New Arnold Heine Antarctic Research Award
New Zealand and Antarctic glaciologist, Arnold Heine, has generously donated to the Antarctic Research Centre to establish the Arnold Heine Antarctic Research Award to support future generations of Antarctic researchers.
Arnold began his “Antarctican” career working with the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research (DSIR) during the first IGY year. Originally selected to spend the 1958 winter at Scott Base, he headed south in December 1956 to familiarise himself with all “things” Antarctic. He ended up on the 1957/58 NZGS Tucker Glacier Expedition and following 1958/59 NZGS Wood Bay Expedition. Learning the skills of interpreting annual layering of snow pit stratigraphy proved useful in collecting nuclear fallout samples for Athol Rafter, Director of DSIR Nuclear Sciences. It also saw the beginning of the McMurdo Ice Shelf Project. After spending the 1959 winter at Scott Base, he joined an international team for a traverse of North Victoria Land as assistant glaciologist. He transferred to the new Antarctic Division of DSIR in 1962 as Field Officer. In addition, he organised the building of the Onyx River dam in the Wright Valley and the associated flow measurement of the Onyx River.
For his work in the Antarctic he was awarded the Polar Medal in 1969. After retiring in 1970 he continued working until 2016 as Secretary of the Trans Antarctic Association (NZ) that allocates funds to aspiring Antarctic researchers.
In 2018, Arnold approached the Victoria University of Wellington Foundation to set-up an award, now named the Arnold Heine Antarctic Research Award, to support Victoria postgraduate students studying a topic related to the Antarctic region or glaciology in New Zealand. The award will be run in conjunction with the ARC Endowed Development fund with similar funding criteria but will allow postgraduate students with New Zealand glaciology research topics to apply.