Most drainagebasins of Austfonna have undergone ice-marginal retreatover the past few decades at an average of a few tens ofmetres per year. Integrating margin change around thewhole ice cap gives a total area loss of about 10 km 2 yr -1 .When mass loss by iceberg production is taken into account,the total mass balance of Austfonna is negative, by betweenabout 2.5 and 4.5 km 3 yr -1 . The iceberg flux representsabout one third of total annual mass loss from Austfonna,with the remainder through surface ablation. Iceberg fluxshould be included in calculations of the total mass balanceof the many large Arctic ice caps, including those located inthe Russian and Canadian Arctic that end in tidewater. Theneglect of this term has led to underestimates of mass lossfrom these ice caps and, thus, to underestimates of thecontribution of Arctic ice caps to global sea-level rise.Julian Dowdeswell and Toby BenhamThe Isis Remotely Operated Vehicle being deployed in Antarctic waters6

SPRI staff making field measurements on an Icelandic glacierGeophysical investigations of a large subglacial palaeolake in the Canadian ArcticSubglacial lakes identified beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheetare one of Earth’s remaining unexplored environments. Akey to understanding the origin and longevity of subglaciallakes is contained in their sedimentary record. We haveexplored the nature of a sedimentary succession in a deeptectonic trough identified as the likely site of a formersubglacial lake. The trough is the 100-km-long and 620-mdeepChristie Bay, located in the eastern arm of the GreatSlave Lake, Canada. High-resolution seismic reflection dataand short sediment cores collected in the deep trough showa 150-m-thick sequence of fine-grained material separatingice-contact deposits from draped Holocene lake sediments.This sequence has been interpreted to comprise sedimentsthat accumulated in a subglacial lake that covered an arealarger than 130 km 2 . The inferred presence of a subglacialwater body is supported by results from hydrologicalmodelling of drainage pathways beneath the NorthAmerican Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum. Thegeophysical record from Christie Bay points towards theexistence of a dynamic subglacial lake environment wheresediments were delivered by discharge of meltwater from asubglacial water system. The project is a collaboration withUniversity of California, Santa Cruz, and the Large LakesObservatory, University of Minnesota, Duluth.Poul ChristoffersenThe tundra-taiga ecotoneSPRI Review 2006 described the international researchcollaboration ‘PPS Arctic’, a core activity of the InternationalPolar Year intended to develop an improved understanding ofthe transition zone between the boreal forest and the Arctictundra. PPS Arctic is jointly coordinated by the NorwegianInstitute for Nature Research (NINA) and by SPRI. During 2007,coordinating meetings were held in Tromsø and Cambridge,and an internationally agreed set of measurement protocolswas developed. Research activity took place across thecircumarctic region from Alaska eastwards to European Russia.In Europe, the main focus of field-based researchwas northernNorway and the Kola Peninsula (Russia). As part of this activity,SPRI contributed to the running of a pilot summer school heldin Kirovsk, in the Russian Arctic, to teach field-based andremote sensing methods of ecosystem assessment.Laboratory-based research included the development oftechniques for analysing airborne multispectral imagery andlaser profiler data from the forest edge, vegetation mappingat global scale using multitemporal satellite imagery and closerangephotogrammetric methods for measuring foreststructural parameters.Gareth Rees7

Understanding contemporary changes in the West Antarctic Ice SheetRecent satellite observations of the Antarctic Ice Sheet showdramatic changes over the last two decades. The firstoccurs near the coast of the Amundsen Sea where PineIsland Glacier appears to be thinning at a rate of severalmetres per year. A second change is found along the SipleCoast where one ice stream is thickening due to stagnationwhile others are slowing down. Contemporary change nearthe Amundsen Sea may be caused by warm coastal watersentering glacial troughs, leading to increased basal meltingand thinning through buoyancy. The contrasting behaviourof the Siple Coast ice streams is not caused by changes inthe oceans, as these glaciers are protected by the Ross IceShelf, which covers an area of approximately 400,000 km 2 .Contemporary change in this region is more likely linked tointernal variability related to the basal thermal regime andits influence on the mechanical properties of subglacialsediments. The aim of this project is to determine the causeand consequences of contemporary change in differentparts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. We are developing anumerical ice-flow model for the West Antarctic Ice Sheetand its ice streams. The model will feature accuratepredictive ability for simulation of the 21st century whencoupled to an Earth-system model. The study will make useof a wide range of observations including satellite remoteimaging, airborne surveys and ground-based fieldcampaigns. It links expertise in subglacial processes andice-stream dynamics (Scott Polar Research Institute), largescalenumerical modelling (University of Bristol) and dataassimilation techniques (University of Durham). The projectis funded by grants from the Natural EnvironmentalResearch Council.Marion Bougamont and Poul ChristoffersenGeometry and mass balance of Langjökull, IcelandCurrently, about 11% (11 200km 2 ) of Iceland is covered byice. Most is contained within extensive plateau ice caps. Themaritime climate means these ice caps receive up to 4 m yr -1of water-equivalent of snowfall in their accumulation zonesand lose about 10 m yr -1 of ice in their smaller ablationareas. This, together with the fact they are temperate,means they are dynamically responsive to small climaticallyinduced mass-balance changes. Langjökull (925 km 2 ) is thesecond largest ice cap in Iceland and has surface massbalance measurements extending back to 1996. Tocomplement these mass balance measurements, we arecurrently analysing patterns of surface elevation changeacross the ice cap. We are using three main data sets: linesof GPS point measurements and a 100 m resolution DEMderived from them for the entire ice cap for 1995; airbornephotogrammetrically-derived point measurements and a25m resolution DEM derived from them for the southernoutlet glacier, Hagafellsjökull Vestari; and airborne LiDARderivedpoint measurements and a 25 m resolution DEMderived from them for the entire ice cap for 2007.Preliminary results suggest that there are marked spatialvariations in elevation changes across the ice cap, reflectingspatial variations in surface mass balance, moderated bychanges in ice dynamics. In particular, much of theelevation change observed in the south of the ice cap isassociated with the surge of Hagafellsjökull Eystri in 1998/9and, to a lesser extent, the Hagafellsjökull Vestari surge of1979/80. Our work is being done in collaboration withRichard Hodgkins (Loughborough University), Adrian Fox(British Antarctic Survey), and Helgi Björnsson and SverrirGuðmundsson (University of Iceland).Ian Willis, Neil Arnold and Gareth ReesModelling the mass balance of Svalbard glaciersThe Arctic climate is currently warming at a faster rate thanobserved elsewhere on Earth and future projections suggestthis trend will continue well into the 21st century. Withglaciers and ice caps covering ~36,600 km 2 , Svalbard is oneof the largest glaciated areas in the Arctic. Future climatechange will significantly alter the mass balance of glaciersand ice caps across the archipelago with importantconsequences for sea level. We are currently developing anumerical mass balance model, which will be used tocalculate the spatial and temporal variations in massbalance of the archipelago’s ice masses. It is currently beingtrained and validated for the glacier Midre Lovénbreen, NWSpitsbergen where we have been working for the last fewyears. The model uses air temperature and precipitation tocalculate patterns of accumulation, and an energy balanceapproach to determine surface melt variations. Recentimprovements to the model include a subsurface routine todeal with the processes of conduction and melt waterrefreezing within the snowpack. We have run the model forthe year 2000 using statistically downscaled ERA-40reanalysis data. The downscaled reanalysis data matchmeasured surface meteorological data very well, and thecomplete mass balance model reproduces the measuredsurface mass balance patterns exceptionally well. The workis being carried out together with SPRI PhD student,Cameron Rye.Ian Willis and Neil Arnold8

