Karen Heywood

Early life and education Heywood attended the University of Bristol where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Physics followed by a PhD at the University of Southampton where her research investigated the heat budgets of mixed layers.

Career and research Following her PhD, Heywood was a postdoctoral researcher at Bangor University, working on eddies caused by flow around the Indian Ocean island of Aldabra. Since then Heywood has trained more than 40 PhD students

RRS Discovery 145, North Atlantic, 1984, 1991 RRS Charles Darwin, Indian Ocean, 1987 RRS Challenger, North Sea 1988 RV Wecoma, Eastern Pacific, 1989 RRS Discovery, South Atlantic, 1993 RRS James Clark Ross operated by the British Antarctic Survey, Southern Ocean, Nordic Seas, Weddell Sea and Amundsen Sea 1995-2014

Her work was exhibited at the Royal Society summer science fair in 2013.

Honours and awards Heywood received the Georg Wüst Prize in 2009 for her work in the southern ocean. She was also awarded the Challenger Medal for 2016 in recognition of her major contribution to physical oceanography both in the UK and worldwide; particularly for her contribution to understanding physical oceanographic processes in the Antarctic, for her work in applying novel techniques to understanding ocean processes and for her wider work in developing UK marine science, particularly within SCOR (Scientific Committee for Oceanographic Research).

The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) presented its 2015 Oceanography Award to Heywood for her outstanding contribution to the field of oceanography. In particular because she was an early advocate for the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as carriers of sensors and samplers in experiments. Her work has used sea gliders in the Antarctic, including under icebergs.

Heywood was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2019 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2021.

In 2020 the Heywood Glacier in Antarctica was named after her. It is located at 72°45’S, 61°45’W. The citation says "Glacier about 18 km long and 3 km wide flowing north from the Wegener Range, Palmer Land, to the west of Heezen Glacier, to join Maury Glacier. Named for Professor Karen Heywood (b. 1961), Professor of Physical Oceanography, University of East Anglia. Leader of six oceanographic research cruises to Antarctica since 1995, including Pine Island Bay, the Weddell Sea and the Scotia Sea and a pioneer of the use of autonomous ocean gliders".

Heywood was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to oceanography.

Selected publications

Garabato, A.C.N., K.L. Polzin, B.A. King, K.J. Heywood and M. Visbeck, 2004. Widespread intense turbulent mixing in the Southern Ocean. Science, 303 (5655), 210-213. doi:10.1126/science.1090929 Schmidtko, S., K.J. Heywood, A.F. Thompson and S. Aoki, 2014. Multidecadal warming of Antarctic waters. Science, 346 (6214), 1227-1231. doi:10.1126/science.1256117 Siddle, E., K.J. Heywood, B.G.M. Webber and P. Bromley, 2021. First measurements of ocean and atmosphere in the Tropical North Atlantic using Caravela, a novel uncrewed surface vessel. Weather, 76 (6), 200-204. doi:10.1002/wea.4004