He is Professor of Ocean Physics and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge. He is also the President of the Ocean Commission on Sea Ice, sponsored by the International Association for the Physical Sciences

He has been a polar researcher for 47 years, completing >50 trips to the Arctic. And began warning about the thawing of Arctic summer sea ice in 1990. His recent book is entitled, A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic (Oxford University Press, 2017, 240p),