Outstanding Young Scientist Award for lecturer with oceans of talent

Dr Erik van Sebille

Imperial oceanographer, has been recognised with an Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the EGU.

It was entirely unexpected and he still doesn’t know who nominated him, but Imperial lecturer, Dr Erik van Sebille is “super-stoked and honoured” to have picked up this prestigious award from the European Geosciences Union (EGU):

“I am quite excited to have this honour; it is the award for the European oceanographer community. I only just returned to Europe last year, so being recognised in this way is fantastic.”

The EGU’s awards programme celebrates important contributions to the Earth and to planetary and space sciences. Erik was recognised in the Ocean Sciences Division for his research on how heat, nutrients, marine organisms and plastics move between different regions of the ocean. He will pick up his prize in April, in Vienna.

Ensuring a wider circulation

Erik currently holds a joint lectureship between the Department of Physics and Imperial’s Grantham Institute.

“Imperial has chemists, engineers, a green energy group, policy-makers… all thinking about plastics in the ocean” says Erik. “When it comes to finding solutions, Imperial is perfectly positioned; all the world’s experts are within half a square mile.”

As his colleagues and students would doubtless testify, Erik is a particularly strong science communicator.

This really came to the fore after two recent disasters; the Fukushima tsunami and the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. In both instances, Erik’s innovative website adrift.org.au was used to illustrate how the related radioactivity and airplane debris would move through the ocean - and Erik was sought out as a clued-up commentator: ‘On the missing plane, I did 120 interviews in four weeks’, he says.

As well as appearing widely on television and radio, and in newspapers Erik already has more than 50 peer-reviewed articles on ocean circulation in specialist journals. “My friend jokes I’ll grow out of the ‘young’ part of this award”, he laughs, “but hopefully not the outstanding part.”

An opportune shift

While Erik’s passion for his subject is abundant, it could all have turned out very differently, had he pursued his original dream to become a weatherman on Dutch TV.

“I started studying physics and meteorology, and had the chance to go on a five-week research trip to the middle of the ocean.” He was immediately hooked: “Oceanography is so much more mysterious than meteorology. For example, maps we have of the ocean floor are 25 times less accurate than those we have of the surface of Mars.”

He quickly switched courses to oceanography - and has never looked back.

An invitation for alumni

Right now, Erik and his team are preparing for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, which will take place in London from 4 - 10 July. They are running a stand to show how plastic moves through the eco-system - to highlight the action we all need to take “to clean up the mess.”

Erik is particularly keen to extend an invitation to Imperial alumni to visit the team there, or at the Imperial Festival on 7 and 8 May.