Robbie Mallett is a sea ice scientist at the Arctic University of Norway and specialises in polar field expeditions. He has worked on ice in Svalbard, High-Arctic Canada, the central Arctic Ocean, the Southern Ocean and overwintered on the Antarctic peninsula for eight months in 2023.
His research is typically conducted by icebreaker, helicopter and skidoo, and is designed to improve satellite measurements of environmental change. Robbie collaborates closely with the European Space Agency and advises it on its upcoming CRISTAL mission dedicated to measuring Earth’s melting ice.
Robbie has received fellowship awards from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and the International Arctic Science Committee, and was the 2026 RGS Walters Kundert Fellow. As part of his project Robbie spent a month working and camping on the sea ice as part of a joint ESA and NASA field campaign.
Alongside an international team, he used a helicopter and skidoo to collect data from remote field sites underneath ESA and NASA aircraft and satellites while also conducting a snow-science experiment involving carbon and nitrogen isotopes. These results will future-proof satellite monitoring of the polar regions as they continue to warm and melt.
