Marine Science Pioneer Award Honoring Dr. Helen Czerski
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Presentation and Award Program begins at 7:00 p.m. at Terry Concert Hall. Free and Open to the Public. To register for the event, please click here: www.ju.edu/msri/pioneeraward-registration
About the Marine Science Pioneer Award
The Jacksonville University Marine Science Pioneer Award is presented to an exemplary leader in marine science whose visionary leadership has served as an inspiration to others, particularly students. Their influence extends well beyond marine science. This extraordinary individual fully embraces the University's ideal of a lifelong learner, bringing to bear their remarkable talents to create new opportunities to lead, live, and learn.
Learn more about the JU Marine Science Research Institute
Marine Science Pioneer Award Recipient
About Award Winner Dr. Helen Czerski
Physicist and Oceanographer at University College London's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Author of The Blue Machine and Storm in a Teacup
Helen is a physicist, first and foremost, but she’s acquired a few other labels along
the way: oceanographer, presenter, author and bubble enthusiast. She was born and
brought up near Manchester in the northwest of England and spent her childhood playing
by the canals and along the old railway routes of the early Industrial Revolution.
Math and science (especially physics) always felt as though they would be her focus
in the long term, and she studied Natural Sciences (Physics) at Churchill College,
Cambridge, finishing with a first-class degree. A year later, she returned to Cambridge
to study for a PhD in experimental explosives physics, motivated by the opportunity
to use high-speed photography to explore the physical world further.
After her PhD, she looked around for another subject that would allow her to continue
to build that sort of experiment, but with an application in the natural world. That’s
when she found out about bubbles and oceans. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography
in San Diego was her door into that world, followed by a postdoc at the Graduate School
of Oceanography in Rhode Island. And then she came back to the UK to start her own
research program on the physics of oceanic bubbles, first at the University of Southampton
and then at her current academic home, University College London.
Helen gets particularly excited about the physics of the everyday world and the oceans.
Looking up at the cosmos is very important for our awareness of our place in the universe,
but the vast majority of the rules that make the universe tick can be seen around
us in our daily lives. Helen loves to play with the world, and to encourage others
to have confidence in their ability to explore it and think about it too. And the
oceans are the heart of the Earth’s engine, the system of atmosphere, rocks, ice,
life and ocean that makes up our planetary life support system. Beyond the purely
scientific, Helen is fascinated by the relationship between human civilizations and
the oceans, and how these vast expanses of blue have shaped and influenced the structure
of human society.
Since 2011, she has presented many BBC science documentaries on a wide range of subjects,
mostly on everyday physics or atmospheric and ocean science. She is also a regular
presenter for the Fully Charged Show, a very familiar face on the Cosmic Shambles
Network, and hosts an ocean podcast for the Bertarelli Foundation called Ocean Matters.
She is passionate about conveying the beauty and ingenuity of the physical world around
us, and the perspective on the world that science provides. In addition to presenting,
she is a writer and speaker, and also regularly hosts and chairs science events.