P004576 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

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 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 2005-06-15 human Annette Alafaci updated 2019-12-17 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004576b.htm person Robin Gordon de Quetteville AACR2 17 January 1921 21 September 2004 Place of Birth Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Place of Death Cambridge, England Physicist Antarctic researcher Glaciologist Gordon de Quetteville Robin was a renowned glaciologist and the longest serving director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge to date (1958-1982). He was the first person to produce reliable and accurate measurements of Antarctic ice sheet thickness using seismic sounding and in 1963, together with Stan Evans, developed a radio-echo sounding system, which allowed continuous profiling of ice sheets and glaciers. This technology is still the best available for measuring ice thickness and other glaciological investigations. Robin made numerous other highly significant contributions to glaciology including a better interpretation of climate records within ice sheets and the dynamics of ice shelves and ice formation and structure.

Immediately after completing his Master's Degree in physics in 1942, Gordon de Quetteville Robin joined the Royal Australian Naval Voluntary reserve and was appointed to antisubmarine duties. He soon lost interest in the work and moved to England. During World War II, Robin took up anti-submarine duties again and was sent to the Jahore Straits and Singapore. Back in England after the war, he enrolled in nuclear physics studies at Birmingham University and worked on the cyclotron project. However, Robin had always had a desire to go to Antarctica, so contacted the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) at Cambridge University. He accepted an almost immediate posting to join the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as their base commander at Signy Island in the South Orkneys (1947-1948).

When the twelve month position ended, Robin returned to the cyclotron project at Birmingham University, where he also gained a lectureship in 1948. The following year he joined the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition and was put in charge of the seismic survey to measure ice thickness. The expedition finished in 1952 and he returned to Birmingham University. There he undertook postdoctoral studies in glaciology, which provided new discoveries relating to ice shelf thickness and subglacial topography. In 1957 Robin decided to change his research focus again, and went to the Australian National University to study ocean waves. Within a few months of arriving, he was offered the first full-time directorship of the SPRI. He returned to England in 1958 to take up the position and this was the start of an outstanding twenty-four years of ground-breaking research.

As director, Gordon de Quetteville Robin oversaw the growth of the SPRI into one of the world's leading polar research institutes. He fought hard for and achieved greater cooperation and collaboration between all nations involved in polar research and between the research wings of the Navy's of the world and the broader research community. He also established a twelve-year collaboration with the US National Science Foundation which resulted in the mapping of around 50% of the continent.

Robin's own contributions to polar research were just as remarkable. These include at least five field expeditions to the Antarctic and arctic regions; co-production of the radio-echo sounding system which resulted in the first reliable measurement of ice thickness, the discovery of Lake Vostock under the Antarctic Ice Sheet; the identification and definition of ice streams flowing into the Ross Ice Shelf, large scale ice dynamics, and many other significant finds; the principal of using satellites to observe Earth from space; and the discovery of some of the mechanisms behind ice core temperature records. Even after official retirement, Robin continued to work at SPRI for many years as a senior research associate.

Robin held many other key positions, including Permanent UK Delegate to the world's coordinating body of Antarctic research, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research from 1958 to 1984; director of the British Antarctic Survey in 1993-1994; and a founding Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge (1964). He received the top prize in glaciology - the Seligman Crystal, as well as numerous other honours and awards from all over the world for his outstanding contribution to glaciology and geophysics.

1939 1939 Education - Bachelor of Science (BSc), University of Melbourne 1942 1942 Education - Master of Science (MSc), University of Melbourne 1947 1948 Career position - Base Commander of the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey at Signy Island 1948 1949 Career position - Researcher on the cyclotron project then Lecturer in the Physics department at Birmingham University 1949 1952 Career position - Officer third in command and Physicist on the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition on seismic sounding c. 1952 c. 1952 Award - Kongens Fortjensmedalje, Maudheim - Norwegian Medal for Civil Services received 1952 1952 Award - Polar Medal (1950-1952), British Antarctic Survey 1952 1952 Award - Back Grant, Royal Geographical Society 1953 1953 Award - Bruce Medal, Royal Society of Edinburgh 1956 1956 Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Birmingham University 1957 1957 Career position - Researcher, Australian National University, Canberra 1958 c. 1970 Career position - Honorary Secretary, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 1958 1982 Career position - Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, UK c. 1958 1984 Career position - Permanent UK Delegate to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 1964 1964 Career position - Fieldwork trip to Northwest Greenland 1965 1965 Career position - Mapping the Antarctic Ice Sheet by Satellite Altimetry key paper presented in Canada 1966 1966 Career position - First ever continuous airborne soundings achieved (Airborne radio echo sounding (RES) experiments), Ellesmere Island in Canada 1967 1968 Career position - Airborne RES studies in Antarctica 1969 1970 Career position - RES studies in Antarctica 1970 1974 Career position - President, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 1974 1975 Career position - RES studies in Antarctica 1977 1977 Education - Doctor of Science (ScD), University of Cambridge 1978 1978 Education - Honorary Doctorate (DPhil), University of Stockholm, Sweden 1979 1979 Award - Patron's Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society 1982 Career position - Senior Research Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute 1986 1986 Award - Seligman Crystal, International Glaciological Society 1988 2004 Career position - Emeritus Fellow Darwin College, Cambridge

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 Robin, G de Q (1921-2004)

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 'Robin, Gordon de Quetteville', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Robin, Gordon de Quetteville Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Journal Article: Gordon de Quetteville Robin Drewry, David J. Gordon de Quetteville Robin 2003 Polar record 39 61-78 Journal Article: Children of the 'Golden Age' - Gordon de Quetteville Robin Drewry, D. J. Children of the 'Golden Age' - Gordon de Quetteville Robin 2003 Polar Record 39 208 61-78 Journal Article: A Remembrance - Gordon de Quetteville Robin Drewry, D. J. A Remembrance - Gordon de Quetteville Robin 2005 Polar Record 41 217 177-181 Robin, Gordon De Quetteville (b 1921) Polar Scientist The National Archives, UK Robin, Gordon De Quetteville (b 1921) Polar Scientist GB/NNAF/P24464 1949-52: notebooks related to the Norwegian-British-Swedish Expedition