Who would want to go to Antarctica?

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth.  About 98% of it is covered in ice that is, on average, a mile thick!

So you might ask yourself, who would want to go there??

We do!

Our expedition team is extremely excited to visit this incredible continent!  Because Antarctica is so unlike any other place on Earth (except the Arctic of course), it provides some of the most breathtaking views in the world and is home to some of the most amazing wildlife that are found no where else on Earth.

For our team of scientists, there is another, even more important reason why we want to go to Antarctica: to study it!  Because the environmental conditions in Antarctica are so extreme, it is easily one of the most untouched regions on Earth. This makes it extremely valuable for all types of scientific research, but especially those involving climate change, like ours.

Our Antarctic SeaScience Expedition is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, and has two Principal Investigators: Dr. Richard Aronson from Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Dr. James McClintock from University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB).  We also collaborate with Sven Thatje from University of Southampton and Dr. Hanu Singh from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

On the expedition there will be six researchers:

• Dr. Kathryn Smith (FIT)
• Maggie Amsler (UAB)
• Daniel Ellis: PhD student (FIT)
• Jessie Schiferl: PhD student (FIT)
• Ryan James; Masters student (UAB)
• Michelle Deal: Undergraduate student (FIT)

There will be two marine engineers:

• John Bailey (WHOI)
• Thomas Sayre-McCord (WHOI)

And last but not least, there will be two team members heading up the outreach and education:

• Allison Randolph
• Katlyn Wicks

Some members of the team have been to Antarctica more than 30 times, while for some this will be their first time visiting this incredible place.  But either way, we are all very excited to go to Antarctica and study the ecology of the organisms that live on the seafloor!

We hope you are excited to follow along!