International recognition for Professor Bryden's ocean research

Professor Harry Bryden has been awarded the 2009 Prince Albert I Medal in recognition of his contributions to understanding the ocean's role in the global climate system.

The medal was presented in Montreal by the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans, IAPSO. Professor Bryden is the fifth laureate to be presented with the medal since the award was established in 2001 to recognise excellence in the physical sciences of the sea.

Professor Bryden studies the role of ocean heat and freshwater transports in maintaining the global climate system. In recent years his efforts have focussed on the Atlantic Meriodional Overturning Circulation (sometimes known as the Atlantic conveyor belt) that brings warm water from the tropics to the higher latitudes. He and his team have been instrumental in setting up a monitoring array that spans the Atlantic Ocean at 26 degrees north from the Saharan coast of Africa to the Bahamas. This array is providing a continuous record of the salinity, temperature and density of the ocean and is revealing that the Atlantic Ocean is more changeable than was previously thought.

Previous research had suggested that the Atlantic transports 19 Sverdrups (a Sverdrup is a measurement of flow that is equivalent to one million tonnes of water a second). The array is providing data that showing that although the average figure over a year is 19 Sverdrups, the flow can range from as little as 4 Sverdrups to as much as 35 Sverdrups.

Professor Bryden's work is helping climate modellers to produce more realistic climate change predictions. (See Rapid Watch Climate Change Programme: http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapid/sis/

The history of IAPSO is long and distinguished, starting in 1919, the year when the Association was established thanks to the vision and passion for the oceans of His Most Serene Highness Prince Albert I of Monaco. On 28 July 1919 the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) was founded in Brussels, Belgium. At that meeting, a section for Physical Oceanography was formed with Prince Albert I as its first President. Since then, the Physical Oceanography section of IUGG has evolved, becoming first the Association for Physical Oceanography in 1929; the International Association of Physical Oceanography in 1945; and finally IAPSO in 1967.

In September 2000, Paola Malanotte-Rizzoli, then the IAPSO President, wrote to HMSH Prince Rainier III of Monaco proposing the establishment of an award named for Prince Albert I to recognize his pioneering and extraordinary contributions to, and support of, Physical Oceanography. Prince Rainier III's answer was enthusiastic; he offered to present a most eminent scientist with the "Medal for Excellence in the Physical Sciences of the Oceans - IAPSO - Foundation Rainier III", engraved with this citation on one side and with the name of the laureate on the other. An official protocol was established and ratified by the Prince in February 2001. The Medal is awarded to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the enhancement and advancement of the physical and/or chemical sciences of the oceans. It is offered at every IAPSO General Assembly, every other year, to a most prominent scientist chosen by a specially appointed IAPSO Award Committee.