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Following their arrival at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station at the beginning of December, the scientific teams from the FROID and ULTIMO projects spent a week undergoing the required field training and preparation before heading out into the field to start their work.

And they’re off!!

After the IPF team spent weeks preparing the logistics for the scientific expeditions, last Saturday, December 7th, the FROID team left the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica to spend a month in the field on their respective research missions this season.

The FROID project headed out to the Niels Larsen Blue Ice Field and has been camped out there for several days. They’ve started to drill shallow 10-metre ice cores and perform radar observation of the ice and the bedrock.

The Niels Larsen Blue Ice Field’s ice has been produced by millennia of precipitation accumulation and compaction and is believed to be pushed up by the nearby Sør Rondane Mountains. Gravity forces ice in the continental ice sheet to flow towards the coast, and when it encounters mountains, they force the bottom layers of ice closer to the surface, making it easier to access older ice without having to drill several kilometres down into the ice sheet.

This season, the project only plans to test the coin techniques. Next season, they hope to return and drill ice cores deep enough to find ice layers that are more than one million years old. The air trapped in the bubbles that can be found in these ice layers give information about what the atmosphere looked like a million years ago on our planet.

A stop along the way

And on Monday, December 9th, the ULITIMO - project left in a caravan of two Prinoth tractors and several living containers.

While their ultimate goal is to reach Mont Belgica to try and find meteorites there, the team spend two days at Balchenfjella (eastern Sør Rondane Mountains) along the way, nearly 200 km from PEA. While there, the ULTIMO project team scoured the area for meteorites, as six years ago Steven Goderis from the VUB had found quite of few there. So far, four meteorites have been found by the team, which is not a bad start.

BELARE leader Alain Hubert took advantage of this time to go ahead to try and find a safe path along the remaining 120 km to Mont Belgica. The area ahead is filled with crevasses, so Alain’s decades of experience will come in handy as they progress. Hopefully the weather will remain clear for a few more days to allow them to reach their destination under good conditions!

Return of old friends

This week also saw the return of scientists and technicians from the Alfred Wegener Institute on their Polar 6 Basler plane. The team and the pilots will be spending a couple of weeks at PEA so they can continue taking transects at the coast of Queen Maud Land along the grounding line for the RINGS project, which has as its primary objective to develop a comprehensive reference bed topography dataset around the entire Antarctic coast. This will help scientists understand the processes responsible for current ice discharge, potential future ice-sheet retreat, and sea level rise.

Two Danish scientists form the SWIDA-Rings project (a part of the same international RINGS project) also visited the station with a Twin Otter to perform radar observations of the ice sheet around the southwestern part of the Sør Rondane Mountains. These data will be very valuable for the FROID project currently working in the area.

Seasonal maintenance

Meanwhile, the IPF team at the station has been doing seasonal maintenance of the wind turbines. One by one they’ve been lowering them and replacing worn parts before raising them back up and, ready for a new winter season ahead.

And for the PEACE project, Simon Steffen and Nicolas Herinckx are getting ready to install new parts on the series of automatic weather stations along the 250 km transect the project covers, from the Antarctic Plateau to the coast next week. They hope to service most if not all of the six stations in the project this season and install new CR3000 data loggers.

There’s going to be a lot of action until Christmas!

Siu-Tsiu was chosen as the winner among eight candidate startups from across the Arctic that submitted applications.

Set up in 2022, the  Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award gives 7,500 Euros of financial assistance to a fledgling startup or young entrepreneurs based in the Arctic. This year’s winner was chosen by an international jury of experts on startups, innovation and entrepreneurship from various parts of the Arctic.

“We’re proud that this award will make a difference to a very deserving organisation that is doing so much to help young people in the Arctic upskill and improve their employment prospects,” said Alain Hubert, President and Founder of the International Polar Foundation while on mission to Antarctica leading the 2024-25 Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition. “The work they do is important for the cohesion and well-being of Arctic communities.”

