Chris Burn, a professor in Carleton’s geography department, has been awarded the 2018 Governor General of Canada’s Polar Medal.
The award “celebrates Canada’s northern heritage and recognizes his extraordinary services in the polar regions and Canada’s North,” a Carleton press release said.
According to Burn, the award was a “surprise” because he heard about it coming back from doing field work in Northern Canada.
“It’s a great honour,” he said. “I interpret it as a recognition of some of the ways I do my work in the North being things that are to be celebrated.”
Burn said his research is about the impact of climate change on permafrost—it is an understanding of how different parts of the landscape respond to climate change.
He said he first got interested in the subject of permafrost during a lecture in his second year of undergraduate studies.
“That lecture crystalized in my head—this is a very interesting environment to work in and I wanted to work in it,” he said.
Emma Stockton, a first-year PhD student in geology, said she’s known Burn for three years and pursued her degree at Carleton because of him and his research.
“I’m kind of not surprised that he’s won something quite as prestigious as that,” she said.
According to Burn, permafrost affects the sustainability of northern infrastructure.
“Our forecasts underestimate what the environment is doing,” he said. “It’s accurate time and time again but our anticipation so far has been an underestimate of what happens.”
Burn said he’s motivated by wanting to always learn more and working in the field. He first went to the Arctic in 1982 while doing his master’s degree.
“For me, it’s partly a question of going to a place I’m accepted and welcomed into a community,” he said.
“That’s probably actually the greatest personal motivation that when I am in the North, I don’t feel like I’m a long way from home.”
Photo by Spencer Colby
