The Jungfraujoch high altitude research station and Max Perutz: Expeditions that shaped our understanding of glaciers

Event details

Yarburgh Lectures

Robin's father, Max Perutz, is best known for his work on the structure of proteins but he had a sideline: glaciers. He studied the crystallography of glacier ice at the Jungfraujoch High altitude Research Station in Switzerland in the late 1930s and the mechanism of glacier flow in the late 1940s.  These field trips proved much more challenging than Max had anticipated: the 1948 trip was a roller coaster that has provided family legend ever since. In April, Robin was the guest of honour for the ceremony to mark the naming of the Jungfraujoch Research Station as a “Chemical Landmark”. For the associated lecture, Robin set out to find out how his father's work had influenced our current understanding of glaciers and whether his theories had stood the test of time.