The award ceremony was emceed by IPF Managing Director Nicolas Van Hoecke, IPF Board Member Piet Steel, Mr and Mrs Trân, and Patti Bruns, the Secretary-General of the Arctic Mayor’s Forum, who participated in the international jury of experts that chose the winner.

Pilo Samuelsen, Chief Operating Officer, SiuTsiu in Nuuk, Greenland, travelled to Brussels to accept the award on behalf of the social enterprise. He delivered very heartfelt remarks at the award ceremony upon receiving the award.

“We feel incredibly grateful and honoured to receive this award. It is difficult to describe the impact and meaning for everyone involved in our business.

First of all, this award highlights the importance of developing communities. With this award we feel that attention on socioeconomic enterprises in the Arctic and particularly in Greenland has been raised on a larger scale.

Second, this award presents us with the opportunity to showcase how a relatively simple model can bring about change for young people that need it the most. With this award we feel a bigger and deeper recognition and validation of our efforts.

Third, this award will boost our motivation to continue our project. We feel ambition growing in us and we feel more determined to come closer to our vision of a society that gives everyone the possibility to contribute and participate in developing our small communities. Socioeconomic business has proven to be a meaningful and effective approach in marginalized communities in Greenland.”

Secretary General of the Arctic Mayors forum, Patti Bruns gave the reasons behind the jury’s choice at the ceremony.

“Siu-Tsiu exemplifies the transformative power of community-driven innovation in the Arctic. By empowering marginalized youth and fostering a sense of purpose and belonging, they are building a brighter future for Greenland and setting a model for the entire region. The Laurence Tran Arctic Futures Award celebrates their remarkable achievements and the hope they will inspire for generations to come.”

Executive Director of the Arctic Economic Council Mads Qvist Frederiksen, who was not able to be at the ceremony but took part in the jury ,expanded on the reasons for their choice:

"Siu-Tsiu is a deserving winner of this year's Laurence Tran Award because of their ability to make a difference for young people in remote communities in Greenland. In the Arctic Economic Council we want thriving Arctic communities and Siu-Tisu helps to motivate people to make a difference locally. They tailor their solutions to the local context and have in recent years managed to scale up their solution."

Patti Bruns also recognised two honourable mentions during the ceremony: One is Air Vitalize from Alaska, which has invented solar-powered air filters that can be easily deployed in cities to improve air quality. The other is Sulacare, a startup founded by a Saami healthcare worker that invented a way to simplify the catheterisation process for women, leading to significant improvements in healthcare in remote Arctic communities.

Learn more about the winner and the honourable mentions by visiting their websites:

Winner 

Siu-Tsiu

https://siutsiu.gl/en/home/

Honourable mentions

Air Vitalise:

https://www.airvitalize.tech/

Sulacare:

https://www.sulacare.com/

Last week, International Polar foundation President and Founder Alain Hubert along with Tim Grosrenaud went on a traverse to the coast to retrieve the last of the cargo that was delivered at the end of last season. While at the coast, they discovered a plethora of marine wildlife. 

It’s quite common for members of our team to come across packs of penguins, weddell seals and seabirds when venturing close to the ice shelf terminus along the coastlines in this region of Queen Maud land, East Antarctica However, the land-based animals here are far outnumbered by marine animals that call this corner of the world home. 

The cold waters that surround Antarctica make for some of the world’s most oxygenated, nutrient-rich waters. These rich waters make for an attractive feeding ground for many ocean species. Naturally, these cold waters, rich in krill and other organisms, attract the ocean's biggest inhabitants as well as its apex predators. 

It’s not uncommon to see pods of orcas and other whales such as the Antarctic minke whale just off the edge of the ice shelf where they majestically bob and swim around the icebergs and sea ice navigating the sea in search of their next meal. 

However, the trip to the coast last week included a special surprise for our two-man team. When they arrived at the water's edge, they encountered a small pod of four Arnoux’s beaked whales (Berardius arnuxii) swimming quietly along the pack ice at a very short distance. This is in fact a very exciting and rare sighting. Even laying eyes on this species is extremely uncommon! 

