Karen Heywood facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Karen Heywood
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| Born |
Karen Joy Heywood
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| Nationality | Britain |
| Alma mater | University of Bristol (BSc) University of Southampton (PhD) |
| Awards | Georg Wüst Prize (2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physical oceanography |
| Institutions | University of East Anglia Bangor University |
| Thesis | A Lagrangian study of the diurnal heating of the Upper Ocean (1986) |
| Doctoral advisor | Neil Wells |
Karen Joy Heywood is a British scientist who studies the ocean. She is a Professor of Physical Oceanography at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Professor Heywood is famous for her work using special robots to measure the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
Early Life and Education
Karen Heywood went to the University of Bristol and earned a degree in Physics. Later, she studied at the University of Southampton for her PhD. Her research there looked at how heat moves in the ocean's top layers.
Career and Ocean Research
After finishing her PhD, Professor Heywood worked at Bangor University. She studied ocean currents called "eddies" around an island in the Indian Ocean. Eddies are like swirling whirlpools in the water.
In 1989, she started teaching at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She became a full professor in 2005. This made her the first woman in the UK to be a professor of oceanography! Since then, she has helped more than 40 students get their PhDs. She wants to make sure more people study the ocean in the UK.
During the 1990s, Professor Heywood was a big part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment. This was a huge project to map ocean currents around the world. She led a research trip from Antarctica to Brazil in 1995. This trip made her very interested in the waters around Antarctica. She has worked closely with the British Antarctic Survey ever since.
Professor Heywood is a leader in using special underwater robots called "gliders." These gliders can travel through the ocean on their own. They collect important information about the water. She leads a team at UEA that uses these amazing robots.
She has been on many research trips on ships, including:
- RRS Discovery in the North Atlantic and South Atlantic
- RRS Charles Darwin in the Indian Ocean
- RRS James Clark Ross near Antarctica
Her work was even shown at a science fair at the Royal Society in 2013.
Awards and Recognition
Professor Heywood has received many awards for her important work. In 2009, she won the Georg Wüst Prize for her studies in the Southern Ocean. She also received the Challenger Medal in 2016. This award recognized her big contributions to understanding the ocean. It also honored her use of new technologies like underwater robots.
The Society for Underwater Technology gave her an award in 2015. They praised her for being one of the first to use autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These robots can carry sensors and collect samples. She has used them in Antarctica, even under giant icebergs!
In 2019, she became a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2021, she was named a Fellow of the Royal Society. These are very high honors in the science world.
A glacier in Antarctica was named after her in 2020! It is called the Heywood Glacier. This shows how important her work in polar regions has been.
In 2022, she was given the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This is a special honor from the British King or Queen for her services to oceanography.
