With its snow-capped peaks in the hostile wilderness of Antarctica, Willis Ridge is a world away from the Fife town of Tayport.

But the places have one important connection—Dr Mike Willis.

Dr Willis (33), from Tayport, is a research scientist studying the environment in Antarctica, and in honour of his work the ridge has been named after him.

Over the last 12 years, Dr Willis, who works for the Byrd Polar Research Centre in Ohio, has spent almost two years in total in Antarctica.

His job involves making precise measurements of how the Earth’s surface is bending in response to the changing amount of ice in Antarctica.

It has seen him reposition the South Pole twice.

Names are given to newly-mapped places in recognition of people who have worked in Antarctica for a significant length of time or have made a significant scientific impact, and Mike told The Courier that he was “humbled and extremely honoured” by the naming of Willis Ridge.

Coming soon after his reward of a doctorate from Ohio State University, he described it as a “very, very nice graduation gift.”

He said, “I had no idea that this was coming, although, like most people who go to Antarctica, we joke about things like this all the time.”

He explained, “Antarctica is poorly-mapped. As the maps get better more things need named.

“There are very many links to Dundee in the parts of Antarctica that I work in.

“I have been to Captain Scott’s hut, the Discovery hut, many times.”

Willis Ridge is a sharp, narrow-crested, east-west-running ridge, partially ice-covered, although most of it is too steep for ice.

In the Ellsworth Mountains, it is a spur off the secondary peak of the highest mountain in Antarctica, Vinson Massif.

It is 3.2 km long and 2800 metres high and separates the flow of the Aster Glacier and the Sowers Glacier.