Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 16 November - Tue 17 November
9:00 - 17:00
Location
Victoria University of Wellington
Monday 16 November 2020
9.00am – 5.00pm Wairarapa Field Trip
Tuesday 17 November 2020
9.00am – 5.00pm Symposium at Te Toki a Rata Building, Lecture Theatre 1, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University of Wellington
7.30pm – 9.00pm Symposium Dinner at Thistle Inn, Thorndon, Wellington
The Symposium
The Symposium aims to celebrate the scientific life, contributions, and lasting legacy of Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett, NZAM, FRSNZ, FGS, following his 80th birthday. For the morning session of this special one-day symposium, we will assemble a series of invited presentations that traverse Peter’s scientific journey from early adventures in the Transantarctic Mountains to his pioneering efforts in scientific geological drilling in the Ross Sea. We will reflect on his motivations, and how he has motivated and inspired others.
Following lunch, presentations will focus on current and future research opportunities and challenges facing the Antarctic Research Centre (ARC). In the afternoon in a third and final session we will hear some reflections from old and new staff and colleagues on the ARC, and last but least some reflections from the man himself before drinks and nibbles.
There will be a dinner that evening, after a special event between 5–7pm to officially open the Antarctic Science Platform National Modelling Hub, hosted by the Antarctic Research Centre.
The Symposium will be preceded by a fieldtrip to the Wairarapa on 16 November, to sample local geology, landscape, and viticulture.
Emeritus Professor Peter Barrett
Peter grew up on a Waikato dairy farm and in his teens took up caving in the Te Kuiti district. He went on to study the Te Kuiti Limestone for his Master’s thesis at the University of Auckland, and by chance in 1962 joined a University of Minnesota expedition to the Ellsworth Mountains, Antarctica. This led to a PhD at Ohio State University on the Gondwana strata of the Central Transantarctic Mountains, where he discovered the first tetrapod fossil in Antarctica, leading to the confirmation of the theory of plate tectonics. In 1970 Peter returned to New Zealand to take up a postdoctoral fellowship at Victoria University of Wellington, to continue their annual Antarctic expeditions. The following year he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Geology and the inaugural director of the Antarctic Research Centre, serving in this role from 1972 until 2007.
During that time, Peter led many Antarctic field parties involving both staff and graduate students and several ambitious drilling projects. Peter was aboard the first DSDP (now the International Ocean Discovery Programme IODP) leg to Antarctica in 1972–73, which successfully collected cores in the Ross Sea, establishing the antiquity of Antarctic glaciation. From 1974–1999 Peter led a succession of offshore drilling projects culminating in the Cape Roberts project recording Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and climate history from 34–17 million years ago. The successes and remaining questions led to the development of the ANDRILL project.
Peter represented New Zealand as Geology delegate at meetings of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) from the early 1980s, becoming a steering committee member of the SCAR’s ANTOSTRAT project in 1989, and co-founding SCAR’s Antarctic Climate Evolution project in 2002. Peter served on the SCAR Group of Specialists on Environmental Affairs and Conservation from 1988–2002, and was also the first New Zealand delegate to the Antarctic Treaty System’s Committee on Environmental Protection, serving from 1998–2003.
By 2006, 25 years after his first op-ed on future ice sheet melt from rising CO2 levels, Peter realised the public were not recognising the disastrous consequences, so with geologist/cine photographer Simon Lamb, he developed a collaboration between Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Oxford, and film maker David Sington to produce Thin Ice – the Inside Story of Climate Science. This involved filming over 30 climate scientists in Europe, New Zealand, Antarctica, and on the Southern Ocean, to, in the words of one review, “put a human face on climate science”. It was launched in 2013 at 200 locations covering all seven continents. Though CO2 emissions continue to rise, it received a number of awards, and over 400 broadcasts on American Public Television.
In 2001 Peter received the Premio Internazionale Felice Ippolito medal for Antarctic research from the Accademia Lincei (Italy), and in 2004 he received the Marsden Medal for his lifetime contributions to science in New Zealand.
In 2006 he received the inaugural SCAR President’s Medal for outstanding achievement in Antarctic science and was named Wellingtonian of the Year. In 2008 he was invited to be Patron of the New Zealand Antarctic Society. In 2010, Peter was awarded the New Zealand Antarctic Medal for services to Antarctic science and in 2011 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of London, a title only held by 70 people worldwide. In 2020, Peter received the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Science Prize as a member of the “Melting Ice and Rising Seas” team. Over the last decade, Peter has become a strong voice for climate change action and effective collaboration between scientists and policymakers.
Register now by clicking here.
You can select either the Zoom or in-person option for attendance when you register. We are limiting the number of people attending this event to allow for physical distancing. Please RSVP by Friday 6 November.
For more information contact Dao Polsiri, Antarctic Research Centre dao.polsiri[at]vuw.ac.nz or 04*463*6587.