Felicity Aston

Felicity Aston Speaker Biography

British polar explorer Felicity Aston MBE is an author, speaker and student research scientist. In 2012 she became the first woman to ski alone across Antarctica. It was a journey of 1744km that took 59 days to complete and which gave her a place in the book of Guinness World Records.

In the year 2000, Felicity travelled to Antarctica for the first time with the British Antarctic Survey as a Meteorologist. Age 23, she spent a continuous period of two and a half years (including two consecutive winters) at Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula to monitor climate and ozone.

Felicity went on to organise and lead numerous expeditions to remote places around the world, but particularly to the Polar Regions. Her expeditions have included the first British Women’s crossing of Greenland, a 6000km drive to the South Pole, a 36,000km drive to the Pole of Cold, and leading international teams of women on ski expeditions to both the North and South Poles.

Felicity continues to explore, specialising in new and exciting ways to communicate the expedition experience to the wider world. Her Kaspersky Lab Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition was the first to ‘Tweet to the Pole’ and material from her Pole of Cold expedition has been developed into a travelling art exhibition. She has written five books, contributed to several others, and regularly produces articles for various publications in the UK and abroad.

In 2013 she spent a month flying across North America in an airship co-presenting a two part BBC Science documentary about the atmosphere called ‘Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the Skies’ and in 2016 retraced the route of the 1898 Klondike Goldrush across the Yukon, co-presenting a documentary mini-series for BBC History. She has since taken part in numerous independent films including a film about climate change by Groundtruth Productions for COP26 and Exposure, a Holly Morris film about Felicity’s 2018 Euro-Arabian North Pole expedition project.
When not on expedition, Felicity has worked closely with a number of expedition-related organisations, charities and projects as trustee, patron or ambassador: including The British Antarctic Monument Trust, Equal Adventure, the First Women project and the Great Britain and Ireland Chapter of The Explorers Club. She is proud to be Godmother to the PC6 ice-class expedition ship, Silver Endeavour.

Felicity has been elected Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society in London and The Explorers Club in New York and is an elected member of the Society of Women Geographers. She is a 2008 Churchill Fellow, has received the Ginny Fiennes Award from the Transglobe Expedition Trust, the 2014 Women of Discovery Award from WINGS WorldQuest, the 2019 Special Contribution Award from National Geographic Traveller UK, the Womenomics Science Award 2021, an Honorary Doctorate from Canterbury Christ Church University and was shortlisted for the 2024 Shackleton Medal for the Protection of the Polar Regions. She has been awarded The Queen’s Polar Medal and appointed MBE for services to polar exploration.

Felicity divides her time between her home in Iceland (Vigur Island) and her native UK. She is currently undertaking research investigating airborne microplastic deposited on Arctic Ocean sea ice based at the National Oceanography Centre and the University of Southampton.