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Jack D. Ives (born 15 October 1931 in Grimsby, England) is a
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
montologist, an Honorary Adjunct Research Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at
Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...
in
Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, an author, and a prominent advocate of mountain issues at the global level. He was formerly director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder, founding editor of two peer-reviewed journals, chair of the Commission on High Altitude Geoecology under the auspices of the
International Geographical Union The International Geographical Union (IGU; french: Union Géographique Internationale, UGI) is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the estab ...
, and a senior advisor on mountain ecology and sustainable development for
United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thro ...
.


Family and education

Ives was born in
Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, on 15 October 1931. In 1947 and 1948, as a high school student, he traveled by trawler to Arctic
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, his first exposure to the landscapes that would shape his career. He studied geography at the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
, and organized that institution's first undergraduate glaciological expeditions to
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
, leading groups of students to
Skaftafell Skaftafell () is a preservation area in Öræfi, southeast Iceland. It was once a major farm, later being named a national park. Originally known as Skaftafell National Park, it was subsequently joined together with other nearby regions to form t ...
and
Vatnajökull Vatnajökull ( Icelandic pronunciation: , literally "Glacier of Lakes"; sometimes translated as Vatna Glacier in English) is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and the second largest in area in Europe after the Severny Island ice ...
in 1952, 1953, and 1954. On 11 September 1954, immediately after witnessing a
jökulhlaup A jökulhlaup ( ) (literally "glacial run") is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst flood ...
(also known as a
glacial lake outburst flood A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jö ...
, or GLOF) at
Skeiðará Skeiðará () is a relatively short glacier river (about 30 km long). It has its source on the glacier Skeiðarárjökull, one of the southern arms of the Vatnajökull in the south of Iceland. In spite of its short length, this river has a b ...
, Ives married Pauline Angela H. Cordingley. They then emigrated to
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, where Ives obtained a doctorate in geography from
McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
,
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
in 1956. Since Jack retired from his position at the University of California in 1997, the Ives have lived in Ottawa; they have four adult children and five grandchildren.


Career

Ives began his career as a geomorphologist, with particular interest in glaciated and periglacial landscapes. His focus broadened over the years, and he became an advocate for both conservation and for equitable policies regarding the interests of indigenous stakeholders. González-Trueba and García-Ruiz conclude that "The contribution of Professor Ives to the study, knowledge, protection and development of mountain areas is incalculable."


Canada

From 1956 to 1957 Ives served as a research associate at the McGill Subarctic Research Station (MSARS) in
Schefferville Schefferville is a town in the Canadian province of Quebec. Schefferville is in the heart of the Naskapi and Innu territory in northern Quebec, less than 2 km (1¼ miles) from the border with Labrador on the north shore of Knob Lake. It i ...
, Quebec. Along with his wife Pauline, he explored the Labrador-Ungava Peninsula, with the result that he was able to overturn the current hypothesis about the repeated growth and disappearance of ice sheets in northeastern North America during the Quaternary period. Specifically,
Richard Foster Flint Richard Foster Flint (March 1, 1902 - June 6, 1976) was an American geologist. Biography He was born in Chicago on March 1, 1902. Flint graduated from the University of Chicago and earned his Ph.D. in geology at the University of California gr ...
had argued that the North American ice sheet originated in the
Torngat mountains The Torngat Mountains are a mountain range on the Labrador Peninsula at the northern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador and eastern Quebec. They are part of the Arctic Cordillera.
, accumulating in the coastal zone and then spreading westward down the inland slopes of the Torngats; this scenario would have been a mirror image of the well-documented model of glaciation in northern Europe. Based on geomorphological evidence, as well as on his perception that the so-called Torngat Mountain Range is actually an escarpment on the edge of a tilted peneplain with almost no western slopes, Ives refuted the previous model, proposing instead that inception of glaciation occurred across wide areas of the plateau as climate change permitted year-round snow cover to accumulate, a process he refers to as ''instantaneous glacierization.'' On completion of his doctorate, Ives was appointed assistant professor in McGill's Department of Geography, and, from 1957 to 1960, he served as Field Director of McGill Subarctic Research Station, where he initiated field research programs on permafrost and on the glaciation and deglaciation of Labrador-Ungava. From 1960 to 1967 Ives was assistant director and then director of the Geographical Branch of Canada's Department of Energy, Mines and Resources in Ottawa. In that capacity he coordinated seven interdisciplinary expeditions to
Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...
.