CryosatSPRI staff continued to participate in international campaignsto validate data collected by a new radar altimeter (SIRAL) tobe carried by the Cryosat satellite. In Spring 2007, a twopersonteam from SPRI joined Norwegian and Swedishglaciologists on the Austfonna Ice Cap, Nordaustlandet ineastern Svalbard. Measurements of snow density profiles weremade using an automated neutron profiling system andcompared with radar returns from a very high bandwidth(VHB) ground–based radar and the airborne ASIRAS radaraltimeter, both of which operate at the same band-width asSIRAL. These measurements have extended the Cryosat prelaunchvalidation studies to an area of high melt rates andformation of thick ice layers within the firn. The snow densityprofiles were also used to help interpretation of the results ofan 800 MHz Ground Penetrating Radar survey and map recentfluctuations in the firn area of Austfonna. During the year,preparations also began for a traverse of the North GreenlandIce Sheet to extend pre-launch validation activities to a regionof the dry snow zone where the correlation coefficient ofheight change versus power change in the ENVISAT altimeterdata is high. Density data collected along the traverse will assistin the analysis of this phenomenon.This will be the last of thepre-launch activities, as Cryosat is due to be launched in 2009.Liz MorrisA major submarine fan in the Bellingshausen Sea, West AntarcticaA 330-km length of the little known continental shelf edgeand slope of the Bellingshausen Sea, West Antarctica, wasinvestigated using multibeam swath-bathymetric and subbottomprofiler evidence. When full-glacial ice advancedacross the Antarctic continental shelf to reach the shelfedge, it was partitioned into fast- and slow-flowingelements, with an ice stream filling the trough. This hadimportant consequences for the nature and rate ofsediment delivery to the adjacent continental slope. OffBelgica Trough, the upper continental slope has convexoutwardcontours indicating a major sedimentary fan.Acoustic profiles and cores from the area show that the fanis built from a series of glacigenic debris flows, whosesediment was delivered from a former ice stream that filledthe trough under full-glacial conditions. Othermorphological features on the Bellingshausen Sea slope aregully systems and channels. The channels provide pathwaysfor sediment by-passing of the upper slope and transfer tothe deep ocean. Belgica Fan is about 20,000 km 2 in areaand about 60,000 km 3 in volume. It is the largestsubmarine fan on the continental margin of the WestAntarctic Ice Sheet, fed by an interior ice-sheet basin ofapproximately 200,000 km 2 . This work was undertaken incollaboration with staff at the British Antarctic Survey andDurham University.Julian Dowdeswell, Riko Noormets and Jeff EvansAssessing the role of subglacial hydrology in the flow of West Antarctic ice streams: anumerical modelling approachThe West Antarctic ice sheet is a marine ice sheet with abed that lies largely below sea level. It is potentiallyunstable, and there is a possibility that ice from the interiorof the ice sheet may suddenly discharge to the oceanleading to rises in global sea level. Most of the present icedischarge occurs in fast moving ice streams. Anunderstanding of the dynamics of these ice streams iscrucial if we are to predict the future evolution of the icesheet and its effect on global sea level. The most studied icestreams in West Antarctica are those located along the SipleCoast, comprising six major ice streams separated by aseries of ice ridges. These ice streams exhibit a century-scalevariability in ice discharge and flow direction, that has astrong control on the mass balance of the West Antarcticice sheet. Our modelling initiative is motivated by newfindings showing rapid movement of water stored in lakesbeneath the Siple Coast ice streams. To ascertain the rolethat changes in subglacial hydrology and water storage playon the flow of Antarctic ice streams, we intend to couple asubglacial hydrological model with an existing ice streammodel. The coupled model will be applied to the stagnantIce Stream C and the fast flowing Ice Stream B.Observations show that the subglacial hydrological systembeneath these glaciers may exert an important control ontheir motion. Water is observed to accumulate behind thetrunk of Ice Stream C, which stopped approximately 150years ago, causing an ice bulge to advance progressivelydownglacier. Subglacial water beneath Ice Stream B, whichis currently slowing down, is discharging into the Ross Seain characteristic discharge events. The temporal character ofthe subglacial hydrological system, which appear to controlice stream shutdown and reactivation, may thus be a crucialfactor when assessing the future contribution to sea levelrise from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work is beingcarried out together with SPRI Ph.D. student, Narelle Baker.Neil Arnold and Poul Christoffersen9

Polar Social Science and HumanitiesThe governance of scientific research stations in the Polar regionsThe impact of the advent of research stations in the fieldsciences in the second half of the nineteenth century hasbeen compared to the laboratory revolution in the sameperiod. Permanent field stations enabled new kinds ofscientific studies requiring specialised instruments andfacilities to take place away from metropolitan centres ofresearch. These stations fundamentally challenged previousassumptions about the limits to precision in scientificfieldwork, leading to the introduction of new researchtechniques, longer studies, and the adoption of newstandards of evidence. They also served as geopoliticalmarkers of state presence in what were often traditionalindigenous homelands. Research stations, like trading postsbefore them, were sites of exchange of knowledge betweenstates, scientists, and northern peoples. In recent decades,field stations have continued to play an important symbolicrole in questions of national identity, presence, andsovereignty, as well as serving as vehicles for brokeringinternational collaboration. As part of an AHRC fundedresearch project on science and governance, detailedresearch into the management and record-keeping practicesof field stations in Northern Canada was carried out.Processes of political devolution were found to haveimpacted upon on questions of funding and resourceallocation. Research included extensive semi-structuredinterviews with station managers as well as extensiveanalysis of the station’s management and project records.Thanks to an AHRC Research Leave award, Bravo was ableto devote additional time to writing up this research forpublication. The history of field stations is an ongoingInternational Polar Year project with members from sevencountries, coordinated by Bravo. In May 2007, the Institutehosted a two-day discussion of pre-circulated papersfollowing on from the successful workshop in January 2006.Michael BravoEnabling diversity: extending museums collections with Arctic communitiesHow can Arctic collections in museums become moremeaningful to people who actually live in the Arctic? Dr.Michael Bravo and Dr. Robin Boast believe that the idea ofonline ‘access’ needs to be explored more creatively.Normally access is understood to mean viewing objects andtheir simple descriptions over the internet. The website atthe Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropologyis an excellent example (http://museumserver.archanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/).Expert communitieswho know most about the objects – like Inuit residents ofthe Arctic – are able to add information and develophistorical narratives. Technically, the contribution ofnorthern experts is limited only by the consent of thosewanting to add data to the collection, and the ability of theinstitution to respond by building these networks: the rangeof northern voices contributing to the collections becomestheoretically limitless. By enabling diverse user communitiesto engage directly with collections, this project will broadenthe information base, both its extent and expertise, directlyin collaboration with individuals and communities. Creatingthis kind of access requires what developers call ‘on-linesocial computing (Web 2.0) systems’. This means makingthe process of access to the collections more meaningful toall users, not just those who like computers. Havingdeveloped some prototype software, Boast and Bravointend to work with people in Clyde River, Nunavut inNorthern Canada to trial a system for their museumcollections. To achieve this, the museums will invite the usercommunities to decide what descriptions best suit theobjects in the collections. The radical solution proposedhere is to vastly extend access and use to the communitiesthemselves. The project has so far made available, on-line,the documents, photographs and objects from the GrahamW. Rowley, Thomas T. Patterson, Thomas Henry Manningand Sir James Wordie collections, thanks to a grant of£97,180 from the Designated Challenge Fund of theMuseums Libraries and Archives Council.Michael Bravo10

