John Wood grew up in Southern California, surrounded by coastal areas, deserts, and mountains, and became fascinated early on with the natural world and how things worked. By the seventh grade he knew that science was for him, and during summers in high school, he volunteered at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He went on to receive his Bachelors degree in Biology, his Masters degree in Education, and has taken part in various research projects as an underwater diver. Mr. Wood was a field technician in Prince William Sound, Alaska researching the diving habits of sea otters. He has also worked nine austral summers in Antarctica in various positions, including: laboratory facilities manager, research diving officer, and underwater construction diver. Mr. Wood enjoys bringing his numerous research experiences into the classroom, where he now teaches at Talbert Middle School and guides student groups in pod casting for the Ocean Institute at Dana Point.

Philip Kyle has visited or worked on the active Erebus volcano in Antarctica for 36 field seasons starting in 1969. He is the director of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory. Dr. Kyle is a Professor of Geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where his research interests include volcanology and petrology. Although he has spent many seasons in Antarctica, he has traveled around the world looking at numerous other active volcanoes especially those in Kamchatka in Far Eastern Russia. He was born in New Zealand but has been at NM Tech for over 27 years and has taken dozens of graduate students as well as teachers to Antarctica to do research projects on the volcanology of Erebus. 

The 11-person team will live and work at the Mt. Erebus Volcano Observatory, a research station situated 3400 meters (12,451 ft) high near the summit crater of the volcano. They will sleep in tents in temperatures that can reach as low as -40 F (-40 C) but have a 16 by 24 foot hut to live in and shelter from the stormy weather. Even in summer winds can be over 100 mph. Mount Erebus is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes (Bird, Terror and Terra Nova) as well as McMurdo Station the largest research station in Antarctica and the center of operations for the US Antarctic Program Mount Erebus has a summit elevation of 3,794 meters (12,448 ft) and the rocks resemble those at the volcanoes Kilimanjaro and Kenya in East Africa. Erebus and the East African volcanoes are situated in places where the earth’s crust and tectonic plates are being pulled apart by forces creating rift valleys. The West Antarctic rift system is one of the major rifts in the world and home to many volcanoes although only a handful are currently active.