Marek Ziebart

Eulogy for the Awesome Professor Seymour Laxon It was with great sadness that I learnt of the recent death of my friend and colleague, Seymour Laxon. I've worked at University College London (UCL) since 2000 and I met Seymour soon after joining. We have a mutual friend in ex-British Antarctic Survey scientist Dave Mantripp. Now, part of the problem of working at a place like UCL is that you begin to think that exceptional is the norm. People like Seymour change the world; they effect that change in a quiet, determined way. They are the key scientific figures of their time. Look at the list of Seymour’s accomplishments, the work that he and Duncan Wingham and their group have done: it is breath-taking. Moreover, it is breath-takingly important – Seymour was working at the very heart of issues that will affect everyone on the planet. Just read that back again: everyone on the planet. None of that went to Seymour’s head – he was one of the most professional, dedicated s...

Well here I go ---- Ich bin ein Blogger. In a simple sequence of keystrokes I join the set of people who blog, I join with that shadowy brotherhood and sisterhood typing feverishly in and into cyberspace. I hope to high heaven this is not some dreadful mistake. Perhaps I should set out my stall? My name is Marek Ziebart and I'm a professor (of Space Geodesy - let's address that particular subject later) at University College London (UCL), England. It is a great place to work. In some respects being there is like sitting on a bench on the concourse of a busy railway station, like London's Waterloo or Kings Cross/St Pancras. There is a constant flicker of people passing through, flooding onto trains that carry them away into the landscape. Some people arrive flustered, some calm and collected. Some are weighed down with luggage, some are travelling light. Some of them have lost their hats. Some look hopefully at the arrivals board, some look ...