University of Colorado at Boulder Emeritus Professor Mark Meier, one of the world聮s leading glaciologists, has been named 1999 winner of the International Hydrology Prize by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences.
Meier will be presented with a medal by the IAHS and the International Geophysical Union July 21 at a ceremony in Birmingham, England. Meier has spent nearly 50 years studying the world聮s glaciers and ice sheets and pioneered the role they play in Earth聮s hydrological cycle, including sea level change.
This is the first time the international prize has been given to a snow and ice scientist, said IAHS officials. "The understanding of the role of glacier mass balance in hydrology and sea level change in particular, owes a great deal to Mark Meier聮s efforts," according to the citation.
Meier, former director of CU-Boulder聮s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and emeritus professor in the geological sciences department, has received a number of prestigious awards during his career. They include the Horton Medal from the American Geophysical Union, the Seligman Crystal Award from the International Glaciology Society, the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior and three medals from the USSR Academy of Sciences.
"Mark Meier聮s approach to science encompasses many years and many ideas," according to the citation. "His use of such a broad perspective has always been creative, artistic, lucid and comprehensive. The International Hydrology Prize is a very fitting and well-earned honor."
Meier received his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1957 and has conducted a variety of glacier dynamics investigations of glaciers and snowcover in North America, Europe, Greenland and Antarctica with the U.S. Geological Survey and CU-Boulder.
He was one of the first scientists to apply remote-sensing techniques to snow and ice, to pioneer the study of glacial surges and iceberg-calving tidewater glaciers and to spearhead a new "scaling" technique to estimate the alarming loss of glacier mass worldwide over the past century.