The international community of marine biologists still know very little about these mysterious creatures that have been sighted predominantly in these fertile waters off the coast of Antarctica. Besides a handful of sightings, mainly in the Southern Ocean, there have been a few cases of the Arnoux’s beaked whale being washed ashore and stranded on the beaches of Argentina and New Zealand, which has allowed biologists to study their anatomy.

However, a dead whale tells you much less than one busy breathing and living in the water. Scientists have never had the opportunity to study this animal up close and in depth, which is why very little is known about their feeding behavior and how they live.

Although sightings are quite uncommon, due to the remote nature of their preferred habitat, it is believed that the Arnoux’s beaked whale is not endangered but rather it is just well acquainted at living a life out of the spotlight. A wise behavior that certainly explains why the species has never been targeted for commercial hunting. 

Besides enhancing our knowledge about the biodiversity and the conservation potential of the region, perhaps this most recent sighting of this rarely encountered species could inspire marine biologists to travel to this part of Antarctica to better understand the way these whales live and how climate change could potentially affect their habitat and livelihood.

This year's Arctic Futures Symposium will take place on December 2nd and 3rd at the Residence Palace in Brussels’ EU Quarter. The theme for this year’s symposium will be “Finding Solutions in Uncertain Times”, and will feature several keynote speakers plus six topical panel discussions, including:

• Building on Progress: Reflections and Aspirations from the Norwegian and Kingdom of Denmark Arctic Council Chairships
• Transatlantic Cooperation in the Arctic in 2025 and Beyond
• The Current Security and Geopolitical Status of the Arctic
• Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Regional Collaboration to Meet Arctic Challenges Sustainably
• Building and Maintaining an Arctic Workforce and Resilient Arctic Communities
• Critical Raw Materials and Resource Supply Chains: Tensions and Trade-offs

The symposium will be held the afternoon of Monday, December 3rd, starting at 2:00 pm and all day on Tuesday, December 4th starting at 9:00 am.

During the second day of the symposium, the winner of the Laurence Trân Arctic Futures Award will be announced. The annual award of 7500 Euros goes towards helping young entrepreneurs in the Arctic.

Registrations are currently closed as demand has exceeded  expectations. If you would like to make  request to be on the waiting list, please send an email to evenets@polarfoundation.org.

A record number of side events

This year will also see a record number of side events.

The Mission of Norway to the EU will host a cocktail on December 2nd.

Returning for its 6th edition, the Arctic Shorts film evening will feature eight short films made by Arctic filmmakers. It will take place at Cinema Galleries in the Centre of Brussels on December 3rd starting at 7:00 pm.

Then from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm on Wednesday, December 4th, Arctic Frontiers Abroad and the University of Bergen will host an event on Sustainable Ocean Development and the Green Transition at NH Carrefour de l'Europe Hotel in Brussels city centre.

This event will be followed by a screening of the film Twice Colonized with Aaju Peter, Director Lin Alluna and Producer Emile Hertling Péronard at the Permanent Representation of Denmark to the European Union 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm on December 4th.

The final side event will be Observing, Understanding and Responding to Arctic Change, which will be hosted by the INTERACT nonprofit and the Embassy of Monaco at Town Hall Europe from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm on December 4th

Further details about these side events have been posted on the Arctic Futures Symposium website.

Please note that registration for the Arctic Futures Symposium does not automatically guarantee access to all symposium side events. Registration for each side event must be done separately by the organiser of that side event.

We look forward to welcoming everyone in Brussels next week!

The expeditions will operate from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station (PEA), the first zero-emission polar research station, which has been pivotal in Belgian polar research since its inauguration in 2009. Since early November, the IPF team has been preparing the station for the missions. This includes clearing snow, starting systems like water purification, and testing essential equipment such as snowmobiles and tractors. Experienced IPF guides have also been charting safe routes for the scientific expeditions.

This year presents additional logistical challenges due to the simultaneous launch of two separate missions. One team will establish a field camp in the remote Belgica Mountains, located 300 km east of the Sør Rondane Mountains. Another team will work closer to the station, 50 km south, in a challenging blue-ice area. Both missions require intensive logistical support, including material transport and ensuring safety on-site.