Polar Bear female and cubs on sea ice in NE GreenlandPower, knowledge and the state in North NorwayAn ethnographic study of the modernisation of indigenousSámi reindeer pastoralism in northern Norway, based on 15months’ fieldwork, examined the role of the state, thesocial effects of industrialisation, the politics of animalwelfare and the history of scientific interventions intoherding practice. Research focused specifically on theneglected study of reindeer killing and slaughter,demonstrating that in recent decades, human powersvested in the conduct of reindeer slaughter have createdentirely new conditions for practice, placing the identities ofreindeer and herders at stake in ways that are still onlybeginning to be conceptualised. The research seeks tobroaden existing debates concerning pastoralmodernisation, both in the Arctic and worldwide.Traditional Sámi reindeer slaughter is a routine and visibleeveryday practice, conducted by all members of thecommunity. In recent decades, industrialisation hasincreasingly shifted this slaughter into the closed space ofthe modern slaughterhouse, within which the moment ofdeath is reconstituted as a domain of unseen experts,operating behind closed doors. By drawing out the parallelswith the religious sacrifice of animals, as well as withGiorgio Agamben’s ‘bare life’ in concentration camps, thetransformation of slaughter was analysed as a juncturebetween individual acts of embodied killing and a broadersacrificial economy of biopolitics that regulates thedestruction of life at aggregate or populational levels.Hugo Reinert and Piers Vitebsky11

Graveyard at Illulisat, West GreenlandChildren’s views of their own future in northeastern SiberiaA twelve-month fieldwork study examined children’s ideasabout their own future among the Eveny, a smallindigenous group of nomadic reindeer herders in northeastSiberia. A detailed examination of the narratives of childrenand adolescents explored how local social practices andideologies shaped their constructs of time, space, agencyand personhood. Analysis of narrated and written future‘autobiographies’ revealed significant differences insocialisation between children reared in two distinct butinter-related cosmological and social spaces: the forest, azone of traditional habitation; and the village, createdrecently by the Soviet regime. Each space is associated withthe formation of a different kind of person andconsequently with a different life trajectory. Forest childrenshow a particular construct of time and space, which isgrounded in indigenous practices of sharing and in whichthe child’s developing personhood is likened to that of areindeer calf. The village life trajectory, by contrast, moredirectly affects the community’s despair, alcoholism andcollapse of infrastructure and social welfare (the studyvillage is considered particularly accursed, since it is built onthe site of a former GULAG camp and is said to be hauntedby the ghosts of the camp’s Russian victims). In both sites,children’s stories about their own future reveal theirresponse to the present as they take their parents’ lives as atemplate, but reverse their parents’ widespread alcoholism,poverty and broken families. Research reveals two distinctconstructs of agency: the village child imagines leaving tosettle in the city, while the forest child imagines bringingthe fruits of city education back to their family of origin,corresponding to a difference between the shapes ofhistorical (linear) and nomadic (cyclical) time. Both kinds ofagency transform children’s autobiographical narratives intoan improvised, cosmologically sanctioned genre of prayer.While village children’s vision follows a modernist ideal ofurbanisation and advancement, the forest children’sscenario follows indigenous formats of the redemptiveabsence and return of the epic hero or shaman.Olga Ulturgasheva and Piers Vitebsky12

Current Research GrantsInstitute staff hold competitively won grants of over £ 2.2 million, about £1.5 million of which is from the UKResearch Councils (NERC and AHRC).Grants from UK Research CouncilsMarine geological processes and sediments beneath floating ice shelvesin Greenland and Antarctica: investigations using the Autosub AUVSource: Natural Environment Research Council, GrantNER/T/S/2000/00986£369,062 (2001–2007)Glacial-interglacial changes in the lost drainage basin of the WestAntarcticSource: Natural Environment Research Council, GrantNER/G/S/2002/00192£84,932 (2004–2007)Slope stability on Europe’s passive continental marginsSource: Natural Environment Research Council, Ocean Margins LinkProgramme, Grant NER/T/S/2003/00318£125,210 (2004-2007)Sediment transfer from the Antarctic continent to deep ocean: ashelf-slope-basin system investigated using the ISIS RemotelyOperated VehicleSource: Natural Environment Research Council, GrantNE/C506372/1£143,632 (2004-2008)Validation and provision of CryoSat measurements of fluctuationsin the Earth’s land and marine ice fluxesSource: Natural Environment Research Council£319,635 (2004-2009)Marine geophysical and geological investigations of past flow andstability of a major Greenland ice stream in the late QuaternarySource: National Environment Research Council, Grant NE/D001986/1£217,341 (2006-2010)Mass Balance of Langjokull, IcelandSource: NERC Airborne Remote Sensing Facility (ARSF) Project,Award No. IPY07/08.£26,950 (equivalent funding)Understanding contemporary changes in the Antarctic Ice SheetSource: Natural Environment Research Council, Grant NE/E005950/1£165,878 (2007-2010)The Life of Field Stations. A History of community participation inscientific practice at the Igloolik Laboratory (1974-2004)Source: Arts and Humanities Research Council, Grant AH/E001106/1£20,075 (2007)Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Workshops (Museumsand Galleries) Scheme: The Material Culture of Polar ExplorationSource: Arts and Humanities Research Council, Grant AH/E500366/1£14,849 (2006-2007)The UK’s polar art heritage: enhancing documentation and accessto the collections at the Scott Polar InstituteSource: Arts and Humanities Research Council, Grant MG10134£43,618 (2007-2008)Grants from Other SourcesPolar Field Stations and IPY History. Culture, Heritage, PresentGovernance 1882 - PresentSource: Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, Grant F2005-1364:1E£14,173 (2006-2007)Canadian Studies Interdisciplinary Research ProjectSource: Foundation for Canadian Studies£10,500 (2006-2007)Potential threats to the future of Inuit Beluga Whale hunting inCanadian ArcticSource: British Academy, Grant BAPDF0508£67,929 (2006-2008)Polar bears for sport; a critical analysis of the social and economicbenefits and costs of conservation (Trophy) hunting in the CanadianArcticSource: British Academy Small Grant SG-46137£3,560 (2007)Interferometric evaluation of glacier rheology and changeSource: European Union, Framework 6, Grant SST3-CT-2003-502845£91,604 (2004-2007)Management of Bar-coding data for the identification of Antarcticmarine animals from genetic (DNA)Source: Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research CAML BarcodingProject£45,578 (2007-2010)HLF Stage 1 Museum Grant: Promoting Britain’s Polar Heritage:Developing the Scott Polar Research Institute MuseumSource: Heritage Lottery Fund HG-06-01385/1£50,000 (2007-2008)Discovering the Poles: Historic Polar Images 1845-1960 (Freeze FrameProject)Source: Joint Information Systems Committee Capital Programme:Digitisation.£422,070 (2007-2009)BOREAS Inaugural MeetingSource: European Science Foundation, Grant 06/99/MvD£66,231 (2006-2007)13

