Colin Ballantyne

Colin Kerr Ballantyne (born 7 June 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish geomorphologist, geologist, and physical geographer.

Education and career Colin K. Ballantyne graduated in 1973 with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow, where he studied geomorphology and Quaternary geology. Ballantyne graduated in 1975 with an MSc from Ontario's McMaster University, where he was part of a team studying high arctic hydrology and fluvial processes. In 1975 Ballantyne returned to Scotland and became a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh. There he graduated in 1980 with a PhD thesis on the periglacial geomorphology of mountains in northwestern Scotland. His PhD thesis was supervised by Brian Sissons (1926–2018).

At the University of St Andrews, Ballantyne was a lecturer in geography from 1980 to 1989, a senior lecturer in geography and geology from 1989 to 1994, and a professor of physical geography from 1994 to 31 January 2015, when he retired as professor emeritus. In the School of Geography and Geosciences of the University of St Andrews, he was the head from 1998 to 2000 and the director of research from 2007 and 2012. Since 2000 he is a guest professor at University Centre Svalbard in Svalbard, Norway. He was twice an Erskine Fellow at New Zealand's University of Canterbury, where he has taught summer school courses over many years. As a professor at the University of St Andrews, Ballantyne conducted annual honours field courses in Norway – on one such occasion his students included the future Duke of Cambridge.

Personal life Ballantyne is a mountain climber. He climbed all the Scottish Munros at least twice. He ascended Mount Kilimanjaro and climbed many mountains in New Zealand and Europe, including many of Norway's peaks over 2000 meters. Accompanied by Chris Bonington, he ascended Mount Elbrus. book data, University of St Andrews Research Portal