The two Major Projects in Focus This Season:
1. ULTIMO – Researching meteorites and the geology of the Belgica Mountains
2. FROID – Searching for Earth’s oldest ice

ULTIMO Project

Led by Steven Goderis (VUB) and Vinciane Debaille (ULB), the ULTIMO project aims to discover rare meteorites and map the geological features of the Belgica Mountains. Meteorites hold crucial information about the origins of the solar system and can provide insights into the transport of water and organic molecules to Earth.

“This expedition to the Belgica Mountains is unique—no recent Belgian expedition has explored this remote region. The logistics are demanding, involving snowmobile transport and extensive field camps. We anticipate weather challenges affecting up to 50% of our working time, which underscores the importance of a well-equipped base,” said Steven Goderis.

The mission builds on decades of collaboration with Japanese scientists, who have been collecting meteorites in East Antarctica since the 1960s. Belgian teams have already cataloged over 1,300 meteorites, housed in Brussels and made available for global research.

FROID Project

Under the leadership of François Fripiat (ULB) and Harry Zekollari (VUB), the FROID team will search for ice layers potentially over one million years old.
“By analyzing the oldest ice layers, we aim to reconstruct CO₂ concentrations and atmospheric conditions from the distant past. This could deepen our understanding of transitions between ice ages and warm periods, providing valuable insights for climate research,” explained glaciologist Harry Zekollari.
By combining meteorite studies and ice core drilling, these missions aim to achieve breakthroughs in both climatology and space science.

Both projects are financed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO).

The 2024–2025 austral summer research season is off to a strong start! The 14 lead members of the BELgian Antarctic Research Expedition (BELARE) team arrived at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica - the world’s first and to date only zero-emission polar research station - from Cape Town, South Africa, to start the 2024-25 austral summer research season.

Soon after their arrival at the station last week, the BELARE team began clearing  away snow around the station that had accumulated over the winter, switched the station’s energy production and management system from winter mode to summer mode, started melting snow for drinking water, and started up the station’s, new water treatment system.

After about a week of hard work getting the station up and running, the lead members of this year’s BELARE team have settled in and are already working hard on supporting this season’s scientific research projects.

Team members have been starting up, checking and reinstalling scientific equipment that collects data during the four months the station is occupied, including the CIMEL sunphotometer on the roof of the station, which measures direct sun and diffuse sky radiances from which aerosol depth, precipitable water vapour and albedo can be derived for the BIRA-CLIMB project.

Technicians and engineers have started preparing equipment and the living containers for scientists from the ULTMO and FROID projects, who will head deep into the field in the vicinity of Mount Belgica and south-west of the Sør Rondane Mountains respectively. These expeditions will spend several weeks in the field later this season. The FROID project will be focusing on finding the oldest ice while the ULTIMO team will be searching for meteorites and extra-terrestrial particles. The containers will give the scientists access to comfortable living quarters with a kitchen, showers, and modern communication links. Life in the field could be a lot worse!

At the same time, the team’s field guides are already mapping out routes for the scientists before they head into the field. A reconnaissance mission to find the safest path for scientists to take will be done before the scheduled arrival of scientists on November 28th.

Meanwhile, BELARE Expedition Leader Alain Hubert and mechanic Tim Grosrenaud headed to the coast to retrieve the last fuel drums that the cargo ship from last season had left at the coast in February. On the way, they stopped at Perseus Intercontinental Airfield to assess the condition of the runway. A lot of snow accumulated in the region over the winter, so a lot of work will need to be done to get the airfield ready for the arrival of the first cargo plane bringing the first teams of scientists, equipment and fresh supplies at the end of November. Today, a team of engineers and plumbers are heading to Perseus Airfield to start up the communication and heating system. Once this has been done, the team will get to work ploughing and grooming the runway so a cargo plane can land safely.  It will be at least 10 days’ work to get everything ready for the arrival of the plane. It’s a considerable task!