Publications by Institute StaffBooksHambrey, M.J., Christoffersen, P., Glasser, N.F. and Hubbard, B.,(Editors), 2007. Glacial Sedimentation Processes and Products.International Association of Sedimentologists, Special PublicationNo. 39, 416 pp.Riffenburgh, B., (Editor), 2007. Encyclopedia of the Antarctic.New York: Routledge. 2 volumes, 1146 pp.Snyder, J.M. and Stonehouse, B., (Editors), 2007. Prospects forPolar Tourism. Wallingford: CAB International, 336 pp.Papers*Bravo, M.T., 2006. Science for the People: Northern Field Stationsand Governmentality. British Journal for Canadian Studies, v. 19, p.8-102.Bravo, M.T., 2006. Against Determinism: A Reassessment ofMarcel Mauss’ Essay on ‘Seasonal Variations’. Inuit Studies, v. 30, p.33-49.Bravo, M.T., 2007. How central is imagination to ourunderstanding of climate change? Nature Reports on ClimateChange, v. 2, p. 27-28.Bougamont, M., Bamber, J.L., Ridley, J.K., Gladstone, R.M.,Greuell, W., Hanna, E., Payne, R.J. and Rutt, I., 2007. Impact ofmodel physics on estimating the surface mass balance of theGreenland Ice Sheet. Geophysical Research Letters, v. 34, L17501,doi:10.1029/2007GL030700.Bougamont, M., Hunke, E.C. and Tulaczyk, S., 2007 Sensitivity ofocean circulation to loss of West Antarctic ice shelves and ice sheet.Journal of Glaciology, v. 53, p. 490-498Christoffersen, P., Tulaczyk, S., Carsey, F. and Behar, A., 2006.Reply to comment by A.W. Rempel et al. on “A quantitativeframework for interpretation of basal ice facies formed by iceaccretion over subglacial sediment”. Journal of GeophysicalResearch, v. 112, F02037, doi:10.1029/2005JF000732.Christoffersen, P. and the Lake Ellsworth Consortium, 2007.Exploration of Ellsworth Subglacial Lake: a concept paper on thedevelopment, organisation and execution of an experiment toexplore, measure and sample the environment of a West Antarcticsubglacial lake. Reviews in Environmental Science andBiotechnology, v. 6, p. 161-179.Dowdeswell, J.A. and Bamber, J.L., 2007. Keel depths of modernAntarctic icebergs and implications for sea-floor scouring in thegeological record. Marine Geology, v. 243, p. 120-131.Dowdeswell, J.A., Ottesen, D., Rise, L. and Craig, J., 2007.Identification and preservation of landforms diagnostic of past icesheetactivity on continental shelves from three-dimensional seismicevidence. Geology, v. 35, p. 359-362.Dowdeswell, E.K., Dowdeswell, J.A. and Calkwell, F., 2007. Onthe glaciers of Bylot Island, Nunavut, Arctic Canada. Arctic,Antarctic and Alpine Research, v. 39, p. 402-411.Lane, H., 2007. The Polar information landscape. Focus onInternational Library and Information Work, v. 38, p. 5-12Mair, D., Hubbard, B., Nienow, P., Willis, I. and Fischer, U.H., 2007.Diurnal fluctuations in glacier ice deformation: Haut Glacierd’Arolla, Switzerland. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, doi:10.1002/esp.1612.McMillan, M., Nienow, P., Shepherd, A., Benham, T. and Sole, A.,2007. Seasonal evolution of supra-glacial lakes on the GreenlandIce Sheet. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 262, p. 484-492.Ó Cofaigh, C., Evans, J., Dowdeswell, J.A. and Larter, R.D.,2007. Till characteristics, genesis and transport beneath Antarcticpaleo-ice streams. Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 112, F03006,doi:101029/2006JF000606.Ottesen, D., Dowdeswell, J.A., Landvik, J.Y. and Mienert, J.,2007. Dynamics of the Late Weichselian ice sheet on Svalbardinferred from high-resolution sea-floor morphology. Boreas, v. 36,p. 286-306.Rees, W.G., 2007, Characterisation of Arctic treelines by LiDARand multispectral imagery. Polar Record, v. 43, p. 345-352.Rees, W.G. and Arnold, N.S., 2007. Mass balance and dynamicsof a valley glacier measured by high-resolution LiDAR. Polar Record,v. 43, p. 311-319.Rees, W.G. and Danks, F.S., 2007. Derivation and assessment ofvegetation maps for reindeer pasture analysis in Arctic EuropeanRussia. Polar Record, v. 43, p. 290-304.Rickaby, R.E.M., Bard, E., Sonzogni, C., Rostek, F., Beaufort, L.,Barker, S., Rees, G. and Schrag, D.P., 2007. Coccolith chemistryreveals secular variations in the global ocean carbon cycle? Earthand Planetary Science Letters, v. 253, p. 83-95.Rivera, A., Benham, T.J., Casassa, G., Bamber, J.L. andDowdeswell, J.A., 2007. Ice elevation and areal changes of glaciersfrom the Northern Patagonia Icefield, Chile. Global and PlanetaryChange, v. 59, p. 126-137.Shepherd, A., Du, Z., Benham, T.J., Dowdeswell, J.A. andMorris, E.M., 2007. Mass balance of Devon Ice Cap, ArcticCanada. Annals of Glaciology, v. 46, p. 249-254.Stone, I.R. and Derocher, A.E., 2007. An incident of polar bearinfanticide and cannibalism on Phippsøya, Svalbard. Polar Record, v.43, p. 171-173.Summerhayes, C.P., 2007. Hitler’s Antarctic Base: the Myth andthe Reality. Polar Record, v. 43, p. 1-21.Summerhayes, C.P., 2007. Global warming - debunking somemyths. Marine Scientist, v. 21, p. 20-2414

