University of Colorado at Boulder Senior Research Associate John Behrendt, a fellow emeritus of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, has been elected president of the American Polar Society for a two-year term.
Behrendt, who has conducted research in Antarctica for 50 years, has been a CU-Boulder faculty member since 1996. The American Polar Society, which has more than 1,100 members, was founded in 1934 to foster interest in research and exploration of the arctic and Antarctica.
Behrendt made his first trip to Antarctica in 1956 as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been involved in 13 Antarctic expeditions, most recently in 2003, and is one of only a handful of researchers in the world who have worked in Antarctica for six successive decades. His research includes the study of geophysical evidence for past volcanism beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
The Behrendt Mountains in Antarctica's Ellsworth Land, located on the southern Antarctic Peninsula, were named for him as a result of an expedition he led in the region in 1961 and 1962.
Behrendt received his doctorate from UW-Madison in 1961. He was a scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey for 31 years, and has been a delegate for 22 U.S. State Department Antarctic Treaty meetings.
He has authored two books on Antarctica. In 1998 he wrote "Innocents on Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration, 1957," and in 2005 he wrote "The Ninth Circle: A Memoir of Life and Death in Antarctica, 1960-1962."
Behrendt was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2002 and is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the Explorers Club. He has received the U.S. Antarctic Service Medal and the U.S. Department of Interior Meritorious Service award.