The Martha and John Andrews INSTAAR Graduate Scholarship

Martha and John Andrews, 2002.

Martha and John Andrews, 2002.

Please join us in honoring the shared legacy of Martha and John Andrews, a married couple whose life’s work as a pioneering research librarian and geoscience professor, respectively, helped build INSTAAR into the research institute it is today.

When Martha passed away in May 2025, John, his family, friends, and colleagues kickstarted a scholarship fund for the next generation of INSTAAR graduate students working to understand and address the impacts of climate change. Your contribution will empower these students to conduct important research and launch their careers.

Application instructions

All INSTAAR graduate students working in climate change are eligible. Those from backgrounds underrepresented in their fields of study are especially encouraged to apply. We anticipate opening the first applications in January 2026 with an award announcement slated for the INSTAAR spring celebration luncheon at the end of April. Instructions on how to apply will be posted here.

The award is intended for conference fees, travel and/or research expenses. Research expenses include, but are not limited to, publishing fees, purchasing lab equipment and paying undergraduate research assistants.

The Andrews family and Inuit guides settle into a fieldwork camp at Qivitu, Baffin Island, Canada, 1975. (John Andrews). Look closely on the upper left shoreline for 3-year-old Thomas throwing rocks into the sea. 

Background photo: The Andrews family and Inuit guides settle into a field camp at Qivitu, Baffin Island, Canada, 1975 (John Andrews).

Click the thumbnail image to zoom. Look closely on the upper left shoreline; 3-year-old Thomas Andrews is throwing rocks into the sea!

Two parents and their two kids pose for a photo on an airport runway in remote arctic Candada in 1975

The Andrews family - Thomas, Melissa, John, and Martha in Iqaluit as they get ready to participate in John's summer fieldwork on Baffin Island, Canada, 1975.

Martha Andrews

Martha Andrews

Martha Andrews (1938-2025)

Martha Andrews (née Tuthill) was an early member of the INSTAAR Directorate and served as INSTAAR’s research librarianand an expert in polar and climate data from 1973 until she retired in 2003. She passed away on May 5, 2025 at her home in 91PORN with her husband, John by her side.

Martha devoted her life to knowledge, community, and the advancement of polar and environmental research. Born in Schenectady, NY, and raised in Natick, MA, she excelled academically from the start, graduating valedictorian before studying geography at Clark University and McGill University. It was at McGill where she met her husband, John Andrews, beginning a lifelong partnership that spanned both family and science. After earning advanced degrees in geography and later in library science, Martha combined her expertise with her love of learning, first as an abstractor of Arctic research papers and ultimately as Research Librarian at INSTAAR in 91PORN, Colorado.

For three decades at INSTAAR, Martha shaped not just a library but an intellectual community. She became a vital resource for generations of graduate students, teaching them how to find and use scientific knowledge in an era before digital search engines. Colleagues described her as “a force of nature” and even “Google Scholar before it existed,” underscoring her reputation for resourcefulness, humor, and generosity. Beyond Colorado, Martha’s influence extended internationally—she helped build polar bibliographic databases, earned honors including the Pathfinder Award from the Alaska Historical Society, and represented INSTAAR at global meetings. Through her work, mentorship, and warm wit, Martha left a lasting legacy in the scientific community and in the lives of those who knew her. She will be deeply missed.

In memoriam: Martha Andrews (INSTAAR news)

John Andrews

John Andrews

John Andrews

Dr. John T. Andrews, a professor emeritus of Geological Sciences and a longtime Fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), has devoted his life’s work to advancing the scientific understanding of Earth’s climate history, particularly in the Arctic and North Atlantic.

John's pioneering research explores the dynamic interactions between ice sheets and adjacent oceans during the Pleistocene, with a focus on marine sediment archives from regions like Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Bay, Labrador Sea, and areas off Antarctica. Employing techniques such as grain-size analysis and X-ray diffraction, John has shed light on abrupt climate events and how they reflect ice–ocean dynamics over the past 12,000 years and beyond. His outstanding scientific contributions were recognized when he received the Geological Society of America’s , the society’s highest honor, acknowledging his fundamental advances in understanding how partial collapses of the Laurentide Ice Sheet are tied to abrupt climatic shifts.