Tammiksaar, E. and Stone, I.R., 2007. Alexander von Middendorffand his expedition to Siberia (1842-1845). Polar Record, v. 43, p.193-216.Tyrrell, M., 2007. Sentient beings and wildlife resources: Inuit,beluga whales and management regimes in the Canadian Arctic.Human Ecology, v. 35, p. 575-586.Walker, D.P., Brandon, M.A., Jenkins, A., Allen, J.T., Dowdeswell,J.A. and Evans, J., 2007. Oceanic heat transport onto theAmundsen Sea shelf through a submarine glacial trough.Geophysical Research Letters, v. 34, L02602, doi:10.1029/2006GL028154.Chapters in Books and Other ContributionsBoast, R., Bravo, M.T. and Srinivasan, R., 2007. Return to Babel:Emergent diversity, digital resources, and local knowledge. TheInformation Society Journal, v. 23.http://www.indiana.edu/~tisj/23/index.html#4).Ferrigno, J.G., Foley, K.M., Swithinbank, C. and Williams, R.S., Jr.,2007. Coastal-change and glaciological map of the northern RossIce Shelf area, Antarctica—1962–2004. U.S. Geological SurveyGeologic Investigations Series Map I–2600–H, 1 map sheet, 11 p.Flora, J., 2007. Tilknytning og selvstændighed: unges fravalg afuddannelse. In Kahlig, W. and Banerjee, N., (Eds.), Børn og unge iGrønland: en antologi. Nuuk: MIPI, Ilisimatusarfik and MilikPublishing, p. 148-162.Lewis-Jones, H., 2007. Tar triumphant; or, Thomas Potter Cookeand nautical melodrama. The Trafalgar Chronicle, v. 17, p. 118-145.Lewis-Jones, H., 2007. Trafalgar old boys: a graphic portrait. TheTrafalgar Chronicle, v. 17, p. 182-192.Stonehouse, B. and Crosbie, K., 2007. Antarctic tourism research:the first half-century. In Snyder, J.M. and Stonehouse, B., (Eds.),Prospects for Polar Tourism, p. 210-28.Summerhayes, C.P., 2007. Global Warming: a Basic Primer.Geoscientist, v. 17, p. 22-23.Ulturgasheva, O., Brightman, M. and Grotti, V., 2007.Introduction: Re-thinking the ‘frontier’ in Amazonia and Siberia:extractive economies, indigenous politics and socialtransformations. Cambridge Anthropology, v. 26, p. 1-12.Ulturgasheva, O. and Willerslev, R., 2007. The Sable Frontier: TheSiberian fur trade as Montage. Cambridge Anthropology, v. 26, p.79-100.Vallikivi, L., 2007. Die Christianisierung der Nenzen. In Stolberg E.-M., (ed), Sibirische Völker: Transkulturelle Beziehungen undIdentitäten in Nordasien, Periplus. Jahrbuch für aussereuropäischeGeschichte, v. 17, p. 81–103. Münster: Lit Verlag.Stonehouse, B. and Snyder, J.M., 2007. Polar tourism in changingenvironments. In Snyder, J.M. and Stonehouse, B., (Eds.), Prospectsfor Polar Tourism, p. 32-48.Student Doctoral and Masters ThesesDanks, F.S., Ph.D. A multi-scaled approach to vegetation andlandscape assessment in the Barents region: reindeer habitat in aclimate of change.Fox, A., Ph.D. Photogrammetric techniques for measuring changein glaciated regions.Lewis-Jones, H., Ph.D. The invisible throne: the Royal Navy, polarexploration, and imagining heroes in the 19th Century.Lunday, T., M. Phil. Glacier change and behaviour: hazardouslyerratic, climatically regular. Eastern Central Causasus Mountains,Russia, 1971-1999.O’Leary, M., M. Phil. Small-scale variations in glacier albedo.Reinert, H., Ph.D. The corral and the slaughterhouse: knowledge,tradition and the modernization of indigenous reindeerslaughtering practice in the Norwegian Arctic.Rimmer, C., M. Phil. Development, testing and application of aone-dimensional mass balance-flow model to Midre Lovénbreen,Svalbard.Zorbas K., Ph.D. Agents of evil: curse accusations and shamanicretaliation in post-Soviet Tuva (Siberia).15

Polar Information and Historic ArchivesLibrary and Information ServiceThe library continues to provide a service to members of theUniversity, and to national and international scholars,receiving over 600 visits from external readers. Electronicrequests for information on the polar regions fromenquirers around the world accounted for over 60% of theenquiry work undertaken. Undergraduate use of the libraryalso continued to rise. Library staff cooperated for thesecond year running in a joint user education scheme withthe Earth Sciences and Geography Libraries to providetraining for new postgraduate students in the use ofelectronic resources. During 2007, the Library also playedhost to visitors from Cambridge in America, as well asproviding tours during the Alumni Weekend.A total of 1621 monographic items and issues for 577periodical titles were added to the library during the year.The sections of the library catalogue accessible via the webas SPRILIB (Antarctica, Ice and Snow and Russian North)were also updated to include material published up to theend of 2006. Publication of Polar and GlaciologicalAbstracts was undertaken in-house for the first time, andthree issues were produced during the year. Records wereagain sent for two updates of the Arctic and AntarcticRegions CD-ROM published by the National InformationServices Corporation (NISC). Working in co-operation withthe World Data Centre for Glaciology, records of itemsrelating to the current International Polar Year weresubmitted quarterly to the IPY Publications Database,http://www.nisc.com/ipy, also hosted by NISC. Inputcontinued to the Antarctic Bibliography, searchable free ofcharge at www.coldregions.org/dbtw-wpd/antinfo.htm.One notable acquisition during the year was the additionto the Special Collections of a fine association copy ofCaptain Scott’s “The Voyage of the Discovery.” This twovolume first edition was the presentation copy from theauthor to Petty Officer Edgar Evans. It was acquired atauction with generous assistance from Mr Wilf White andthe Friends of SPRI.With funding provided by the Gladys Krieble DelmasFoundation, Library staff were able to undertake the firstphase of a scoping study for the Library’s planned DataMigration Project. Our aim in undertaking the study was tounderstand the scale of the problem presented by the useof the existing library management system; to identify whatwould be required to upgrade the existing information heldwithin the local database to meet the required internationalstandards, and to examine the difficulties inherent inmigration, without the need for human editing of everyrecord, to a format which is more generally accessible toother systems.In an initiative coordinated by Isabella Warren, and fundedby the Friends of SPRI, the Library’s oral history and soundrecordings collection was transferred to digital media. Workprogressed in updating a database of holdings, with theintention of depositing the files into the University’s digitalrepository, DSpace@Cambridge. We intend to make thiscollection of historic recordings accessible via the web inthe near future.Library staff also play an important role in widerdevelopments, both in the university and beyond. TheLibrarian continued to be involved in discussions on thedevelopment of the International Polar Year Data Policy andthe work of the IPY Education, Outreach andCommunication subcommittee, contributing to the design ofthe IPY web site www.ipy.org. She was Chair-Elect of thePolar Libraries Colloquy and guest speaker at a CambridgeSociety meeting in May and the Polar Archives Symposiumat the British Library in November. In addition, Mrs Lanecontinued to chair the Cambridge University BibliographicStandards Working Party and continued as the School’srepresentative on the General Board Committee on Libraries.She attended two meetings of the International Society forKnowledge Organisation and the JISC national conference,as well as the Digital Preservation Coalition JPEG2000workshop at the British Library. She also acted as an externalexaminer for the School of Library, Archive and InformationStudies at University College London. Library, Archives andPicture Library staff were pleased to be invited to tour theRoyal Collections at Windsor Castle in November.Volunteers play an important role in researching andmaintaining the Library’s collections. Percy Hammond andJean Cruttwell continued work on the map catalogue andupdating the Access database. John Pearce, a member ofthe Friends, volunteered a week of his time to assist with acataloguing project. Ailsa MacQueen, John Reid, MariaShorthouse and Jonathan Pinhey all provided time andexpertise on a variety of projects during the year. TheLibrary would like to acknowledge all the assistance givenby the volunteers, whose efforts are greatly appreciated.In addition to research grants received for specific projects,the Institute received, during the financial year, sums for thegeneral support of information and library services. Wethank the following supporting bodies:Ministry of Defence grant in aid (DSNOM) £35,000Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation £12,640Royal Society grant in aid (for WDC-C) £11,000Foreign and Commonwealth Office(Polar Regions Unit) £5,00016

