Very sad news indeed about Seymour Laxon, who died yesterday following a fall on New Year's Day. Mark Brandon has written a poignant article at http://mallemaroking.org/professor-seymour-laxon/
Pete.
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matt King
Sent: 02 Jan 2013 21:48
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: CRYOLIST Digest, Vol 35, Issue 2
very sad news re Seymour Laxon
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2013 18:26:16 +0000
From: "Giles, Katharine" <[log in to unmask]>
To: cryolist <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [CRYOLIST] Appreciation of Seymour Laxon
It is with a profound sense of shock and deep sadness that we write to inform you of the death of our friend and colleague, Seymour Laxon, following an accident on New Year's Day. As many of you will know, Seymour was at the heart of all the achievements and successes of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London (UCL) over the past two decades. It was Seymour who solved the problem of separating ice from water in altimeter signals. This allowed Seymour, and us, his colleagues, to extend the achievements of satellite altimetry into the Arctic Ocean, revealing, in turn, the Arctic geoid, its ocean dynamic topography, trends in the thickness and volume of its sea ice cover, and, more recently still, how the changing ice cover is affecting momentum transfer between the Arctic Ocean and the atmosphere. Seymour's work provided us confidence and evidence with which to propose, and eventually launch, the CryoSat mission, which is now - as his last paper describes - providing the first observations of the annual cycle of sea ice growth and decay throughout the Arctic Ocean.
Seymour was an empirical scientist, and the integrity with which he treated his data was matched by the integrity and generosity with which he treated his colleagues and students, many of whom are now furthering our understanding of the Arctic through their own careers in the UK and overseas. He was conscious too that when working with satellites, teams are as important as individuals, and many of us, scientists and engineers, are going to feel his loss whenever we gather together. Seymour was a UCL man through and through, from his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, postdoctoral positions, lectureships and most recently his Professorship, of which he was immensely and deservedly proud. Our thoughts are with his partner Fiona and their daughter Imogen. We are sure yours are too.
Duncan Wingham, Katharine Giles and Andrew Shepherd
------------------------------
|