Boulder, Colorado

From 1967 to 1979 Ives served as director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, and professor of geography from 1967 to 1989. In 1968
Carl Troll Carl Troll (24 December 1899 in Gabersee – 21 July 1975 in Bonn), was a German geographer, brother of botanist Wilhelm Troll. From 1919 until 1922 Troll studied biology, chemistry, geology, geography and physics at the Universität in München. ...
founded the Commission on High Altitude Geoecology under the auspices of the
International Geographical Union The International Geographical Union (IGU; french: Union Géographique Internationale, UGI) is an international geographical society. The first International Geographical Congress was held in Antwerp in 1871. Subsequent meetings led to the estab ...
, and invited Ives to join the organizing committee. In alternation with his collaborator
Bruno Messerli Bruno Messerli (17 September 1931, in Belp – 4 February 2019) was a Swiss geographer and university professor who focused on high mountains and highland-lowland linkages. He was appointed Full Professor of Geomorphology in 1968 by the Univers ...
, Ives served as president of that Commission from 1972 to 1980 and 1988–1996. While at Boulder, Ives founded and edited two peer-reviewed quarterly journals. ''Arctic and Alpine Research'' first appeared in 1969. In 1980 Ives, along with Roger Barry, Misha Plam, and Walther Manshard, founded the International Mountain Society (IMS). The society's stated purpose was: "...to strive for a better balance between mountain environment, development of resources, and the well-being of mountain peoples.." The IMS functioned as publisher of record for ''Mountain Research and Development'', which 1981 Jack founded, and with Pauline edited, in 1981. Jack served as president of the IMS from 1980 to 2000. In 1973 Ives participated in the first meeting of the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) Project 6 - Mountains, and was elected chair of the MAB-6 International Working Group, which started the ball rolling for the establishment in 1983 of the
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre serving the eight regional member countries (RMCs) of thHindu Kush Himalaya(HKH) region - Afghanistan, Ban ...
(ICIMOD) in
Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
,
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. In 1979 the INSTAAR alpine research area at
Niwot Ridge Niwot Ridge is an alpine ecology research station located 65 km north-west of Denver in north-central Colorado. It is on the Front Range of the southern Rocky Mountains and lies within the Roosevelt National Forest. Niwot Ridge is high. Chara ...
was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. From 1978 to 2000, Ives served as Research Coordinator for the United Nations University's project on Highland-Lowland Interactive Systems, later to be renamed Mountain Geoecology and Sustainable Development, which entailed fieldwork in the Himalayas, northern Thailand, Yunnan (China), Tajikistan, and Ecuador. In 1982 and 1986, Ives was the primary organizer of the Mohonk Mountain conferences at
Mohonk Mountain House The Mohonk Mountain House, also known as Lake Mohonk Mountain House, is an American resort hotel located south of the Catskill Mountains on the crest of the Shawangunk Ridge. The property lies at the junction of the towns of New Paltz, Marbletow ...
in New York, sponsored by the UNU and the Mohonk Foundation. One result of the conferences was the publication of ''The Himalayan Dilemma'' (Ives and Messerli, 1989), which challenged the popular theory according to which highland population growth and poor land management by uneducated farmers was leading to catastrophic deforestation of the Himalayas.