An Inuit model kayak and accessories from the Institute's collectionDuring the year the Library also hosted a number ofscholars visiting the Institute for extended periods,including: Prof. Paul Berkman (University of California,Santa Barbara, USA); Professor Bjørn Basberg (NorwegianSchool of Economics and Business Administration);Professor Petri Pellikka (University of Helsinki, Finland); DrPeter Dann (Melbourne University, Australia); JenniferNewton (University of Alaska, Fairbanks); Dr Bruce Minore(Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, ThunderBay, Ontario); Prof. Larry Rockhill (University of Alaska,Fairbanks).Heather LaneWorld Data Centre (WDC) for Glaciology, CambridgeThe WDC is responsible for acquiring and cataloguingglaciological material for the Scott Polar Research InstituteLibrary. In addition, the manager compiles, edits andproduces Polar and Glaciological Abstracts, and maintainsthe SPRI bibliographic database and associated software.WDC also aims to satisfy, either directly or by referral,requests for glaciological information from academic andmedia researchers and the general public.Fully abstracted and indexed records for 53 monographsand 520 articles of glaciological interest acquired by theSPRI library were added during 2007 to the in-housedatabase SPRILIB, which now contains over 179,000 entries.Three issues of Polar and Glaciological Abstracts wereproduced during 2007. Publication is now entirely in-house.Updates were supplied to the quarterly CD-ROM and onlinedatabase Arctic and Antarctic Regions (published by NISC).WDC also manages the SPRI contribution to a new NISCdatabase dedicated to the International Polar Year 2007-08,freely-available at www.nisc.com/ipy .Relevant SPRILIB records continue to be made available freely(approximately eight months after appearing in Polar andGlaciological Abstracts) via the online database SPRILIB ICEAND SNOW. With over 50,000 entries, the resource receivesaround 17,000 requests annually. The site received hits fromover 100 countries in 2007. The Directory of EuropeanGlaciology - http://wdcgc.spri.cam.ac.uk/directory/ - has beenmaintained and continues to be well used, receiving manythousands of hits from over 50 countries in the past year.Upgrading of the in-house database software continues,with the immediate aims of improving the quality ofinformation held in the database and the productivity ofthose contributing to or interrogating it. A strategydocument has been written examining options for replacingthe current Muscat system.Rick Frolich17

Picture LibraryThe Picture Library continues to assist many British andinternational visitors and enquirers with their research ofphotographic material for use in a variety of publications,television programmes, and museum exhibitions.Photographic material has been supplied for exhibitions atthe National Museums of Scotland, the Sydney SymphonyOrchestra in Australia, and the County Museum in Dundalk,Ireland, St John’s College, Cambridge and Relais D’Sciences,Caen, France. Images were also supplied to Tiger AspectProductions for their film ‘The Worst Journey in the World’.Part of the Institute’s exhibition of Herbert Ponting’sphotographs of Scott’s last expedition was also shown atBonham’s auction house during the summer.The Picture Library acquired, by purchase from Christie’s,ninety-three prints from the relief voyages of SS Morning.These photographs are of importance to our collection asthey complement other material from the British NationalAntarctic Expedition, 1901-04. This purchase was enabledby generous support of the Friends of SPRI and the UKAntarctic Heritage Trust. A large collection of photographsfrom Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s Transglobe expedition was alsomade available for digitisation. These photographs make anextremely welcome addition to the collection and willgreatly enhance our holdings for late twentieth centurypolar expeditions.A digitisation programme enabled by funding from the JISCFreeze Frame project is currently underway. Significantnumbers of negatives, lantern slides and transparencieshave been scanned, including all the negatives from theBritish Arctic Air Route Expedition, 1930-31, thetransparencies acquired from Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and thelantern slides from the Nares Arctic Expedition, 1875-76.The preventive conservation programme continues with theboxing of five more albums in the collection. Purpose-builtboxes were constructed by a conservator for the Louise A.Boyd Expedition to East Greenland, 1931, British EastGreenland Expedition, 1932-33, Cambridge VatnajökullExpedition, 1932, and the Cambridge UniversitySpitsbergen Expedition, 1932 (two volumes). The AugustineCourtauld Trust and the Friends of SPRI kindly provided thefunds. The Picture Library would like to acknowledge theinvaluable help given by the team of volunteers – AngelaHaines, Jennifer Hirsh and Winifred Ware.Lucy MartinThomas H. Manning Polar ArchivesRequests for access to the archives continue to grow, with aseries of national and international visitors. So, too, do thecollections. News of the Scott family’s generous gift of thefinal correspondence between Captain Scott and KathleenScott was released in January. Contained within the boundvolume was the last letter written by Captain Scott toKathleen, which was found with his body. There wasinternational press interest in these letters with BBC News24 running several stories throughout the day and ITVChannel 4 and Canadian TV sending reporters to theInstitute alongside those of many newspapers. Several othergifts relating to the Terra Nova expedition were receivedduring the year, including letters written by William Lashlyto his family, correspondence regarding the press contractsfor the expedition and copies of newspapers from the time.We are very grateful for these generous enhancements toour collections.In the polar sale at Christies in September, we purchasedthe logbooks kept by Captain Scott as a midshipman, whichalso reveal in a series of beautiful watercolours somethingof his artistic sensibility. In the same sale, we were alsosuccessful in acquiring a brief anonymous journal from acrewman on Nares’ British Arctic Expedition of 1875-1876.Support for these purchases from the Friends of SPRI andthe UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is gratefully acknowledged.Material from the Archive collections has been on publicdisplay in the Institute’s Museum and at Bonhams AuctionHouse in London. Items of scientific equipment and recordsrelating to SPRI’s part in the development of radio-echosounding of ice thickness were also lent for the SummerScience exhibition held at the Royal Society.Ongoing work to conserve the collections has progressedwell throughout the year and, through the generoussupport of the Friends, bespoke boxes have been purchasedfor several important expedition diaries. Archive volunteersDeirdre Hanna, Michael Laughton, John Reid and SallyStonehouse have been of great assistance in carrying out avariety of tasks relating to collection care.Naomi Boneham18

Freeze Frame: Discovering the PolesWith funding obtained through the Joint InformationSystems Committee (JISC) as part of their DigitisationProgramme, we have commenced work on digitising some20,000 images from the Institute’s historic photographiccollection. Frank Bowles and Jennifer Newbury began workin September 2007, providing high-quality digital imagesand related detailed catalogue entries which will be madeavailable a new microsite linked fromthe SPRI web pages to the wider world. The range ofsubjects represented in the project will cover the history ofBritish exploration and science in the Arctic and Antarcticduring the period 1845-1960, including portraiture,landscape, biota, shipping and aerial reconnaissance.Heather Lane and Julian DowdeswellPolar RecordFour issues of Polar Record were published by CambridgeUniversity Press during 2007. The journal continued as aninternationally- refereed journal of polar research for thesciences, social sciences and humanities. 25 articlesappeared in the year along with 15 notes, 37 book reviewsand 4 other contributions. A point of particular interest isthat the October issue presented articles arising from the9th Circumpolar Remote Sensing Symposium held inSeward, Alaska, in May 2006. The number of submissionsfor publication is increasing, no doubt partly because of thejournal’s ISI status, received in 2006. This status means thateach published paper is now included in the ScienceCitation Index.Ian StoneSPRI Website2007 was a year of incremental improvements to the SPRIwebsite. Many areas have been upgraded and new sectionsof the site have been added. The Picture Library section hasbeen one of a number that have been upgraded inpreparation for the launch of a comprehensive onlinecatalogue, combining previously separate image datasets. Alarger Events section includes more detailed informationabout the new range of exhibitions and other events takingplace at the Institute. Information on the research groupsand projects also continues to be developed. Usage of thesite continues to grow, with approximately double thenumber of hits received compared with 2004.Martin Lucas-SmithThe ice-choked Watlins Fjord in East Greenland

