Jonathan Bamber

{{Use British English|date=July 2021}} thumb|Jonathan Bamber in 2015

'''Jonathan Louis Bamber''' is a British physicist known for his work on satellite remote sensing of the polar regions, and especially the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. He has authored more than 200 refereed scientific publications about the cryosphere and its interaction with the rest of the Earth System, and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a "highly cited researcher".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Jonathan Bamber's Publons profile|url=https://publons.com/researcher/1471393/jonathan-bamber/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=publons.com|language=en}}</ref> In 2019, he was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union "for pioneering satellite remote sensing in glaciology and building bridges to other disciplines of the geoscience community."<ref name="Union Fellows">{{Cite web|title=Union Fellows {{!}} AGU|url=https://www.agu.org/Honor-and-Recognize/Honors/Union-Fellows|access-date=2020-07-03|website=www.agu.org}}</ref>

== Background == Bamber is the son of Helen Bamber, who was a British psychotherapist and human rights activist, and Rudi Bamber, a first generation Holocaust survivor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Bamber, Rudi (Oral history)|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80018235|access-date=2020-07-03|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en}}</ref> Rudi's testimony is held as part of the oral history of the Holocaust at the London Imperial War Museum, where Helen also recorded her experiences of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Bamber, Helen Rae (Oral history) |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80028534 |access-date=2020-07-03 |website=Imperial War Museums |language=en}}</ref>

== Education == Bamber went to Creighton Comprehensive school in North London, before studying physics at the University of Bristol, earning a BSc in 1983 and a PhD from the University of Cambridge in glaciology and remote sensing in 1987.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Bristol|first=University of|title=Professor Jonathan Bamber - School of Geographical Sciences|url=https://www.bristol.ac.uk/geography/people/jonathan-l-bamber/overview.html|access-date=2020-07-03|website=www.bristol.ac.uk|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Research and appointments == Bamber spent eight years in the Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London, before returning to the University of Bristol to the Department of Geography in 1996, where he has worked since. His focus has been on satellite observations of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, but he has also studied other parts of the cryosphere in the Arctic, Patagonia, and Himalaya.<ref name=":2" /> In 2013, he published a paper on the discovery of the longest canyon in the world, buried beneath the Greenland ice sheet,<ref>{{cite news|title=Giant Canyon Discovered Under Greenland Ice Sheet|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/8/130829-glacier-canyon-greenland-ice-global-warming-environment/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924053409/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/8/130829-glacier-canyon-greenland-ice-global-warming-environment/|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 September 2019|access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref> which has been dubbed the "Grand Canyon" of Greenland.<ref>{{cite web|title=Maphead: The Grand Canyon of Greenland|url=https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-02-24/grand-canyon-greenland-maphead|access-date=28 May 2021|website=cntraveler.com|date=24 February 2014 }}</ref> His work also looks at the different factors that influence contemporary sea level variations funded by the European Research Council<ref>{{Cite web|title=GlobalMass – Attributing global sea level rise to its component parts|url=https://www.globalmass.eu/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=www.globalmass.eu}}</ref> and the role of freshwater fluxes from Arctic land ice on ocean circulation.<ref name=":0" /> His work on the ice sheets and sea level has been adopted in several Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, including the Assessment Report 4 and 5, Special Report 1.5, Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere, and has been highlighted by the World Economic Forum.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jonathan Bamber|url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/jonathan-bamber|access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref>

== Awards and honors == In 2007, Bamber was given the European Geosciences Union Service award "in recognition of his outstanding services with regard to the initiation and leading of the division on Cryosphere Sciences and to the founding of the journal ''The Cryosphere''".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Past and present awardees|url=https://www.egu.eu/awards-medals/awardees/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=European Geosciences Union (EGU)|language=en}}</ref> In 2015, he was given a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award. In 2015, he was elected as the president of the European Geosciences Union, serving for four years as president-elect and president.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Union Council|url=https://www.egu.eu/structure/union-council/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=European Geosciences Union (EGU)|language=en}}</ref> In 2019 he was made a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.<ref name="Union Fellows"/> In December 2020, the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee named a glacier in the Antarctic Peninsula after Bamber for his contribution to Antarctic research.<ref>{{cite web|title=2020 Antarctic Place-Names mark 200th Anniversary of the Discovery of Antarctica|url=https://apc.antarctica.ac.uk/news/|access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref>

== Personal life == Bamber is a mountaineer, climber and long-distance runner. In 1990, he climbed the 1938 route on the North Face of the Eiger with Wil Hurford. He won his first major running race in 1991 at the Woodley 10 mile road race in a time of 54 minutes.

A year later in 1992, while climbing in the Indian Himalaya, close to the Pakistan border, he was hit by a rockfall and sustained life-threatening injuries to his left leg. It took six days to get him off the mountain, and he contracted gangrene and frostbite.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|date=2016-10-21|title=Tupendeo – One Mountain, Two Stories|url=https://www.sidetracked.com/tupendeo/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=Sidetracked|language=en-US}}</ref> He spent almost four years on crutches before being able to take a few steps unaided.<ref name=":3" />

Ten years after his climbing accident, two days before his 40th birthday, he ran and won a half marathon in Somerset.<ref name="Der Mann, der uberlebte">{{cite book |last1=Buhne |first1=Tabitha |title=Der Mann, der uberlebte |date=October 2020 |publisher=Running magazine |pages=34–37}}</ref> Since then, he has competed in races over various distances, winning a number outright and in his age category,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Athlete Profile|url=https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=54748|access-date=2020-07-03|website=www.thepowerof10.info}}</ref> at distances of 5 to 50 miles.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-09-03|title=2017|url=https://butcombetrailultra.com/2017-2/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=Butcombe Trail Ultra|language=en}}</ref>

In the next year, he teamed up with the first international runner from the Everest marathon to compete in the eight-day [https://transalpine-run.com/en/ TransAlpineRun], covering 280km and a 16,500 m ascent, starting in Germany and finishing in Italy. His running partner retired after the fifth stage, but Bamber continued and completed the course in a time of 41 hours, 57 minutes.<ref name="Der Mann, der uberlebte"/>

In 2015, a team of three Swiss climbers made the first ascent of the mountain Tupendeo, which Bamber had attempted 23 years earlier. They made a movie about their ascent and Bamber's ordeal that premiered at the Kendal Mountain Festival in 2016<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tupendeo – one mountain, two stories {{!}} Trento Film Festival|url=https://trentofestival.it/en/archive/2017/tupendeo-one-mountain-two-stories/|access-date=2020-07-03|language=en-US}}</ref> and was subsequently shown at other outdoor film festivals across Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Torelló Mountain Film|url=https://torellomountainfilm.cat/en/projections/tupendeo-one-mountain-two-stories-362|access-date=2020-07-03|website=torellomountainfilm.cat}}</ref> It was also aired on German and Swiss television.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zeitung|first=Jungfrau|date=2017-03-04|title=Filmpremiere einer Bergsteiger-Tragödie|url=https://www.jungfrauzeitung.ch/artikel/152452/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=Jungfrau Zeitung|language=de}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bamber, Jonathan}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:20th-century British physicists Category:21st-century British physicists Category:Alumni of the University of Bristol Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:Academics of the University of Bristol Category:Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders