[Aqualist] Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal

[Tim Barrows]

The Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal
for outstanding young Quaternary scientists

Nominations are invited for the Sir Nicholas 
Shackleton Medal, which is awarded to an 
early-career scientist, who will normally be 
under 35 years of age, working in any branch of Quaternary science.

The process for nomination and evaluation is as follows.

Nomination
    * In principle, any scientist working in the 
field of Quaternary sciences may propose an 
appropriate candidate for the Sir Nicholas 
Shackleton Medal, but see the nomination form below for further details.
    * Proposals should include a summary and a 
short personal statement in support of the 
candidate, the curriculum vitae and list of 
publications of the nominee, and two letters of 
recommendation (see details on the nomination form below).
    * Proposals should be submitted 
electronically to both the Secretary-General of 
INQUA and the Chair of the Award Committee.
    * All nominations will be acknowledged, and 
nominators are advised to request such confirmation if it is not received.
    * The deadline for the current round is 30th 
July 2009 and no late proposals will be considered.

Evaluation
    * Proposals will be forwarded to an 
Evaluation Group composed of eminent Quaternary 
scientists, who will consider each case in 
confidence and may seek further information if it is deemed necessary.
    * After completion of the evaluation, the 
Chairperson of the Evaluation Group will send the 
recommendation of this Group, together with a one 
page summary and a two-line citation of the 
selected candidate, to the Secretary-General of 
INQUA. The Secretary General will prepare and 
forward the necessary documents and citations to 
the Executive Committee members for final approval.
    * The President of INQUA will then inform the 
medalist of the award by the end of November 2009.
    * The medalist will be invited to the next 
General Assembly of the Union, where the medal will be presented.

Closing date for receipt of nominations is 31st July 2009
A nomination form is attached below and is available on the website


Sir Nicholas Shackleton

The medal was established in honour of Sir 
Nicholas Shackleton not only because he was an 
eminent Quaternary scientist but also because he 
was a dedicated supporter of young researchers. 
Sir Nicholas served as Vice President of INQUA 
for two terms, then as President (1999 2003) and 
finally as Past President, a position he held at the time of hi death in 2005.

To demonstrate Nick Shackleton's major 
achievements it is only necessary to consider his 
key papers, beginning with his PhD. This was 
awarded by the University of Cambridge in 1967 
for his thesis entitled "The measurement of 
palaeotemperatures in the Quaternary Era". Apart 
from developing a new method in stable isotope 
mass spectrometry, Nick designed and rebuilt a 
mass spectrometer capable of analyzing very small amounts of carbonates.

After being appointed to the staff of Cambridge 
University, Nick Shackleton published a paper in 
the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 
(Shackleton, 1969) entitled "The last 
interglacial in the marine and terrestrial 
records". Building on the definition of the 
marine isotope stages by Emiliani (1955), he 
defined subdivisions of MIS 5, creating substages 
5e to 5a and correlating marine isotope substage 
5e with the continental Eemian, an interpretation 
which was not questioned until 1997 (Kukla et al. 1997).

In the 1970s, Nick Shackleton was involved with 
the CLIMAP consortium, which brought together 
scientists from different institutions to study 
past climates. This resulted in two papers 
published in Science during 1976. In the first 
(CLIMAP Project Members 1976), in which Nick was 
largely responsible for the oceanography, the 
status of the Earth’s surface at the last glacial 
maximum was published for the first time.

Later the same year, Nick Shackleton was 
associated with another seminal paper (Hays, 
Imbrie & Shackleton 1976), this time on 
"Variations in the Earth's orbit: pacemaker of 
the ice ages", which constituted a revolution in 
palaeoclimatology. Whereas Milankovich (1941), in 
proposing his theory on the astronomical origin 
of climate changes, had compared the results of 
his calculations with the Alpine glaciation 
stratigraphy (Penck & Bruckner 1909), this paper 
demonstrated the relationship between climate 
change, as indicated by three indices (d180 from 
Globigerina bulloides, Ts (°C) [summer sea 
surface temperature] and the percentage of 
Cycladophora darvinsiana) with variations in 
orbital parameters from cores RC11-120 and E49-18.

The last paper illustrating Nick Shackleton's 
contribution to palaeoclimatology was published 
in Paleoceanography during 2000. Several previous 
attempts had been made to correlate the ice cores 
from Greenland and Antarctica but Shackleton, 
Hall & Vincent (2000) provided another revolution 
by focussing on the record of MIS3 from marine 
core MD 95-2042. The oxygen isotope study of the 
planktonic and the benthic foraminifera shows 
peculiar patterns. Indeed the isotope variability 
from the planktonic forams mimics the variations 
in the d18O from the Greenland GRIP ice core. 
Conversely, the fluctuations of the d18O from 
benthic forams, match variations described from the Antarctic Vostok cores.

One of the characteristics of Nick Shackleton's 
approach to research was his great enthusiasm for 
cooperating with scientists from numerous 
countries and disciplines. Nick was always open 
to discussion and persuasion, no matter what the 
experience or standing of the scientist 
concerned, an approach he considered essential 
for the enrichment of his personal scientific, cultural and social life.

The Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal
for outstanding young Quaternary scientists

  Nomination forms may be downloaded from: http://terpro.dri.edu/news.htm

Nomination Form

Two nominators are required. The nominators 
should be two independent persons from different 
national organizations, preferably (but not 
essentially) from different countries. At least 
one of the nominators must be from an INQUA member country

Nominator 1:

Name:              























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Nominator 2:

Name:              























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 (include country code)

Please attach the following documentation:
    * Letters of support from both nominators named above
    * Curriculum vitae of the nominee, including 
a list of the nominee’s publications
    * Short statement of major contributions to 
Quaternary research of the nominee.

This nomination form and attached documentation 
should be sent to the following:
    * the Secretary-General of 
INQUA:                           <mailto:pcoxon at tcd.ie>pcoxon at tcd.ie
    * the Chairperson of the Award 
Committee:   <mailto:mavery at iziko.org.za>mavery at iziko.org.za

Closing date for receipt of this nomination is 31st July 2009