Some interesting items were acquired on loan during the year.These included a sledging box and expedition equipment usedby Sir Wally Herbert on his expedition to circumnavigateGreenland (British North-Polar Expedition, 1977-1979), lent byhis daughter Kari Herbert; a clock which belonged to Sir JohnFranklin, lent by Mr William Bensen; a framed colour print ofCaptain R.F. Scott from Ewan Odie; and the oil sketch for thewell-known painting of Captain Oates by J.G. Dollmann, onloan from the estate of the late Joan Spink, widow of DavidSpink and currently on display in the Museum.Loans were made to a number of institutions. A selection ofindigenous Arctic artefacts were lent to the International PolarFoundation, who have developed an exhibition which will bedisplayed in a number of European venues throughout theInternational Polar Year 2007-2008, shown inaugurally inBrussels in March 2007. The Royal Society invited theInstitute’s Museum and Archives to act as its partner in theirown displays for the Summer Science Exhibition, enabling usto showcase developments in polar technology and clothing.A pair of sealskin boots and stockings, donated by Sir WallyHerbert, was also used to illustrate the 2007 Royal InstitutionChristmas Lectures, Back from the brink: the science ofsurvival, given by Dr Hugh Montgomery.Rosalyn Wade, as Schools Liaison Officer, continued todevelop the Museum’s educational outreach programmes,alongside managing the Museum Shop. There were 54separate school visits during the year, with over 1400 pupils ofall ages visiting the Museum. A number of very successfulfamily orientated events were held, including craft andstorytelling sessions for younger children. Participation innational initiatives such as the Big Draw has helped to raiseawareness of the Museum locally. The activities in ScienceWeek attracted over 650 visitors, many of whom had notvisited the Museum previously. The Institute also participatedin the Twilight event, encouraging young visitors to explorethe collections by torchlight, and in the Summer Trail. Anumber of workshops on environmental change were held forolder pupils and proved very popular.Dr Huw Lewis-Jones joined the Museum staff in 2007 asCurator of Art, on a one year grant from the Arts andHumanities Research Council, to begin the process ofcataloguing and providing electronic access to the Institute’sworks of art. He has also been actively engaged in developingthe Museum’s programme of temporary art exhibitions.The Museum acknowledges the help given by its volunteers,who assist in many ways, from inventory to conservation. MrsJennifer Hirsh continued to advise as Honorary Curator andhas done a great deal to ensure the smooth transition to thelatest version of the Museum’s collection management system,Modes XML. Conservation efforts this year were carried outby Amber Lincoln, working on a range of leather objects forthe seasonality display, and by the Hamilton Kerr Institute,who cleaned and conserved the two large oil paintings by R.B.Beechey: ‘Antarctic Expedition: Gale in the Pack, January1842’ and ‘Escape from the Bergs, March 13th 1842’, nowredisplayed in the Friends Room.The Museum was notified of the success of its Stage 1 bid tothe Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in June, and this support hasfunded the planning phase of the redesign and redevelopmentof the galleries and stores, projected to be completed in 2010.Robert Smith was appointed in September as Museum ProjectManager, with the remit to develop the £1m HLF Stage 2 bidby June 2008. Institute staff began work on plans for highquality permanent displays on the science and history of thepolar regions, as well as reconstruction of the museum’s foyer,shop and storage areas. The Project Manager is assessing themuseum’s requirements for collections care and will deliver acomprehensive report on design and construction, budgets,timelines and recommendations on tendering and contractorrelationships, working in consultation with Institute staff tominimise disruption to museum operations. During 2007,much of the preparatory work was undertaken to ensure thatthe Stage 2 bid includes all the elements requested by the HLF,including detailed designs for the building work and for theexhibits and their interpretation.Heather LaneProjecting the Significance of the Polar RegionsInstitute staff have continued to work on the widerprojection of polar research in the Arctic and Antarcticthrough, for example, media work, public lectures and visitsby schools to our polar museum. Appearances were madeby staff on both radio and television, including BBC and ITVnews programmes. Views and quotations on polar topics,many of which include an emphasis on polar environmentalchange issues, have also appeared in broadsheetnewspapers and journals at home and abroad, includingThe Times, The Independent and the Sunday broadsheets.At the UK launch of the International Polar Year in theHouse of Commons Dining Room, the Director was one ofthree speakers, addressing MPs and guests on the topic ofice and environmental change. Several staff have givenexternal talks at primary and secondary schools, in additionto academic seminars at British and foreign universities. Ourregular series of Saturday evening Public Lectures, organizedby Celene Pickard, also attracts audiences of up to 100.Julian Dowdeswell21

Expedition Support: Gino WatkinsThe Gino Watkins Memorial Fund, under the jointtrusteeship of the University of Cambridge and the RoyalGeographical Society, provides grants towards expeditionsthat meet its objectives of guiding and inspiringenterprising people towards scientific research andexploration in the polar regions.The Committee of Managers of the Fund would like to thankthe Augustine Courtauld Trust for their generous contributionof £8,500. The members of the Committee who servedduring the year were Mr. D. Fordham (Chair), Dr. P. Adams,Dr. I. Campbell, Mr. R. Crabtree, Dr. L. Craig, Professor J.A.Dowdeswell, Dr. P.F. Friend, Professor M. Lea, Mr. J. Lowther,Mr. J. Muston, Professor R.C. Schroter, and Dr. M. Tinsley.The Committee made the following awards for 2007, fromthe Gino Watkins Fund and the Arctic Club:Gino Watkins Memorial FundArctic Voice Expedition £1,000West Lancashire Scouts East GreenlandExpedition 2007 – Renland £2,500Exercise Boreal Zenith £1,000Paddle to the Peaks GreenlandExpedition 2007 £1,500East Greenland 2007 *(Includes £750 Arctic Club Award) £1,7502007 Dronning Louise Land £1,000Scottish Mountaineering Club EastGreenland expedition 2007 £1,000Disko Island 2007 £1,500External Contributions to Polar ActivitiesNational and International Roles of StaffMembers of the Institute are active in many roles relating to national and international committees and advisory groupsinvolving the polar regions, and are members of the editorial boards of a number of international journals. These include:• UK Delegate to the Council of the International ArcticScience Committee (IASC)• Head of the Glaciers and Ice Sheets Division of IUGGInternational Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS)• Member of the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee• Three members of UK International Polar YearCommittee• Member of the International Arctic Social SciencesAssociation (IASSA) International Polar Year Taskforce• UK representative on the International Arctic ScienceCommittee (IASC) working group on Arctic Glaciers• Treasurer, International Glaciological Society• UK Delegate to the International Science Initiative forthe Russian Arctic• Member of the international steering group for theTundra-Taiga Initiative• Chair of Scientific Committee, BOREAS Programme ofArctic Humanities and Social Science Research,European Science Foundation• Chair of Scientific Committee, Forward Look onReligion and Belief Systems, European ScienceFoundation• Permanent UK representative of the Association ofMarine Mammal Hunters of Chukotka• Trustee, Sutasoma Trust• Chair-elect, Polar Libraries Colloquy• Editorial Board members: Earth Surface Processes andLandforms, Polar Record, Transactions of the RoyalSociety of Edinburgh, Ethnology and Anthropology ofEurasia, Anthropology and Archaeology of Eurasia,Earth’s Cryosphere, Cultural Geographies,Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion.22