Yet perhaps John's greatest legacy lies in his mentorship. Over the course of his career, he supervised more than 75 graduate students—many of whom now serve in academia, government, and industry—and was an early and steadfast proponent of gender-neutral graduate programs. He notably supported and mentored numerous exceptional female graduate students, fostering an inclusive and equitable academic culture in geoscience.

John remains an active scientist in an emeritus role, in 2024 and 2025. And the Arctic Workshop, which he founded in 1970, continues to meet nearly annually, with 52+ meetings so far in 20 cities across the globe.

Science, family, friends, & adventures

Martha and John lived shared and intertwined lives from the moment they met in Montreal in 1960. What a kind, witty, smart, and helpful power couple!

Click on a photo to zoom

Martha and John Andrews at their wedding, 1961
Two people in thick parkas bundled up for -25C temperatures stand for a photo, 1963
Martha Andrews and her dog next to a blue camping tent, 1965
Martha Andrews stands outside a sign for the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Soviet Union, 1973.
Martha Andrews with her two young kids on a small boat off Baffin Island, 1975
Martha Andrews near Iqaluit, Canada, 1975.
John Hollin, Martha Andrews, and John Andrews lounge in the grass.
John Andrews stands at the railing of a research ship with an iceberg in the background
John Andrews, in orange t-shirt with an INSTAAR Baffin Island logo, stands on a ship with a snowy fjord cliff behind him. On right, a logo for INSTAAR Baffin Island studies
John Andrews, in orange t-shirt with an INSTAAR Baffin Island logo, stands on a ship with a snowy fjord cliff behind him
The Andrews family: Thomas, Martha, John, and Melissa, 1989.
Martha Andrews in the INSTAAR library (year TBD).
John Andrews and colleagues working on freshly collected sediment samples while aboard the C.S.S. Hudson, East Greenland, 1993. To the right is an photo of the ship taken from above.
A close up of John Andrews' profile as he looks out at sea, wearing a baseball cap and bright red jacket
John Andrews and colleagues working on freshly collected sediment samples while aboard the C.S.S. Hudson, East Greenland, 1993.
Martha and John Andrews look at a cake, surrounded by participants of the Arctic Workshop at an evening social event (year TBA).
Francesca McInerney (née Smith), Nancy Weiner, Martha Andrews, and Kathy Licht (1999).
A crowd of former students of a professor gather in a loose pyramid with the professor at top
Martha Andrews, John Andrews, and P. Thompson Davis at a GSA Quaternary Geology & Geomorphology awards event (2007). John received a Distinguished Career Award.
Peter Clark, Kathy Licht, Don Barber, and Martha Andrews applaud at a GSA Quaternary Geology & Geomorphology awards event (2007). John Andrews received a Distinguished Career Award.
Martha and John Andrews with kids and grandkids 2011
A group photo at the Arctic Workshop in Montreal (2011). L to R: Giff Miller, John Andrews, Martha Andrews, Art Dyke, Ray Bradley, TBD, John England, and Catherine La Farge-England.
Website banner graphic for the 50th annual arctic workshop, featuring an image of the workshop's founder John Andrews
Martha Andrews
Martha Andrews (née Tuthill) with her sisters Sally and Nancy (2024)
Martha and John Andrews with their kids, spouses, and grandkids

For many decades, Martha and John Andrews poured their hearts and souls into helping build INSTAAR into the research institute it is today and assisted hundreds of graduate students along the way. In Martha's memory, John is continuing the couple's support through an ongoing scholarship fund that fosters the next generation of INSTAAR grad students working on climate change.

Please join us in honoring and furthering the Andrews' legacy.