The Tinker-Muse Prize Award Ceremony for the 2017 awardee, Professor Matthew England, was held at the University of New South Wales, Sydney on Monday February 5th at the International Conference for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography 2018 Conference (ICSHMO 2018). The first winner of the Tinker-Muse Prize and current President of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), Professor Steven Chown, spoke about the role of the Tinker Foundation in providing the award and its impact over the last 9 years, as well as noting that the Prize was being awarded on the date of SCARs 60th Anniversary. Professor Peter Barrett, chair of the 2017 Selection Committee, then provided some of the background to the selection of the 2017 Prize winner and to the overall process of selection. Matthew England was then presented with the award by Peter Barrett.

Tinker Foundation President Caroline Kronley added a message of congratulations: "On behalf of the Tinker Foundation, I extend our sincere congratulations to Professor England as he officially receives the 2017 Tinker-Muse Prize for Antarctic Research and Policy. Professor England joins a prestigious group of Tinker-Muse Prize winners and we are confident he will continue to make significant contributions to Antarctic science in the years to come through his scholarship and leadership."

As one of the Keynote Speakers at ICSHMO 2018, Professor England delivered his acceptance lecture immediately after the Award ceremony entitled “Antarctic Water-Mass changes over the Last Four Decades”. The lecture covered his own background and collaborations, as well as providing an overview of the importance of Southern Ocean water masses and circulation in global climate, our understanding of the Southern Annular Mode and its influence on the coupled ocean-ice-atmosphere system, quantifying rates and pathways of the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, and new insights into the physics of tropical high-latitude teleconnections.

A recording of the live webcast of the ceremony and the acceptance speech are available on YouTube.