Stig Valter Schytt (17 October 1919 – 30 March 1985) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

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, climato ...

Biography

Schytt was born at

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of t ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden. He studied physics and mathematics at

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

and was awarded

Master of Philosophy The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...

in 1946, Licentiate in 1947 and Ph. D in 1958. He became a lector in geography at Stockholm University in 1943,

with the Swedish Antarctic Committee in 1948, research associate at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

in 1953 and assistant teacher in geography at Stockholm University in 1955. He became associated with the

Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council ( sv, Vetenskapsrådet) is a Government agency in Sweden established in 2001, with the responsibility to support and develop basic scientific research. Its objective is for Sweden to be a leading nation in scienti ...

(''Naturvetenskapliga forskningsrådet'') in 1963, an assistant professor in 1969 and was a professor from 1970. In 1974 he was elected into the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. He participated in the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition polar expedition to the Antarctic 1949–52. He also participated in important expeditions 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 ...

in 1954, to

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 is t ...

in 1954, to

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

in 1956, 1957, 1958 and

Deception Island Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands close to the Antarctic Peninsula with a large and usually "safe" natural harbor, which is occasionally troubled by the underlying active volcano. This island is the caldera of an act ...

in 1977. Schytt is mainly associated with the Ymer-80 expedition carried out by the icebreaker ''Ymer'' during the summer of 1980. Schytt initiated the

glacier mass balance Crucial to the survival of a glacier is its mass balance or surface mass balance (SMB), the difference between accumulation and ablation (sublimation and melting). Climate change may cause variations in both temperature and snowfall, causing c ...

studies at

Storglaciären Storglaciären (Swedish for ''The Great Glacier'') is a glacier in Tarfala Valley in the Scandinavian Alps of Kiruna Municipality, Sweden. The glacier is classified as polythermal having both cold and warm bottom temperatures. It was on Storglac ...

in the

Tarfala Valley Tarfala Valley (Swedish: ''Tarfaladalen'' or ''Tarfalavagge'', Northern Sami: ''Darfalvággi'') is a valley in Kiruna Municipality, Sweden. Several glaciers flow into the valley and glaciological research has been conducted since 1946 at the Tarf ...

. Started in 1945/46, it is the longest continuous study of this type in the world. He was promoting the Tarfala research station since its start. He died at the research station during a winter visit in March 1985.

Awards and Recognitions

For his outstanding work on the Ymer-80 Expedition, Valter Schytt was awarded the

Vega Medal The Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG; sv, Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi) is a scientific learned society founded in December 1877. It was established after a rearrangement of various sections of the Anthropo ...

, the highest award of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, in 1981. Also in 1981, Valter was awarded the

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 ...

from 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 ...

Schytt Glacier Schytt Glacier is a broad glacier about 60 miles (100 km) long, flowing northward between Giaever and Ahlmann Ridge in Queen Maud Land to the Jelbart Ice Shelf. Mapped by Norwegian cartographers from surveys and air photos by the Norwegian-B ...

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 contine ...

was named in honour of Stig Valter Schytt.

Biography

Awards and Recognitions

References

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