International Glaciological SocietyThe International Glaciological Society (IGS) is based at theInstitute. Its aim is to serve the worldwide community ofglaciologists by publishing activities, organization ofsymposia and actively promoting the exchange ofinformation and ideas on all aspects of snow and ice. 2007saw a record number of paper submissions to the Journal. Intotal, 147 submissions were received, 42% above the 1993-2006 average. The complete 2007 volume of the Journal ofGlaciology was published during the calendar year,eliminating any backlog of papers. The last issue appearedon the web in November. The average time betweensubmission and publication is now well within a year.During 2007, the IGS published five issues of the Journal ofGlaciology, three issues of ICE, its news bulletin, and threevolumes of the Annals of Glaciology. Ken Moxham, Jo Clegg,Rachel Brown and Elaine Rowan handled house editing forthe Journal and Ken and Elaine edited the Annals. The IGSorganized one symposium in 2007, the ‘InternationalSymposium on Snow Science’ held in Moscow, Russia, 3–7September. We also took part in the IUGG meeting inPerugia, Italy, in July and will be publishing an Annals ofGlaciology volume with contributions from the cryosphericsessions. Details on the IGS and its activities are availablefrom its website (www.igsoc.org), hosted by the SPRI.Magnús Már Magnússon (Secretary General)Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)The SCAR Secretariat, hosted by the SPRI, continued itswork of coordinating scientific research in the Antarcticregion. Publication of the Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) reports in 2007 underscored theneed for SCAR to continue to focus on climate change andits effects. The Antarctica in the Global Climate System(AGCS) team produced a paper on Antarctic climate changefor the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) inNew Delhi. Our Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea LevelExpert Group is co-organising, for the SCAR XXX meeting,a workshop on modelling ice sheet decay.Our liaison with the International Arctic Science Committee(IASC) continues to strengthen, and we have formed a jointBipolar Action Group to help IASC and SCAR think abouthow they might work more closely together in future, andhow they might best contribute to the IPY and its legacy.We also opened discussions about a possible partnershipwith the newly formed International Association ofCryosphere Sciences (IACS), a body of the InternationalUnion of Geodesy and Geophysics. A major task has beento help to develop, with our Arctic counterpart IASC, theplan for the XXX SCAR meeting in Russia in July 2008.One of the main legacies from the International Polar Year(IPY) will be observing systems. During the year SCARcollaborated with the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) projectto design a Cryosphere Observing System. We alsocontinued to develop a network of Pan-Antarctic ObservingSystems (PAntOS). The sinking of the MS Explorer off theAntarctic Peninsula also led SCAR to form an Action Groupon Antarctic Fuel Spills.Four new SCAR Research Fellows were appointed: IgninoCoco (Italy); Stefanie Kaiser (Germany); Delphine Lannuzel(Belgium); and Glen Phillips (Australia). In the SCARSecretariat, Marzena Kazmarska left to take up a post inSvalbard, and was replaced as Executive Officer by MikeSparrow from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre,while Karen Smith was replaced by Rosemary Nash as ourAdministrative Officer.Colin Summerhayes (Executive Director)23

Fundraising and the SPRI AppealFriends of the Scott Polar Research InstituteTwo dog-sledging treks in the Arctic during 2007contributed hugely to our fund-raising for the Institute.Membership continued to grow from 600 at the beginningof the year to 633. Highlights of the year included theFriends reception at the exhibition of Edward Seago’spaintings of Antarctica at Bonhams in London, when wewere able to present a first instalment of £25,000 towardsthe newly established SPRI Museum Acquisition Fund. Thissupport has subsequently proved beneficial in attractingmatching funds from other grant-giving bodies as well asenabling the acquisition of several smaller items for themuseum from time to time. A further commitment of£25,000 was made later in the year.Our Summer Lunch was well attended, and allowed Friendsthe opportunity to view the Keith Shackleton Retrospectiveexhibition on display in the foyer at the time. The lunch wasnotable for the new sledgers’ group attendance, includingBob Russell, new 90° Club member, and Penny Smith,GMTV presenter.Our regular Lent and Michaelmas term lecture series(organised by Celene Pickard) were well attended andcovered a wide variety of topics. Committee members wereinvited to an Affiliates Day on board HMS Endurance inPortsmouth in September. Our AGM in November includedan inspiring fund-raising lecture given by Tony Soper, andthe year ended with an evening in Dyers Hall, London tointroduce the prospective 2008 sledgers to each other. Arepresentative from Across the Divide was on hand toexplain what sledgers should expect, before a buffet supperand presentations of prints to former sledgers.The Friends Committee remains active. Wendy Driver retiredfrom the committee after four years, and has providedvaluable help on the publicity front. Rod Downey of BASalso stood down, as did Rossie Ogilvie from the University’sDevelopment Office. We are very grateful for their insightsand contributions. Elected at the 2007 AGM, we welcomedJane Chisholm and Alison Jolley to the committee, and alsoEllen Bazeley-White, Archives Manager at BAS.The workload of the Friends has grown with increasedmembership and new fund-raising activities. Celene Pickardwas, therefore, appointed during the year as PA to theFriends, providing us with a permanent secretariat for thefirst time. Judy Skelton has also become the Treasurer to theFriends. Thanks are due to all the Friends for their supportof our activities over the year and especially to those whoserved on the committee, our volunteers at lectures andthose who assisted at Friends events.Robin Back(Chair, Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute)The Director receives a 'large cheque' from Robin Back - near Appeal and Friends Report

Pencil sketch of an Antarctic camp by E.A. Wilson, from the Institute's collectionSPRI AppealThe Scott Polar Research Institute is an international centrefor research into the polar regions and is also home tounrivalled resources of polar information and expertise,housing the world’s largest polar library, Britain’s onlydedicated polar museum, and a national repository for polararchives that record some of the most memorable episodesin exploration of the Arctic an Antarctic. The Institute’sArchives, Museum and Library provide members of thegeneral public, as well as scientists, government bodies,industry and polar inhabitants with important informationon a variety of polar topics, including climate change,management of natural resources and historical polarexpeditions. Through both the publication of our researchand by public outreach, the Institute helps to educate andinform a worldwide audience about the polar regions.Funding is being sought for several purposes. The first is toendow academic posts, and especially a Professorship in thefield of polar environmental science. The second is to securethe future of the Institute’s Archives, Museum and Libraryand to promote their further development. Our highestpriority in this area is to provide permanent security for theimportant post of Institute Archivist, which has until nowbeen supported by a series of short-term grants - aninherently unstable position. We are also aiming to raise£600,000 towards the redesign and refurbishment of ourPolar Museum under the theme of ‘Exploration intoScience’. This is an exciting project, for which we havesecured support from the Heritage Lottery Fund in the formof a Stage 1 pass and development funding.A number of events have been held during the year in aidof our Appeal, and particular thanks are due to SirHumphry Wakefield, William Stancer and Rossie Ogilvie(Cambridge University Development Office), and to the staffof Cambridge in America for their support.Further information on the Appeal is available fromthe Director, Professor Julian Dowdeswell(director@spri.cam.ac.uk; 01223-336541).Picture credits:cover, pages 1,4,5,6,8,9,12,14,15,19,23 © J.A. Dowdeswellpages 3,17 © Scott Polar Research Institute; page 7 © I.C.Willis; page 11 © R. Mugford; page 24 © C. Pickardthis page E.A. Wilson © Scott Polar Research Institute

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