Jinman takes pole position with help from University of Plymouth
23 February 2010

Explorer Antony Jinman sets off on an epic journey to the North Pole tomorrow with the help of major sponsorship from the University of Plymouth.

Antony is part of an expedition that will walk 480 miles from Cape Discovery to the North Pole over the next 10 weeks. He is being funded jointly by the University and by Microsoft Bing. As well as collecting samples to return to the School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Antony will be posting a daily blog to enable people to track the expedition and ask questions.

“I love living in Artic conditions,” he says. “In addition, I want this expedition to be an inspiration to young people to get involved in science as a career.” On his return in mid-June, Antony will be taking part in a series of outreach events in local schools through the University’s Widening Participation remit and partnership with his new non profit company ‘Education Through Expeditions’. “My aim is simple. It is to inspire and educate children globally about world climate change and to do so through my interactive expeditions and related school outreach work. My focus is primarily, but not exclusively, on the arctic regions, its Inuit people, its animals and landscape.”

School Children can ask questions directly to the expedition by emailing info@educationthroughexpeditions.org. Each week a competition will be held for winning questions to be sent to Antony’s Satellite Phone where the team will answer via their blog. Each question picked will receive a signed expedition photograph, so remember to add your school’s address and put your thinking caps on.

The first part of his journey will be a flight from London to Ottawa on Wednesday morning. From there he will transfer by internal flight to Cape Discovery, where he will meet his expedition companions, “Eric Larsen”:http://www.ericlarsenexplore.com/ and Darcy St-Laurent

The expedition will have to cope with harsh conditions. Currently, the temperature at Cape Discover is -23 C, although it should be nearer to -50 C at this time of year. The explorers will have to be careful that the ice is safe enough to cross.

Anthony’s expedition to the North Pole will expand knowledge of the high Arctic greatly enhancing the range of sea ice data and will provide increased confidence in sea ice reconstructions. The logistical and technical difficulties in obtaining such samples make this opportunity unique in terms of moving forward in climate change studies within the Arctic.

Professor Simon Belt says; “This exciting opportunity will provide us with a unique set of Arctic sea ice and seawater samples collected from northern Canada right up to the North Pole. The way that Antony will be collecting sea ice and seawater samples is simply not possible through conventional ship-based sampling, and the samples could provide clues about how the Arctic is changing now and has changed in the past.”

ENDS
Notes to editors:
For more information, please telephone Alison Theaker in the University of Plymouth Press Office on 01752 588004.

About the University of Plymouth

Consistently ranked one of the top modern universities in the UK, Plymouth has a strong record of excellence, enterprise and innovation across its teaching and research activities and is distinguished by its long-term engagement with employers.

With around 30,000 students, including those studying at its partner FE colleges throughout the South West, the university is one of largest in the UK. With four government-funded Centres for Excellence in Teaching & Learning, the maximum awarded to any single institution, the university enjoys a high rate of graduate employment and has recently invested more than £110 million in state-of-the-art facilities to enhance the student experience.

Plymouth is ranked in the top 50 research universities in the UK*. The results of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 showed the majority of areas submitted by the university included world-leading research, achieving the highest rating possible, scoring 4 stars. Overall, 80% of the research was judged as being of international repute.

As the enterprise university, the University of Plymouth delivers outstanding economic, social and cultural return for business, the professions, the public sector and its wider community.

For further information go to www.plymouth.ac.uk

*Research Fortnight league table

About Antony Jinman

To track the expedition go to www.antonyjinman.com

Satellite Image of the sea ice on the 22nd of Feb, route which will be taken is the dark line.