Mario Giovinetto (born 1933, La Plata, Buenos Aires Province,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

) is an Argentine

glaciologist Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clima ...

climatologist Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...

and

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

. He 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 ...

citizen with permanent resident status in the US.

Career

Mario Giovinetto was active in polar research beginning in 1952. He participated in projects supported by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

(US) and other federal research agencies in

and Canada. His field work experience includes three expeditions to high-mountain glaciers in the Andes Mountains (

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

) and in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

(1952–1955), winter stays at two Antarctic stations ( Byrd Station, 1957 and

South Pole Station South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

, 1958), and nine summer-seasons in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

and

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

(1953–1978). He has logged more than 2,000 miles of over-snow traverse, made observations at a number of sea-ice and iceberg sites, and spent approximately nine years as a member of small isolated teams working in demanding environments. His glaciology and climatology research was done while affiliated with the Instituto Antartico Argentino (Buenos Aires; 1953–1956),

Arctic Institute of North America The Arctic Institute of North America is a multi-disciplinary research institute and educational organization located in the University of Calgary. It is mandated to study the North American and circumpolar Arctic in the areas of natural scien ...

(New York; 1956–1959), Institute of Polar Studies (now Byrd Polar Research Center),

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

( Columbus); 1959–1961, and the Geophysical and Polar Research Center,

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

(

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

; 1961–1968). His research led to estimates of mass and energy exchange between atmosphere, ocean (including sea ice) and ice sheets of both hemispheres that are used in global climate change model construction. His contributions have been recognized in several awards from US and Argentine government agencies.

Mount Giovinetto Mount Giovinetto () is the summit of a buttress-type mountain (4,090 m) located north of Mount Ostenso and south of Mount Viets in the main ridge of the Sentinel Range, Antarctica. It surmounts Rumyana Glacier to the east and Delyo Glacier ...

is a !4090 m/1,3419 ft mountain named after him in the Antarctic

Ellsworth Mountains The Ellsworth Mountains are the highest mountain ranges in Antarctica, forming a long and wide chain of mountains in a north to south configuration on the western margin of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Marie Byrd Land. They are bisected by Minnesota ...

Sentinel Range The Sentinel Range is a major mountain range situated northward of Minnesota Glacier and forming the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains in Antarctica. The range trends NNW-SSE for about and is 24 to 48 km (15 to 30 mi) wide. Ma ...

.
MapPlanet: List of locations: "Giovinetto, Mount" In 2001 Giovinetto participated in a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Johnson Space Center workshop, "Antarctic Explorations Parallels for Future Human Planetary Exploration", where the isolated polar environment experience of researchers was used to help predict issues that could arise in human crew extraplanetary exploration. There are many parallels between a winter-long remote polar settlement and one on the Moon or Mars.

Education and affiliations

Mario Giovinetto's higher education began at the

Universidad Nacional de La Plata The La Plata National University ( es, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, UNLP) is one of the most important Argentine national universities and the biggest one situated in the city of La Plata, capital of Buenos Aires Province. It has over ...

and culminated in a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(1968) in Geography with a minor in

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

and

Geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has held academic positions at the University of Wisconsin, the University of California - Berkeley, and the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

where he served as department head. He was Principal Scientist at the Department of Geodynamics,

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitali ...

Technical Services Company and has held the appointment of

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

, University of Calgary.

Publications

Giovinetto has written or co-authored numerous technical reports, examples are: * * * ''Glaciological Studies on the McMurdo-South Pole Traverse, 1960-1961'' (Ohio State University, Institute of Polar Studies; no. 7; 1963) * *

References

External links

Antarctica's Last Sentinel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giovinetto, Mario 1933 births Canadian climatologists Canadian geophysicists Glaciologists Canadian geographers Living people Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine scientists Argentine emigrants to Canada