WHO IS Dr. JOHN NYE?
John F. Nye is a cryospheric science pioneer; currently professor emeritus in physics at the University of Bristol , in the UK . Nye planted intellectual seed widely on topics in their infancy. Nye developed a new theory in the early 1950s that ice deformed irrecoverably. Nye applied the new ice rheology theory with success in predicting glacier behavior; including a new science of glacier surging. What is today commonly referred to as Glen’s flow law is more appropriately named the Glen-Nye flow law; and remains in widespread use today. Nye studied water flow in ice more than 50 years ago, a topic receiving critical attention today as melt water is becoming widely recognized as providing a rapid response mechanism of land ice to climate warming. Nye made other pioneering work investigating dynamics at the bed of glaciers. So-called, Nye-channels are those forming in the glacier bed, in contrast to Rothlisburger channels that form in the overlying ice.