As it’s still early in the season, temperatures outside can drop down to -20°C, with wind chill factor down to -32°C. So the team has to be careful when spending a long period of time outside. Next month, the average daily temperature outside will climb to a “balmy” -10°C and even -5°C.

As it’s springtime in Antarctica, snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) are back making colonies on several nunataks around PEA including Utsteinen, where these seabirds have been coming for millennia to find a mate for life and a natural cavity under fallen rocks in which to lay their one egg for the season. Our resident biologist Henri Robert will be interested in tracking their progress in the coming weeks and months.

With several team members at Perseus, the station will be relatively quiet for the next two weeks.  Of course, when the first scientists and additional IPF support staff arrive, the station will become a lot busier. In the meantime, we are all looking forward for the beginning of the field work. Stay tuned for the story on these exciting expeditions!

The “To the Antarctic” Exhibition at MAS /museum in Antwerp, which ran from June 21st until November 3rd, was very popular among the general public, receiving more than 45,000 visitors during its more than four-month run. 

The exhibition featured Belgium’s history in Antarctic exploration and research, starting with the extraordinary overwintering of Adrien de Gerlache and his crew on the Belgica ship in 1897-1899. Visitors were completely immersed in the daily lives of all crew members onboard and learned along the way about the many scientific findings from the exhibition, the Antarctic environment, and particularities of the Antarctic Peninsula. 

Following the chronology of De Gerlache’s endeavour, visitors learned about Belgium’s research expeditions in Antarctica in the 1950s and 1960s, during which Belgium’s first Antarctic research base, the King Baudouin station, was constructed. 

From the past to the present

A scale model of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) station welcomed the visitors into the contemporary part of the exhibition, which was largely developed by the IPF for MAS. Visitors enjoyed the beauty of Antarctic landscapes on a large screen, and explored a topic of their choice (ocean, air, space, earth, ice, life) on wall-mounted touch-screens that explained all aspects of research currently going on in Antarctica, much of which is taking place at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. Before leaving, visitors were invited to reflect on the presence and activities of humans in Antarctica, and  were treated to an art installation by Dutch artist Esther Kokmeijer called Terra Nullius, which drew attention to Antarctica's unique protected geopolitical status and uncertain future. 

“The International Polar Foundation has a long history in education, outreach and awareness-rising about the polar regions and their important role in the global climate,” commented Dr Mieke Sterken, who was in charge of the contemporary contributions to the exhibition. “We have organised exhibitions about Antarctic science, Arctic climate change and environment-related topics.”

The Belgian zero-emission Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station is a good example of how polar research can be made more environmentally friendly, and offers a wide range of possibilities in terms of scientific research. It was successfully used as a hook to get people interested in learning more about the polar regions. We are very pleased that MAS has chosen us as a partner to help develop the recent past and contemporary parts of the exhibition."

The MAS gift shop formed a creative extension of the exhibition, showcasing a large LEGO scale model of the station, built by LEGO enthusiast Daniel Vermeir. The IPF offered books, gadgets and postcards with photos of the station, beautiful Antarctic landscapes, and the incredible fauna of the region.

Broad appeal

We received a lot of positive feedback from visitors, who said the exhibition felt like discovering a new continent by themselves. They came for both the epic story of the Belgica and to learn about Antarctica as a whole. They were very touched by the personal stories of the Belgica crew, whose diary excerpts were displayed throughout the exhibit. 

“You have the gift of explaining difficult things in a very easy to understand and enthusiastic way, it was a true pleasure to visit the exhibition and I'm happy I went," one visitor said.

The exhibition also enjoyed media coverage in local and national Belgian media outlets, including on VRT news and radio, which did a live on air session from the exhibition, as well as the Brussels Times and many other publications and outlets. 

Visitors can still submit their feedback or test their knowledge through a quiz (in Dutch) via via this link: https://www.ipf-education.org/mas 

Now the attention shifts to Antarctica, where the 2024-25 BELgian Antarctic research Expedition (BELARE) has just begun.

