Project Coordinators
| PROJECT COORDINATORS | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
Martin Jeffries
Research Professor of Geophysics,
Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Phone: 907-474-5257
Fax: 907-474-7290
e-mail: martin.jeffries@gi.alaska.edu
Snow and ice science from a picnic chair at 34 Mile Pond, near Poker
Flat Research Range, Alaska,
March 2002.
I was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and brought up in Manchester,
England. After completing a B.A. (Hons.) in Geography at the University
of Sheffield, I returned to the Victoria University of Manchester
where I was awarded a M.S. degree in Geography for a study of glacier
hydrology in Norway. Perhaps the most important decision I have
ever made was to move to Canada, where I attended the University
of Calgary and received a Ph.D. in Geography for a study of ice
shelf growth processes and history in the High Arctic.
At heart and by training I am a geographer, thanks particularly
to an inspiring 7th grade geography/geology teacher (David Levy)
at Sale Boys Grammar School, and a geography professor (Ron Waters)
at the University of Sheffield who brought glacial geomorphology
alive. However, since moving to Alaska in 1985 to work at the Geophysical
Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, I have been an "accidental
geophysicist", too.
In Alaska I initially continued my studies of ice shelves and then the ice islands (icebergs) that calve from them before turning my attention to Antarctic sea ice. I spent a total of over 365 days in frozen southern waters during the 1990s and I’m unlikely to ever forget the many days of seasickness as the ships pitched, heaved and rolled their way across stormy seas. In contrast, lake ice studies are less turbulent. Investigations of lake ice processes on the North Slope of Alaska using radar remote sensing in the early to mid-1990s became field and computer modeling investigations of lake ice growth and decay, and conductive heat flow in the late 1990s in my own backyard at Poker Flat Research Range, about 50 km NE of Fairbanks.
In September 1994, Marge Porter, then an Environmental Science Teacher at Woodstock Academy, CT, participated in one of my Antarctic cruises aboard the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer. Working together under the auspices of TEA (Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic), I don’t think that either of us imagined at the time that we were embarking on a new and exciting voyage of collaboration in teacher professional development. For me, the crucial time was winter 1999-2000 when Marge participated in the first season of the lake ice studies at Poker Flat and suggested that I consider making ice and snow research experiences available to Alaska teachers.
Marge Porter (left) and the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer, Antarctica, September 2004.
Since March 2001, I have been working with Delena Norris-Tull (School of Education, UAF; now at the University of Montana-Western) and Ron Reihl (Tanana Middle School, Fairbanks; now retired) to turn Marge’s suggestion into reality. ALISON is the result. I was the Principal Investigator (PI) of ALISON fromits beginning until I left from Washington, DC. Kim Morris has been the PI since then.
The National Mall, Washington, DC, on Sunday 7 February 2009, the day before government
offices closed for nearly a week. In autumn 2006 I began a temporary break from research and science education at UAF, and went to Washington, DC,
to work for the Federal government and experience another side of science. Between November 2006 and October 2010
I was the Program Director for the Arctic Observing Network (AON) at the National Science Foundation (NSF). AON
was one of the NSF contributions to the International Polar Year 2007-2009. It was an exciting time to be a polar
science manager, taking care of my NSF responsibilities and also working with colleagues in other Federal agencies
and overseas as we developed plans for a multi-nation, pan-Arctic observing network.
After spending four very enjoyable and professionally fulfilling years at NSF, the maximum allowed for so-called 'rotating program officers', I moved just a block down the street to the Office of Naval Research. Still on leave from UAF, but remaining on the UAF payroll, I began a new 'rotating' position as Program Officer and Arctic Science Advisor, helping ONR to start a new Arctic research program. Temporary can be a very elastic term.