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A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (2004)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
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APPENDIX B
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Mary Albert (Chair) is a senior research scientist at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. She is also adjunct professor at the Thayer School of Engineering and the Environmental Sciences Department at Dartmouth College. Her research interests include flow and transport in porous media, surface-air physical and chemical exchange processes, snow physics, numerical modeling, effects of postdepositional processes in snow and firn on ice core interpretation, and impacts of snow photochemistry on atmospheric composition. She has spent many field seasons conducting research in the deep field in Greenland and Antarctica and is a member of the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board. Dr. Albert earned her Ph.D. in applied mechanics and engineering sciences in 1991 from the University of California, San Diego.

Robert Bindschadler is a senior fellow at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and a past president of the International Glaciological Society. He maintains an active interest in the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, primarily on Earth, investigating how remote sensing can be used to improve our understanding of the role of ice, in the Earth’s climate; dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets; understanding the role of ice in the Earth’s climate; glaciological research, including measuring ice velocity and elevation, monitoring ice sheet melt, and detecting changes in ice sheet volume. Dr. Bindschadler earned his Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Washington in 1978.

Cecilia Bitz is a physicist at the Polar Science Center, University of Washington. Her research interests include climate dynamics, high-latitude climate variability, Arctic/ North Atlantic interaction, polar amplification, global coupled climate modeling, paleoclimate, climate change, and sea ice model development. Dr. Bitz earned her Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

Jerry Bowen is a senior national correspondent for CBS News based in Los Angeles. During his 28-year network career, he has covered a broad range of environmental and science stories—from debt for nature swaps to preserve rain forests in Costa Rica to the effects of methane gas drilling in the American West to investigations of climate change in the polar regions to the impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He is a veteran of Antarctic and Arctic assignments, having reported at length from Antarctica in 1991 and 1999 and from the Arctic Ocean in 1998 on Ice Station SHEBA, The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean, and more recently in 2002 aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy with scientists collecting data for the Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions project. Mr. Bowen is a 1973 graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in journalism.

David Bromwich is a senior research scientist and director of the Polar Meteorology Group at the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State University. He is also a professor with the Atmospheric Sciences Program of the Department of Geography. Dr. Bromwich’s research interests include: the climatic impacts of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets; coupled mesoscale-global circulation model simulations; the atmospheric moisture budget of high southern latitudes, Greenland, and the Arctic basin using numerical analyses; and the influence of tropical ocean-atmosphere variability on the polar regions. Dr. Bromwich has served on the National Research Council’s Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data and was previously a U.S. Representative of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. He is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the American Association of Geographers. Dr. Bromwich earned his Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1979.

Richard Glenn is the vice president of lands for the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. His professional experience includes petroleum geological studies, field geological mapping, structural geological and seismic interpretation, permafrost, methane hydrate, and borehole temperature profile research. Other specialties include year-round studies of the physical properties of sea ice near Barrow, Alaska; and temperature, salinity and crystallographic profiles of first- and multiyear sea ice and documentation of freeze-up, ice movement events, and spring thaw. He has served as director of the Department of Energy Management, North Slope Borough; general manager of Barrow Technical Services, a technical firm that provided project management consulting and geological and scientific research support services; and a geologist for the Arctic Slope Consulting Group. Mr. Glenn is a member of the Ilisagvik College Board of Trustees, board president of the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, and former member of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Mr. Glenn is an Alaska native and earned his master’s in geology from the University of Fairbanks.

Jacqueline Grebmeier is a research professor at the University of Tennessee. Her research interests include pelagic-benthic coupling, benthic carbon cycling, and benthic faunal population structure in the marine environment; understanding how water column processes influence biological productivity in Arctic waters and sediments and how materials are exchanged between the sea bed and overlying waters; and documenting longer-term trends in the ecosystem health of Arctic continental shelves. Some of her research includes analyses of the importance of benthic organisms to higher

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

levels of the Arctic food web, including walruses, gray whale, and diving sea ducks, and studies of radionuclide distributions of sediments within the water column in the Arctic as a whole. Dr. Grebmeier earned her Ph.D. in biological oceanography in 1987 from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

John Kelley is a professor of marine science at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. His research interests include geophysics and geochemistry, with emphasis on micro-meteorology and trace gas processes; applied oceanography, marine and riverine acoustics, and environmental radioactivity and contaminants; and collaborative research on ice engineering and ice core drilling. Dr. Kelley earned his Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from Nagoya University, Japan, in 1974.

Igor Krupnik is an ethnologist/research anthropologist with the Arctic Studies Center of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Krupnik was born in Russia, where he trained as a geographer and cultural anthropologist. He has degrees in Geography (from Moscow State University), ethnography/cultural anthropology (Ph.D., 1977, Institute of Ethnology, Russian Academy of Sciences), and in ecology/subsistence management (full doctorate, 1991, Institute of Ecology, Russian Academy of Sciences). His primary research fields are modern cultures, ecology and subsistence economies of the people of the Arctic. Dr. Krupnik has done extensive field studies in the western Arctic, primarily in Alaska (St. Lawrence Island) and the Bering Strait area (since 1971) and also along the Russian Arctic coast.

