The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has awarded Dr Walter Immerzeel the James B. Macelwane medal for his outstanding research into the water balance of the Himalaya mountain range. He is also being given the singular honour of being made an AGU fellow. The AGU bestows the award annually on a maximum of five outstanding early career scientists for their major contributions to the geophysical sciences.
What is the connection between climate change, water, glaciers, snow and the atmosphere? To find an answer to this question, 43-year-old Walter Immerzeel carries out research in the Himalayas, which are dubbed the water tower of Asia. Over a quarter of the world’s population is dependent on the water of this enormous mountain range and this makes it immensely important to understand how the processes involved impact each other.

Charting the water tower

Immerzeel is, for example, using drones to chart the mountain range’s giant glaciers. He employs other instruments to measure things such as the thickness of the ice, the amount of rain and snow, and the temperature and amount of water in the rivers. He uses all this data to improve existing hydrological models, so that better forecasts can be made of how the provision of water will change in the future.

About Immerzeel

Immerzeel obtained his doctorate in physical geography in 2008 from Utrecht University. As a post-doctoral researcher, he received an NWO Veni grant and worked for many years for organisations including the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development which advances research on the Himalayas. He went on to work for three years at ETH Zurich, returning to Utrecht University in 2014. At Utrecht, Immerzeel was awarded grants including an ERC Starting Grant in 2015 and an NWO Vidi grant in 2016.

Award ceremony

“The medal is seen as one of the most important awards for young geoscientists,” Immerzeel explains. “Part of the prize is that I get the honour of giving a Union Lecture during the AGU Fall Meeting in December this year. It will be a lecture on my research and will be open to all 25,000 colleagues attending the congress.” It is during the congress that Immerzeel will be actually awarded the medal.

The James B. Macelwane medal

The James B. Macelwane medal has been awarded by the AGU since 1961 and is named in honour of the US seismologist, James B. Macelwane (1883 – 1956). Macelwane was president of the AGU from 1953 until his death in 1956.