Douglas Mawson. Portrait of Sir Douglas Mawson (1882-1958), British-Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer. In 1905 he was appointed to the staff of Adelaide University, Australia. He was a scientific member of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1907 which went within 161 kilometres of the South Pole. On this trip Mawson mapped the location of the South magnetic pole. During 1911-14 he was the leader of an Australian expedition which charted 3200 kilometres of Antarctic coastline. He was knighted on his return. He led a joint British-Australian-New Zealand expedition to the Antarctic during 1929-31.