Yao Tandong

Dr Yao Tandong (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) has played a leading role in the international community in the field of climate and ice-core research.  He has initiated foundational work in Tibetan Plateau climate reconstruction from ice cores and glacier fluctuations, as well as research in environmental change and its impact on the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding regions.

One of  Dr Yao’s most influential areas of research has been his exceptional contributions that advanced understanding of the response of glaciers to climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding regions. His pioneering work includes interpretation of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in ice cores and  precipitation across the Tibetan Plateau. For example, Dr Yao initiated in-situ glacier mass-balance measurements on the Tibetan Plateau that provide unprecedented information about the heterogeneity of mass changes in the region. He also demonstrated that a significant relationship exists between these isotopes in precipitation collected across the northern Tibetan Plateau and air temperature, one of the first such correlations established outside the polar regions.

He further identified abrupt climatic changes in this tropical–subtropical region on different timescales, including transitions from glacial to interglacial stages.

Dr Yao’s contributions include influential leadership in conducting innovative and cross-disciplinary pioneering research by organizing international groups: he was the founder of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the 2000s, has served as the Director of the institute for the past 15 years and has served as co-chair of the Third Pole Environment program since 2009, addressing ‘water–ice–air–vegetation–rock (soil)–human’ interactions in the Third Pole region.

Dr Yao’s remarkable contributions to the fields of glaciology, climatology and environmental change across the Third Pole have been invaluable in assessing the impacts of the recent anthropogenic influences in this critical, but historically understudied region. Dr Yao has played a seminal role in  bringing international attention to what remains one of the most difficult to access and least studied regions of the world.

On behalf of the Awards Committee of the International Glaciological Society
Jeremy Bassis, Chair.