Louis Lanzerotti is a distinguished member of the technical staff (emeritus) of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and distinguished research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His principal research interests have included space plasmas, geophysics, and engineering problems related to the impact of space processes on space and terrestrial technologies. He has been a coinvestigator and principal investigator on several National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions, including Galileo and Ulysses, and has conducted extensive ground-based and laboratory research on space and geophysics topics. He was chair (1984-1988) of NASA’s Space and Earth Science Advisory Committee and a member of the 1990 Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program. He has also served as chair (1988-1994) of the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council (NRC) and as a member (1991-1993) of the Vice President’s Space Policy Advisory Board. He served on the NRC’s Polar Research Board (1982-1990) and was chair of the NRC Committee on Antarctic Science and Policy (1992-1993). Dr. Lanzerotti is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Peter Schlosser is the Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering and professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He also is the associate director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1985. Dr. Schlosser’s research interests include studies of water movement and its variability in natural systems (oceans, lakes,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

rivers, groundwater) using natural and anthropogenic trace substances and isotopes as “dyes” or as “radioactive clocks”; ocean/atmosphere gas exchange; reconstruction of continental paleotemperature records using groundwater as an archive; and anthropogenic impacts on natural systems. He participated in seven major ocean expeditions, five to the polar regions. He was or presently is a member or chair of national and international science steering committees, including the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, the Climate Variability and Predictability Experiment, the World Climate Research Program, the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study, and the Study of Environmental Arctic Change.

Philip M. Smith is a partner in the consulting firm of McGeary & Smith. As an organization executive, chair or member of advisory committees, and a science and technology policy consultant, he is a leader in developing effective national and international science and technology policies and an expert in theory and practice of providing scientific advice to governments and international organizations. Mr. Smith was executive officer of the National Research Council for 13 years. He previously held senior positions in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Science Foundation. He participated in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) and was involved in the organization and management of the U.S. Antarctic Program that followed the IGY. He served on several recent NRC committees, which reviewed the science, technology, and health aspects of the foreign policy agenda of the United States, the science advisory mechanisms of the United Nations system, and the role of science and technology in countering terrorism. Dr. Smith led a review of the mission, organization, and operating practices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and, with Michael McGeary, evaluated the organization and function of seven U.S. national committees for the international unions in the mathematical and physical sciences of the International Council for Science. He was awarded a D.Sc. (honoris causa) by North Carolina State University in recognition of his public service in science and technology policy.

George Somero is the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science and director of the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. His research centers on the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms used by organisms to adapt to environmental variation, notably in temperature and ambient salinity. Current studies focus on amino acid substitutions that are important in the adaptation of proteins to temperature, physiological determinants of biogeographic patterning, the physiology of invasive species, and the effects of environmental variation on gene expression. He previously served as a member on the National Research Council’s Committee on Frontiers in Polar Biology. Dr. Somero is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in biological sciences in 1967 from Stanford University, conducting research on Antarctic fishes.

Cristina Takacs-Vesbach is an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Takacs-Vesbach’s research interests include discovering the diversity of micro-organisms and what determines their patterns of distribution and productivity in the natural environment, bacterioplankton dynamics in Antarctica; and responses of bacterial growth to inorganic and organic nutrients. She earned her Ph.D. in microbial ecology from Montana State University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

Gunter Weller is professor of geophysics emeritus and director of the Center for Global Change Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-University of Alaska Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research in Fairbanks, Alaska, as well as executive director of the international Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. He arrived in Alaska in 1968 from Australia, where he earned his Ph.D. in Antarctic meteorology and glaciology. Both his previous research in Antarctica and his studies in the Arctic were on microclimates and on climate change and its impacts in the polar regions. He was involved in Arctic science planning and management as program manager of the National Science Foundation’s polar programs in meteorology (1972-1974), project manager of the NOAA-Bureau of Land Management Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program in the Arctic (1975-1982), project director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-University of Alaska Synthetic Aperture Radar Facility (1986-1993), and deputy director of the Geophysical Institute (1984-1986) and (1990-1997). Among many scientific committee assignments he was the president of the International Council for Science’s International Commission on Polar Meteorology (1980-1983) and chaired the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board (1985-1990).

Douglas Wiens is a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include the structure of island arcs and oceanic spreading centers, anisotropy and flow patterns in the mantle, and the crustal and upper-mantle structure of Antarctica. He has directed field instrumentation programs in the Antarctic Peninsula and Trans-Antarctic Mountains. Dr. Wiens has served on the executive committee of the Incorporated Research Institutions in Seismology, the RIDGE and MARGINS steering committees, the Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrumentation Pool oversight committee (as chair), and the Ocean Drilling Program Science Committee. He earned his Ph.D. in geological sciences from Northwestern University in 1985.

