GRID-Arendal Director gets prestigious award

John Crump

By GRID-Arendal

May 28^th, 2018

Not many people have given much thought to what lies at the bottom of the ocean. But Peter Harris has.

Harris is GRID-Arendal’s Managing Director and he recently became the first Australian to be awarded the Francis P. Shepard Medal for Marine Geology. The medal has been awarded every year since 1967 to scientists “who have a sustained record of outstanding research contributions to Marine Geology.”

Harris received the award because of significant contributions he has made in a number of areas over the last 25 years. He has carried out pioneering work on tide-dominated coastal and shelf deposits, the sedimentary records of the Antarctic glaciation and of Antarctic bottom water formation and the geomorphology of ocean basins, especially submarine canyons.

“I am very honored and humbled to have been chosen to receive this award,” Harris said. “Marine geology is a team sport – no marine geologist has ever taken a sample of the seafloor or mapped the seabed without the help of colleagues, technicians and ship’s crew who all did their part. This award is not just for me, it’s for all my co-workers, past and present, as well.”

Harris received his first degree in Geology and Oceanography in 1981 from the University of Washington and went on to complete a Master’s and PhD at the University of Wales (Swansea), UK.

Maria Mutti, President of the Society for Sedimenatry Geology, presenting Peter Harris with the Shepard medal.

After completing his studies in 1984, he was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources (now Geoscience Australia) to work at the University of Sydney.

From 1994-2014 he served as the head of Geoscience Australia’s Antarctic and marine and coastal environment programmes. He published over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, documenting different aspects of the Australian and Antarctic continental margins. From the polar to the tropical, important discoveries include documenting the Holocene sedimentary record and influencing thinking how this process has changed over the centuries; describing a vast new area mesophotic coral reefs in the Gulf of Carpentaria off the coast of northern Australia; and developing and applying quantitative methods to characterize wave, tide and river power.

As a contribution to global marine science, Harris completed a seafloor geomorphic features map in 2014 (after compiling the first nation-scale version).

While still an active researcher, in the last five years Peter has widened his vision, with a mission to make science central to the decisions we make about our planet and how we use its resources.