Davis, California

Beginning in 1989 Ives served as Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the
University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
. In 1993, after the disestablishment of the Geography Department, he transferred to the UC Davis Division of Environmental Studies. A chain reaction had been set in motion by the 1982 and 1986 Mohonk Mountain Conferences. UN Under-Secretary General
Maurice Strong Maurice Frederick Strong, (April 29, 1929 – November 27, 2015) was a Canadian oil and mineral businessman and a diplomat who served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.E Masood (2015) Maurice Strong, Nature 528(7583), 480. Strong ...
, who had served as Honorary Chair of Mohonk II, became the Secretary General of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro
Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...
, also known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Strong supported the proposals that had grown out of the Mohonk Mountain conferences, elaborated in publications by Jack Ives (notably ''The Himalayan Dilemma''), and promoted by a group known formally as Mountain Agenda, but also referred to as the Mountain Mafia. Their vision of a world awakened to the importance and fragility of mountains was shaped in part by the success of ocean advocate
Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). T ...
(who was also invited to the Earth Summit), and by the UNU's semi-autonomous World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER). Mountain Agenda prepared for the Rio Summit a 400-page book, ''State of the World's Mountains: A Global Report'' and a 44-page summary booklet, ''An Appeal for the Mountains''. Ives with Bruno Messerli and colleges organized the inclusion of "Chapter 13 — Managing Fragile Ecosystems — Sustainable Mountain Development" in its final publication, ''Agenda 21''.United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. ''Agenda 21 : Programme of Action for Sustainable Development ; Rio Declaration on Environment and Development ; Statement of Forest Principles: The Final Text of Agreements Negotiated by Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 3–14 June 1992, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.'' New York, NY: United Nations Dept. of Public Information, 1993. The message of Chapter 13 has echoed for the ensuing three decades. A new hardcover volume was produced, ''Mountains of the World: A Global Priority'' ( Messerli and Ives, ed. 1997). It was produced as the centerpiece of the review of Chapter 13 in 1997 at the Rio-Plus-Five at United Nations headquarters in New York City. Among the recommendations for mountain research and stewardship in the volume is Ives' proposal for the "creation of a montology — a science that is sensitive to mountain policy" — an "interdisciplinary, intercontinental, intersectoral" field (p. 464) responsive to the complexities of the challenges and opportunities inherent in mountains. Meanwhile, dozens of new governmental offices for mountain stewardship and non-governmental agencies, all focusing on the "people mountain interface" had been established around the world. On 11 December 2001, Ives, representing Dr. Hans J. A. van Ginkel, Rector of United Nations University, delivered a keynote address to the United Nations General Assembly. The
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
declared 2002 International Year of the Mountain, in observance of the 10-year anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit, and December 11 itself was designated the annual International Mountain Day going forward. Since then, the mountain agenda articulated in 1992 has become entrenched at all functional levels, from grassroots activism, to national policy and global programs.


Ottawa

After retiring from UC Davis, Dr. Ives returned to Ottawa, Canada, where he was appointed Honorary Research Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies by
Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...
. In the past two decades, Ives has authored five monographs and numerous shorter works.


Major works

The following is a list of books either authored or edited by Jack D. Ives. *(with Roger Barry) * *(with Bruno Messerli) *(with Bruno Messerli) ; also published hardcover in German, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese * * * * * * *; 2017 PubWest Book Design Silver Award Winner for Historical or Biographical Book


Honors and awards

*
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, 1976 * Mel Marcus Distinguished Career Award, Geomorphology Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), 2000 * Distinguished Career Award, Mountain Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), 2000 *
King Albert I Albert I (8 April 1875 – 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. Born in Brussels as the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-S ...
Gold Medal, 2002 *
Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...
of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, 2006 * Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon, Iceland, 2007 * Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal, 2015 * A
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
was published in his honor in 2016: Mainali, Kumar; Sicroff, Seth (eds.).'' Jack D. Ives, Montologist: Festschrift for a Mountain Advocate.'' Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 94–97. .


References


External links


Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Jack 1931 births Living people 20th-century geographers British expatriate academics in Canada Carleton University faculty Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal