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Thursday 6 August 2020 11:33am

With 25 trips to Antarctica, and countless research articles and lectures under her belt, Professor Pat Langhorne officially retires on Friday. Communications Adviser (Sciences) Guy Frederick spoke with her about her career.

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Retiring Physics Professor, Pat Langhorne. Photo: Guy Frederick.

The surrounding windows of Professor Pat Langhorne’s fifth floor office frame a perfect panorama of Mount Cargill, tussock-draped Flagstaff and the deep green of the town belt.

In the office two large recycling bins sit poised and waiting for Pat to commence the daunting task of sorting the flotsam and jetsam that comes with a full and colourful academic career.

The office couldn’t be any further from Pat’s birthplace in Glasgow, but fast forward the clock and today she ponders the passing decades and her approaching retirement which also accompanies her Emeritus Professor appointment.

Pat reflects on her good fortune being raised in a science-friendly Scottish home that set the seed for her penchant for science and fascination for the polar regions since her teenage years.

"Bill said, ‘if you are doing your job well then you should be having fun’. Being given that licence to enjoy myself was excellent as it came with the message not to panic."

At the completion of a physics degree from the University of Aberdeen however, harsher life realities surfaced when her application to the British Antarctic Survey was rejected on the basis of gender.

While Pat says she had “wonderful male colleagues and supervisors who were all prepared to fight on my behalf”, she instead forged her own path and started a doctorate at the Scott Polar Institute through the University of Cambridge.

It was from her New Zealand mentor Dr Bill Robinson during her PhD that Pat heard a valuable life lesson that has stayed with her since.

“Bill said, ‘if you are doing your job well then you should be having fun’.

“Being given that licence to enjoy myself was excellent as it came with the message not to panic.”

An important point to keep-in-mind, as even after giving the same lecture a hundred times Pat says she can still be nervous.

After completing her doctorate Pat accepted an invitation from Dr Robertson to join his team in Antarctica to research the strength of sea-ice.

The 1985 trip examined the physics of sea-ice runways used by large aircraft and even made the front cover of Nature magazine.

The trip also altered the future direction of Pat’s life, when three years later she moved to Dunedin “as a pregnant wife” with her husband Professor Vernon Squire.

"When I first started I thought I could always just teach, and it’s been such a huge privilege interacting with very smart young people who are full of enthusiasm, optimism and great ideas. I am really going to miss all those conversations which are often lively and entertaining."

Vernon started a permanent role in Otago’s Department of Maths and Statistics, and Pat was offered a temporary teaching position in the Department of Physics.

“New Zealand was way ahead of the UK for childcare and family-friendly attitudes,” Pat recalls. “My colleagues in Physics were very broad-minded and understanding about my time and family commitments.”

Pat says the Department continues to be the “nice and welcoming” place that greeted her on that first day, and she feels extremely grateful for the support and mentoring from her colleagues over the years.

Since arriving, Pat has had a full academic career that has included about 25 trips to Antarctica, four years as Head of Department and promotion to Professor in 2016.

While she thinks her polar-related research has helped “push things forward” in the field, it’s through teaching where Pat feels she has made the biggest contribution.

“When I first started I thought I could always just teach, and it’s been such a huge privilege interacting with very smart young people who are full of enthusiasm, optimism and great ideas.

“I am really going to miss all those conversations which are often lively and entertaining.”

When I mention that my response to physics at high school emulated sheer terror, Pat responds the challenge for physics is it actually exists to make understanding of the world simpler.

“People like yourself often just need a couple pointers to get started.

“Knowledge isn’t innate and physics is just another foreign language that must be learned just like anything else.”

Having someone like Pat as a teacher may have changed my relationship with physics and even influenced my future path, like many of those hundreds of students who have received some of Pat’s pointers.

"Antarctica is such a special place and one of the great values about researching there is countries manage to collaborate well and scientific diplomacy means the focus is very much on the science."

“Just recently I heard a former Master’s student on RNZ talking about his work with volcanoes which I get a real kick out of, and past students are always saying hello which is really nice.”

In statistical speak, it’s highly probable that Pat underplays her contribution to Antarctic research, especially as she was awarded the New Zealand Antarctic Medal for outstanding scientific research as part of the 2019 New Year Honours.

Over her 25 trips to Antarctica since 1992, Pat has become one of the country’s foremost sea-ice scientists with a specific focus on ice physics and understanding the interaction and relationship between ice shelves, derived from land-based ice, and sea-ice.

Over that time, her contribution to polar science has been reciprocated by Antarctica playing a huge part in both her professional and personal life.

“Antarctica is such a special place and one of the great values about researching there is countries manage to collaborate well and scientific diplomacy means the focus is very much on the science.”

Science is rapidly advancing and new technologies including tools such as Earth System Modelling consider that everything is connected, complicated and vast.

“These advances have exciting implications for future research, and young people can bring energy and agile thinking to the table which is crucial,” Pat says.

Head of Department Professor Craig Rodger says the Department is tremendously proud of Pat and grateful for her time as a highly respected colleague and globally recognised Antarctic researcher.

While she is a firm believer that academic space needs to be continually opened to make way for early career researchers, her transition to retirement will be gradual following her official retirement date of 7 August.

"It’s a great sense of joy that Jono now works in the Department, but from his perspective it’s probably terribly embarrassing having me round."

A number of research contracts didn’t get finished due to COVID-19 so Pat will be working unofficially till the end of September, and she is still involved with co-supervising several student projects.

When retirement does roll around however, Pat is already pondering the endless possibilities with the data that’s been collected over the years but that still remains undisturbed.

“The cream of the data I have gathered over the years has been taken off, but there’s still a lot of milk sitting there to get stuck into,” Pat says.

Through her appointment to Emeritus Professor, Pat’s links to her Departmental colleagues will continue, and Professor Rodger says she will also join the photographic display of former heads that starts with Professor John Shand, one of Otago’s first four Professors.

“Pat has not let us put up her picture until she retires, and that day has finally come!”

In addition to the photo, Pat’s genetics will also continue to live on in the Department through her son Dr Jono Squire who is a Research Fellow in Physics.

“It’s a great sense of joy that Jono now works in the Department, but from his perspective it’s probably terribly embarrassing having me round.

“Which is another reason why it’s probably time for me to move on,” Pat chuckles, reminding us all that every stage of life should be experienced with a sense of fun.

Every time Jono passes the photo of Pat in the corridor keeping an eye on him, he can now return that smile.

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