OU researcher awarded Polar Medal in New Year’s Honours list

An OU researcher, who is one of the UK’s most experienced polar researchers, has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours List.

Mark Brandon, Professor of Polar Oceanography, at The Open University (OU), has been awarded The Polar Medal by His Majesty King Charles III in recognition of his outstanding work and contribution to the scientific knowledge of the Polar Regions.

Professor Brandon has been at the OU for over 20 years and has been Professor of Polar Oceanography since 2018 in the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

With a PhD in polar oceanography and over 30 years’ experience, he has led successful large-scale international research projects into the changing climate of the polar regions and their ecosystems and teaching around the way the oceans interact with the frozen parts of our planet in Antarctica and the High Arctic and how that affects us all through sea level rise and changing weather patterns.

He has spent several years conducting fieldwork in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and his pioneering research led him to be, for example, the first person to use robots to explore beneath the Antarctic sea ice.

The Polar Medal was first instituted in 1904 when it was awarded to the participants of Captain Robert F. Scott’s successful first expedition to the Antarctic Region, and it was awarded to members of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expeditions. In recent years, the award has been awarded by The Monarch to UK and Commonwealth scientists who “have completed outstanding work in the arduous conditions of a polar environment, over a prolonged period, and have worked to advance knowledge of the Polar Regions”.

Speaking about his award, Professor Mark Brandon said,

“I’m humbled, delighted and proud to receive this honour as the polar medal has a special place in polar history. I’m grateful to all the colleagues I have worked with and can’t thank The Open University enough for supporting my research and enabling me to use it to teach our students about the importance and fragility of our polar regions.”

Professor Nicholas Braithwaite, Executive Dean, Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at the OU said:

“It is great to see Mark’s long-term polar fieldwork recognised at this level. He clearly loves and respects this extreme terrestrial environment and he works hard to enthuse researchers, students and the general public through a wide variety of media from scholarly articles, through engaging course-texts to strikingly well illustrated blogs.”

Professor Brandon is committed to public outreach and was the Lead Academic Advisor on the prestigious Open University/BBC co-production, Frozen Planet and more recently he was a member of The Open University Academic team on Blue Planet II and Frozen Planet II.

He was also involved in many other leading BBC programmes over the last two decades shaping and developing the narrative of geographic knowledge in broadcast projects watched by more than 200 million people worldwide.