One of the International Polar Foundation’s board members, former EU Arctic Ambassador and Egmont Institute Senior Fellow Marie-Anne Coninsx, participated in a high-level panel discussion organised by the Egmont Institute on Thursday, October 17th entitled “Navigating the New Arctic: The Role of Non-Artic State in Shaping the Future”. The panel also featured Arctic Economic Council Director Mads Qvist Frederiksen, an academic perspective from Andreas Østhagen of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, and representatives from the foreign ministries of Finland, Japan, Ireland, and Germany.

Additionally, IPF systems engineer Aymar de Lichtervelde, a multi-year veteran of the Belgian Antarctic Research Expeditions (BELARE) and one of the engineers who co-designed the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica’s new water treatment system, took part in a panel discussion co-organised by Battelle, Arctic Trucks and ArkTiKa on Friday, October 18th. The panel, “Emerging Technologies for Better Human Health and Safety in Remote Polar Regions” was an opportunity for Aymar to showcase how the first (and to date only) zero-emission polar research station goes above and beyond the Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty System when it comes to treating and reusing wastewater.

During the three days of the assembly, Aymar also manned a booth exhibiting a scale model of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica’s new water treatment system on the second floor of the assembly’s main venue, Harpa. Aymar gave several mini-presentations to attendees who were curious to learn more about the groundbreaking innovative water treatment system and other solutions used at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica to reduce the environmental footprint of conducting polar research. With a few thousand people in attendance, it was an excellent opportunity to showcase what IPF is capable of achieving!

The topical themes of this year’s symposium will include:

• The Arctic Council: A Practical Vision Moving Forward
• Transatlantic Cooperation in the Arctic in 2025 and Beyond
• Keeping the Arctic an Area of Low Tension
• Building and Maintaining an Arctic Workforce and Resilient Arctic Communities
• Innovation and Regional Collaboration to Meet Arctic Challenges Sustainably
• Critical Raw Materials and Resource Supply Chains: Tensions and Trade-offs

A draft programme for the symposium will be released in the coming weeks. Please keep checking the symposium website regularly for updates.

The symposium is free of charge, which allows anyone including students, teachers, experts and anyone with an interest in the Arctic to attend.

Registration for the event is now open and can be done via the symposium website.

Several side events to the symposium will also take place this year, including the annual Arctic Shorts film evening on December 3rd, a half-day event on coastal management hosted by Arctic Frontiers and the University of Bergen on December 4th, and a screening of the feature-length Greenlandic film “Twice Colonized” the evening of December 4th. Please note that registration for the symposium does not automatically register you for all side events. Registrations for side events are managed separately from the registration for the symposium by the organisations managing the side events.

In the meantime, if you would like to be put on our distribution list to receive updates about the symposium and its side events, please don't hesitate to contact us via email at events@polarfoundation.org and ask to be added.

We look forward to seeing everyone in early December!

Photo © Nordland County, Norway

The International Polar Foundation (IPF) is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of glaciologist Professor Roland Souchez on July 30th, who made important contributions to the fields of glaciology and climate science during his decades-long career. A Full Member of the Science Class of the Royal Academy of Belgium, and Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Professor Souchez made important contributions to the fields of glaciology and climate science during his decades-long career.

Roland Souchez was born in the borough of Uccle in Brussels in 1938. He earned his Doctorate of Science at the ULB in 1963. His area of expertise was isotopic glaciology, which studies the isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in an ice core sample to reconstruct temperatures of the polar regions in past climates, contribute to determine its age and decipher potential phase changes. Roland Souchez also looked at gas trapped in ice cores (content, composition and their isotopic ratios) to  decipher past atmospheric conditions and post-deposition alterations. He was particularly interested in studying basal ice, which is created from the interaction between ice sheets and bedrock below it.

From an early stage, he became deeply involved in the development of Antarctic glaciological research, participating in dozens of research expeditions to both poles and alpine regions.