Ex officio members1

Mahlon C. Kennicutt II is director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, professor of oceanography, member of the toxicology faculty, and team leader of the Sustainable Coastal Margins Program at Texas A&M University. His research interests include environmental monitoring, the fate and effects of contaminants, environmental impacts of offshore energy exploration and exploitation, coordination of the social and physical sciences to address environmental issues, and all aspects of the sustainable development of coastal margins. He is currently an ex officio member of the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board and U.S. delegate to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Previously he served on the NRC’s Committee to Review the Oil Spill Recovery Institute and the Committee on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska’s North Slope. Dr. Kennicutt is a

1  

These members of the Polar Research Board served in an ex officio capacity to provide liaisons to the International Council for Science International Polar Year Planning Group, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and the International Arctic Science Committee.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

member of various professional organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography. Dr. Kennicutt earned his Ph.D. in oceanography in 1980 from Texas A&M University.

Robin Bell is a Doherty senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University where she directs research programs on the Hudson River and in Antarctica. She is a geophysicist who earned her Ph.D. in 1989 from Columbia University. Her research interests are in linking the Earth’s physical processes with the impacts on biota. These interests range from linking glacial and tectonic processes to subglacial ecosystems, to understanding the ecosystem services provided to humans by rivers, estuaries, and coastal environments. She is currently the U.S. representative to the Working Group on Geophysics of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and vice-chair of the International Council for Science Planning Group for the International Polar Year.

Patrick J. Webber is a professor of plant biology and director of the Arctic Ecology Laboratory at Michigan State University. His research interests span many aspects of global change. In particular, he studies the response of plants and vegetation to climate, land use, land cover, and social change. He is active in promoting the development of a pan-arctic network of environmental observatories. He is an ex officio member of the National Research Council’s Polar Research Board and the U.S. delegate to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). Dr. Webber has been a fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America since 1978 and president of International Arctic Science Committee since 2002.

Terry Wilson is an associate professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University. Her research interests include understanding intraplate neotectonic processes in Antarctica and mid-continent North America; structural kinematic analysis of faulting in rifts and thrust belts; crustal stress determinations from boreholes and volcanic alignments; Global Positioning System measurement of crustal motions; and structural interpretation of satellite imagery, seismic profiles, and airborne magnetic data. Dr. Wilson is the U.S. alternate delegate to The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, chair of SCAR’s Group of Specialists on Antarctic Neotectonics, and has extensive experience working to create and sustain international programs and collaboration. Dr. Wilson earned her Ph.D. in geology from Columbia University in 1983.

NRC STAFF

Sheldon Drobot has been a program officer at the Polar Research Board and the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate since December 2002. He received his Ph.D. in geosciences (climatology specialty) from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Dr. Drobot has directed National Research Council studies that produced the reports Elements of a Science Plan for the North Pacific Research Board (2004) and Climate Data Records from Environmental Satellites (2004). His research interests include sea ice-atmosphere interactions, microwave remote sensing, statistics, and long-range climate outlooks. Dr. Drobot currently is researching interannual variability and trends in Arctic sea ice conditions and how low-frequency atmospheric circulation affects sea ice distribution,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×

short-range forecasting of Great Lakes ice conditions, and biological implications of sea ice variability.

Chris Elfring is director of the Polar Research Board (PRB) and Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC). She is responsible for all aspects of strategic planning, project development and oversight, financial management, and personnel for both units. Since joining the PRB in 1996, Ms. Elfring has overseen or directed studies that produced the following reports: Frontiers in Polar Biology in the Genomics Era (2003), Cumulative Environmental Impacts of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska’s North Slope (2003), A Century of Ecosystem Science: Planning Long-term Research in the Gulf of Alaska (2002), and Enhancing NASA’s Contributions to Polar Science (2001). In addition, she is responsible for the Board’s activities as the U.S. National Committee to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

Kristen Averyt was a Christine Mirzayan Intern at the Polar Research Board during the summer of 2003. She received her M.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 1999 and will complete her Ph.D. in geological and environmental science at Stanford University in December 2004. Her research interests include paleoceanography and paleoclimatology, trace metal cycling and speciation in seawater, and sedimentary geochemistry.

Sarah Capote is a project assistant with the Ocean Studies Board. She earned a B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2001. Ms. Capote has worked on the following reports: Exploration of the Seas: Voyage into the Unknown (2003), Nonnative Oysters in the Chesapeake Bay (2004), Elements of a Science Plan for the North Pacific Research Board (2004), and Future Needs in Deep Submergence Science: Occupied and Unoccupied Vehicles in Basic Ocean Research (2004).

Rachael Shiflett is a senior project assistant with the Polar Research Board. She received her M.Sc. in environmental law from Vermont Law School in 2001 and will complete her J.D. at Catholic University in May 2007. Her research interests include the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 88
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 89
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 90
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 91
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 92
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2004. A Vision for the International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11013.
×
Page 94
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In 2007-2008, many nations around the world will host an intense, coordinated field campaign of polar observations, research, and analysis called the "International Polar Year." This report presents an overview of potential science themes, enabling technologies, and public outreach opportunities that can be used to focus International Polar Year on societal needs. The committee recommends that the U.S. scientific community and participating agencies use this opportunity to better understand environmental change and variability in the polar regions; explore new scientific frontiers ranging from the molecular to the planetary scales; and engage the public through varied educations and outreach activities.

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