Live from the Poles / Polar Discovery

The polar regions are experiencing unprecedented environmental changes that have significant potential impacts on global climate, ecosystems, and society. Thousands of scientists from dozens of countries will focus their attention on the Arctic and Antarctic for two years beginning in March 2007 in an effort known as the International Polar Year (IPY).

I am the project manager and field photographer for Live from the Poles, an education project funded by the National Science Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The goals of our project are to help heighten public awareness during IPY by bringing cutting-edge science to diverse, worldwide audiences of students, teachers, and the public.

Our media team – myself as field photographer plus a science writer, supported by Web and graphics professionals at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) – will convey the research goals, methods, and findings of five major polar expeditions using the interactive, educational Polar Discovery Website. The site features video interviews with the scientists, daily photo journals, informative animations, and more. While in the field with the research teams, we will also facilitate satellite phone Live Talks between scientists and eight museum auditoriums across the United States, where audience members can ask questions and get answers in real time. Each presentation will feature a knowledgeable moderator who will present a short summary about the research before the live question-and-answer sessions with scientists on the ice.

During Expedition 1-North Pole Observatory Live from the Poles traveled to Northern Canada. The research team deployed buoys in the Arctic pack ice that will be instrumental in tracking climate change at the North Pole. [View the photo essays] [Portfolio]

Expedition 2-Arctic Seafloor began on July 1st, 2007. We traveled to the eastern Arctic aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden to document researchers searching for life on the Gakkel Ridge, an ultra-slow spreading center at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. [View the photo essays] [Portfolio]

Expedition 3-Penguins and Lava Flows brought the Live from the Poles media team to Antarctica's McMurdo station. We visited three separate field camps, covering two different penguin colonies and a geology field camp. [View the photo essays] [Portfolio-Lava] [Portfolio-Penguins]

The fourth Live from the Poles expedition will take place in summer 2008 on top of Greenland's fastest moving glacier. Visit the Polar Discovery website to immerse yourself in an icy educational experience.

Watch the Bundle Up! Promotional video.

Celebrating the IPY kickoff March 1st, 2007 marked the first day of the International Polar Year. Spanning two full years, and involving researchers from over 60 different countries, IPY is a global cooperative effort to conduct interdisciplinary science at the poles. To celebrate the IPY kickoff, I traveled to the Museum of Science, Boston, and talked about the Live from the Poles program with Leslie Gaydos from New England Cable News and Adam Weiss, the Museum of Science podcaster. New England Cable News interview: watch the video Museum of Science podcast: listen to podcast Other news Read an article in the Antarctic Sun about my photography in Antarctica during the third Life from the Poles expedition. An exhibition of my photographs from the second Live from the Poles expedition, titled Exploring the Arctic Seafloor is now open at the Field Museum in Chicago. Writer Lonny Lippsett and I are featured in the July 26, 2007 Veco Polar Resources newsletter. In April 2007 I received the Polar Awareness Award: Polar Artists Group website

Resources and links

Follow the adventure on the Polar Discovery website!

Live from the Poles is an officially sanctioned project of the International Polar Year.

Live from the Poles is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.