Veteran South Pole researcher to describe U.S. Antarctic efforts

KALAMAZOO—A scientist with a seven-year track record of conducting research at U.S. facilities at the South Pole will visit Western Michigan University this week to share information about the Antarctic research community and ongoing U.S. efforts there.

Dr. Bob Melville, senior scientist with the New Jersey Institute of Technology, will talk about "Science, Engineering, Adventure and Education: Service with the U.S. Antarctic Program" in a free lecture set for 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, at the Fetzer Center. Public parking for those attending is available in the adjacent Fetzer Center parking lot.

Melville will recount his first experience as a member of the 2005-06 winter-over crew at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as well as his six subsequent summer seasons at the South Pole. He served as lead engineer for a geophysics project called the Automatic Geophysical Observatories. He will talk about what it is like to live and work with 63 other people in a totally isolated community for eight months, in which they experienced temperatures of -107 F.

He also will describe the scientific work in which he was involved, including efforts to include high school teachers as part of the team under the auspices of a program called PolarTREC.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/math.