Dr. Heïdi Sevestre

Heïdi Sevestre was born in France and grew up in the French Alps. Her love of mountains, snow and ice have led her to study glaciers all around the world, from the French Alps to the Himalayas and Greenland to Antarctica. Sevestre studied physical geography at Lyon, was then awarded an M.Sc. in glaciology from the Welsh University of Aberystwyth, and completed a Ph.D. on surging glaciers at UNIS in Svalbard (the most northerly university on the planet) and the University of Oslo. The winner of the inaugural Shackleton Medal for the Protection of the Polar Regions, Sevestre is passionate about communicating the potential impacts of climate change while also emphasizing solutions and the importance of maintaining hope. Sevestre’s current roles include Deputy Secretary of the Secretariat of the Arctic Monitoring & Assessment Programme (AMAP), helping coordinate Arctic research and co-develop projects with Indigenous communities, guest lecturer and public speaker at The University of Svalbard, researching projects on the tropical glaciers in Colombia, and monitoring surging glaciers in Svalbard.