Gerald Holdsworth

Gerald (Gerry) Holdsworth was educated in New Zealand and the United States where he obtained a Ph D in Geology, specializing in Geophysics. He came to Ottawa in 1969 to take up a position with the (then) Department of Energy Mines and Resources as Head of the Arctic Section of the Glaciology Sub-Division within Hydrological Sciences Division. He did glacier surveys on Baffin Island and Ellesmere Island before turning attention to Mount Logan in the Yukon. In 1980 he moved to Calgary with the Department of Environment that evolved from earlier Government Departments. He has specialized in high altitude ice core research since then and collaborates with scientists from the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto

Gerry brings four decades of world-class science and polar and mountain experience to the harsh and exacting conditions at King Col. He was born in New Zealand in 1939. After an initial degree in civil engineering, he studied geology and then glaciology, eventually winning a fellowship at the Institute of Polar Studies at Ohio State University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Geology/Geophysics in 1969. During his professional career, he held senior research positions with Canada's Department of Energy Mines and Resources and Department of Environment, including the National Hydrology Research Institute. His extensive remote travels include the Andes (where he recorded several first ascents), Canada's western mountains, the Arctic Archipelago and have even included an Arctic Ocean "ice island". In 1974 he turned to Mount Logan as a promising ice core site for paleo-environmental studies. In 1980, he led the first ice-coring project on Mt. Logan and following that has been six times back to the mountain. Since 1992, he has conducted his research at the Arctic Institute of North America, located at the University of Calgary. In Gerry Holdsworth, ICE2001 is fortunate to have an authority on the science of the icefields and mountain glaciers of the eastern part of the St. Elias Mountains.