O’Cofaigh said working in the field had its unique challenges.
He recalled sleeping with a knife and a rifle while he camped in the Canadian Arctic during his PhD in case of bear attacks.
“Luckily we never had any problems,” he said.
Roberts said one of the best parts of working in the polar regions was the wildlife he encountered.
“You bump into some of the big whales, the fin whales or the humpbacks, or you bump into a polar bear, it makes being in those places really special,” he said.
“You don’t get that anywhere else on the planet.”
Both O’Cofaigh and Roberts were on the RRS Sir David Attenborough when it went to Greenland in 2024 as part of a research expedition.
The team was aiming to collect data on how exactly the country’s ice sheet had responded to climate change in the past.