His first foray into Antarctica was as a member of the 1964-65 Belgo-Dutch Antarctic expedition to study ice-cored moraines in the Sør Rondane Mountains, not far from the present-day Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station. From there he participated in a number of international research expeditions, including with the United States Antarctic Program (1965-1966 and 1966-1967), the Italian National Antarctic Research Program in Antarctica (PNRA). He took part in expeditions with the Geological Survey of Canada, the University of Aberdeen (UK), and the University of Edinburgh (UK) to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic to study basal ice outcrops. Due to his extensive expertise, he was asked to lead research efforts on basal ice sequences retrieved from most of the international deep ice core drilling efforts, both in Greenland (GRIP, North GRIP, NEEM) and in Antarctica (EPICA Dome C, EPICA DML, Vostok). He also studied basal outcrops in glaciers in the Swiss Alps with the University of Cambridge (UK) and the Institut des Geosciences et l'Environment (IGE - formerly LGGE) in Grenoble (France).

“Roland was a reference in his field,” commented IPF Founder and President Alain Hubert, who was nominated for the prestigious 2024 Belgica Prize by Professor Souchez. “His contributions to glaciology and climate science, and not to mention his contributions to the Belgian and international scientific community, were truly impressive. He will be greatly missed.”

Professor Souchez handed Alain Hubert the Belgica Prize at a ceremony at the Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium only a few weeks ago on June 10th.

Of course, fellow glaciologists who had the privilege of working with him over the years feel his loss.

“Roland was a pioneer glaciologist in Belgium,” stated fellow glaciologist at the ULB and IPF Board Member Professor Jean-Louis Tison, who has been on several missions to Antarctica himself over the years. “He has been a mentor to three generations of Belgian glaciologists after his first stay with the Belgian-Dutch expedition in the Sør Rondane Mountains in 1964-1965, where he studied the dynamics of ice cored moraines. Since then he specialised in basal ice studies and, in that context, he visited a great number of glaciers in the Alps, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and the Antarctic. He was internationally renown for his seminal work on water stable isotopes in ice, and how it can be used to trace phase changes in glaciers, understand the complex dynamics of the basal part of ice sheets, how it affects the preservation of paleoclimatic signals, and how it can record the extreme environmental conditions, coupled with gas measurements in ice bubbles. For this, he was invited to join many of the international deep drilling projects as an expert and leader in the study of their basal part. Roland was a hardworking scientist fully dedicated to his passion.”

“Roland Souchez's career fits perfectly into the spirit and tradition of the Glaciology Laboratory of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, which he directed for several years,” commented glaciologist Professor André Berger from the Université catholique de Louvain, co-founder of the International Polar Foundation and Member of the Class of Sciences at the Royal Academy of Belgium. “Both passionate about ancient climates, we became friends, and in  particular we worked to award the ARB Belgica medals from 1989 to the present. His work on the interface between glacial ice and rocky or aquatic bedrock makes it possible to indicate up to what depth glacial soundings are reliable and therefore up to what time in the past we can reconstruct the evolution of ancient climates. It also allows us to better understand the dynamics and instability of glacial masses.”

Over the six decades of his career, Professor Souchez created an impressive body of work, co-authoring 96 publications and a few books. He earned many distinctions and achievements, including becoming the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the ULB between 1981 and 1984. He also spent several years abroad as a Visiting Professor at other institutions, including at the University of Maryland in 1970 and the University of Ottawa in 1971. He was Associate Professor at the University of Paris between 1984 and 1985.

Professor Souchez also served as a Visiting Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) for two years between 1998 and 2000, where he held the Francqui Chair during his second academic year there. The Franqui programme facilitates academic exchanges from different Belgian and international academic institutions.

He was elected correspondent of the Class of Sciences at the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1999 and became a Member of the Academy five years later in 2004. He also served as Director of his Class in 2007.

Professor Souchez also received the Antarctic Medal from the United States Government, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially named Souchez Glacier after him in West Antarctica.

His lasting impact was, needless to say, enormous.

You can listen to Professor Souchez discuss polar ice and its connection to the global atmosphere in an interview from 2016 (in French).