User:Fionajanemyers/sandbox

Malcolm Mellor, was a glaciologist and polar engineer who lived in Hanover, New Hampshire. Born in Stalybridge in 1933 and educated in England, he began studying cold regions by taking part in Nottingham University expeditions to Vatnajokull and later to Spitsbergen. He wintered at Mawson, Antarctica in 195 7 with the Australian Antarctic Division and did summer work at Davis and Wilkes stations. He spent the next 32 years in the USA, except while obtaining a PhD degree at the University of Sheffield. The University of Melbourne recognized his work with a DSc in Applied Science. Initially working on snow problems for the US Army Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE) in Evanston, he moved to Hanover in 1961 when SIPRE became the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Mellor's research spanned nearly every branch of pure and applied glaciology, from the mass balance of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets to cold regions engineering, avalanches, drifting snow, icebergs, sea ice and permafrost. His experimental and theoretical work covered the physical properties of snow and ice; surface and undersnow construction; cutting, drilling, trenching, tunneling and blasting in snow, ice, permafrost and hard rock — even on the sea bed; snow removal and ice control; oversnow transport and polar aviation; offshore structures; undersea pipelines and cables; icebreaking and towing ships through pack ice; machine design; and nuclear power systems. These interests led to field work not only in Antarctica and Greenland but also in Siberia, Korea, Alaska and arctic Canada. His 150 publications and 90 unpublished reports include several monographs widely used as standard textbooks on snow, ice and permafrost engineering. As consultant to the US National Science Foundation he was involved with many aspects of Antarctic engineering and directed CRREL's research in this field. On learning of Canadian flights from Chile to the Ellsworth Mountains using transport aircraft on wheels, he was quick to see the potential value of inland ice runways for aircraft operations in support of the US Antarctic Program. His initiative led to successful LC-130 wheel landings on Mill Glacier and to widespread searches for further runways on naturally occurring bare ice. A permanent ice runway was under development near McMurdo Station at the time of his death. A lifelong innovator, he deplored the inflexibility of logistic practices in Antarctica and did much to inspire changes. Mellor held one US patent and had three pending, and was widely employed as consultant not only to governments but also to industrial clients and public services. He was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cold Regions Science and Technology since its inception, and served on the International Commission on Snow and Ice and many other bodies. He was awarded the Polar Medal and (on two occasions) the US Antarctic Service Medal. Mellor Glacier is named after him. Mellor was a keen sailor, scuba diver, skier, mountaineer and pilot. He died of a heart attack in 1991.