Henry P. Huntington earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Princeton University and his master’s and doctorate in Polar Studies at the University of Cambridge. He lives in Eagle River, Alaska, where he works as an independent researcher and also on Arctic Ocean conservation for Ocean Conservancy, a conservation organization. Huntington’s research activities include reviewing the regulation of subsistence hunting in northern Alaska, documenting traditional knowledge of beluga whales and bowhead whales, examining Iñupiat and Inuit knowledge and use of sea ice, and assessing the impacts of climate change on Arctic communities and Arctic marine mammals. He has also studied Arctic shipping and the means available to promote safety and environmentally sound practices in the Bering Strait and beyond. He has also worked to promote the recent Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, participating in workshops with Asian scholars and diplomats and writing papers examining Chinese perspectives on such agreements and on science diplomacy with Chinese co-authors. His research has involved all eight circumpolar nations as well as many non-Arctic countries and collaborators.

Huntington has been involved in a number of international research programs, such as the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, the Program for the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment, and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. In each of these, he has written scientific chapters and in several cases also written plain-language versions for a general audience. He was co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences committee on emerging research questions in the Arctic and a member of the Council of Canadian Academies panel on the state of knowledge of food security in the North. He also served on a committee of the National Petroleum Council, examining research and development needs for Arctic oil and gas operations in Alaska. Huntington has written many academic and popular articles, as well as three books as author or co-author, and has given presentations all around the world on Arctic research, policy, and conservation.

Huntington serves as Chief Editor of Weather, Climate & Society, and is on the editorial board of Arctic. He has made long trips in the Arctic by dog team, open boat, and snowmobile.