The Scott Polar Centenary PhD Scholarship has been withdrawn.
This award was established to provide a PhD scholarship at the Scott Polar Research Institute in commemoration of the centenary of Robert Falcon Scott’s final expedition to the South Pole in 1911/12. The successful applicant was hosted at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
The Scott Polar Centenary PhD Scholarship:
- Enhanced the United Kingdom/New Zealand Antarctic science relationships
- Marked the United Kingdom/New Zealand relationship at the Scott centenary
- Enabled student exchanges between the United Kingdom and New Zealand
- Provided opportunities for long-term relationships to form between the United Kingdom and New Zealand science laboratories
The Scott Polar Centenary PhD Scholarship brochure
(PDF, 394 kB) provides more information about this award.
Previous Awardee
The inaugural awardee was Craig Stewart of Wellington. Mr Stewart, who has a first class B.Eng (hon) and first class M.Sc, was undertaking research as a research assistant at NIWA contributing to several research programme areas. He began a PhD at the University of Cambridge’s prestigious Scott Polar Research Institute in October 2011.
Craig’s PhD utilised equipment moored under the sea ice in Antarctica, that provided various types of data on the interface between floating ice and underlying seawater, to analyse the rate of basal melting of ice shelves, and its impact on ocean circulation.
He worked with Professor Julian Dowdeswell Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, and Dr Poul Christoffersen, who directly supervised the research.
The interactions between ice and oceans in the Southern hemisphere’s high latitudes is, comparatively, an area lacking in knowledge, in terms of international climate models.
Craig joined a group of Rutherford scholars at the University of Cambridge, and was a mentor and colleague to the other New Zealanders there. His strong connections to New Zealand research through NIWA benefited international collaborations in Antarctic research between New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
This scholarship was funded through a collaboration between the Rutherford Foundation, Antarctica New Zealand, which provided logistical support to his research projects ‘on the ice’, and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust which also generously supported the scholarship. Their announcement is here:
http://www.cambridgetrusts.org/news/scott-polar-centenary-scholarship.html
Sponsors
This Scholarship was funded by the Rutherford Foundation, Antarctica New Zealand and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust.
