Feedback
Skip to main content

Polar Profiles

" class=
Welcome to the Polar Profiles! When a career in the Polar Regions comes to mind, what do you think of?

You might imagine long summer days on a ship studying sea ice and the animals that live under it, tagging birds so you can track their migration, or digging deep holes in a glacial snowpack to study snow crystals. But in reality, there are a lot of different jobs in the Polar Regions.

For example, the researchers studying onboard a ship in the Arctic may need someone to captain the ship, cook the food, design and maintain their scientific tools, or make videos of their research. In the Arctic and in Antarctica there are many types of scientists and many other types of careers.

Check out the Polar Profiles below. You can read or listen to interviews with all different people that work in the Polar Regions, and maybe you'll even find a career that suits your talents and interests!

Teresa Winter

Theresa Winters
Position: Electronic Technician
Quote: Definitely take all the math and science classes you can.
Excerpt:

What do you do here at the South pole?

As a technician for NOAA, it's my job to make sure that the instruments are running properly, that the scientists are getting good data, and if there's a problem to try to fix it.

Did you always want to be a technician?

It's not something I always wanted to do it's just something I kind of fell into. I had an interest in...

Full Profile: View Profile

Veronica Vallejos

Veronica Vallejos
Position: Observing and recording Arctic marine vertebrates
Quote: Antarctica is a huge, vast continent of extremes and very important for studying our Earth’s past and future.
Excerpt:


Veronica was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, is 39 years old, not married, studied marine-biology in Valparaiso and is now Head of the Scientific Department of the Chilean Antarctic Institute. She has been to Antarctica 10 times.

What is your job onboard the Oden?

Observing and recording of Antarctic marine vertebrates and supporting the international...

Full Profile: View Profile

Pat Kelly

Position: Marine Research Associate II
Quote: With his job, Pat has traveled to: Alaska, Turkey, The Bering Sea, The Mediterranean Sea, Greece, Bermuda, and many coasts off the American continent.
Excerpt:

How did you get into your polar oceanic career?

When Pat (Roger) Kelly went to high school he loved science. He spent family vacations by oceans, and he had a lot of jobs outside. Pat had an uncle who was his role model. He worked for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Pat thought he had a "cool" job because he worked outside with volcanoes. In college Pat...

Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Tracy Shaw

Position: Senior Faculty Research Assistant
Quote: Any scientist will tell you that it is with experience and exposure that opens doors to careers in marine science.
Excerpt:

What is your advice for students interested in a career in marine science?

If a student was interested in working with krill, or in the ocean they would need to:

  • get an undergraduate degree in a biological science (Tracy has a degree in zoology);
  • then obtain a masters degree in a marine science;
  • volunteer work helps (As a student, Tracy worked as a...
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Kiki Contreras

Kiki Contreras
Position: Research Assistant
Quote: "I think the most rewarding thing about being a research assistant is getting to be surrounded by all of these amazing researchers who are doing really interesting work".
Excerpt:

Meet research assistant Kiki Contreras who spent the summer of 2012 working on the Predatory Spiders in Arctic Food Webs project at Toolik Lake, Alaska. Video by PolarTREC teacher Nick LaFave.

Author(s): Nick LaFave
Region:
Related Expeditions: Predatory Spiders in the Arctic Food Web
Related Members:
Nick LaFave
Amanda Koltz
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Michael Sheriff

Michael Sheriff
Position: Post-Doctoral Fellow
Quote: "One of the most rewarding things about being a scientist is the discovery of new knowledge. You get to go out and ask questions that nobody has asked before, use your imagination to see the world around you and become excited about discovering new knowledge and new ideas".
Excerpt:

Meet Michael Sheriff, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Learn more about Michael's work with Arctic Ground Squirrels at www.polartrec.com. Video by PolarTREC teacher Nick LaFave.

Author(s): Nick LaFave
Region:
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Seth Beaudreault

Seth Beaudreault
Position: Naturalist
Quote: "The most enjoyable thing about my work is spending most of every day outside in a beautiful place paying attention to what's happening in the natural world"
Excerpt:

Meet Toolik Field Station Naturalist Seth Beaudreault. Video by PolarTREC teacher Nick LaFave.

Author(s): Nick LaFave
Region:
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Nick LaFave

Nick LaFave
Position: High School Environmental Science Teacher
Quote: "One of the most challenging things about being a teacher is to get students truly interested in what they're learning".
Excerpt:

Meet PolarTREC teacher Nick LaFave

Region:
Related Expeditions: Predatory Spiders in the Arctic Food Web
Related Members:
Amanda Koltz
Nick LaFave
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Amanda Koltz

Date: 4 July 2012
Position: PhD student
Quote: "Being a scientist really appealed to me because I was really excited about the opportunity to be curious about the world and to try to answer questions that interested me about the natural world".
Excerpt:

Meet PhD student Amanda Koltz and learn about what motivated her to study science and research spiders in arctic food webs. Her fun fact might surprise you!

Author(s): Nick LaFave
Region:
Related Expeditions: Predatory Spiders in the Arctic Food Web
Related Members:
Amanda Koltz
Nick LaFave
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Julie Katch

Julie Katch
Position: Antarctic Architect
Quote: Julie Katch received her architecture degree and worked in the industry for several years before being enticed to visit the southernmost continent. Julie says it was just very lucky that they needed a draftsman.
Excerpt:

Excerpt from Katey Shirey's PolarTREC journal about Julie Katch, a draftsman working in Antarctica:

I returned to McMurdo Station from the South Pole and got my new room assignment, a shared 5 bed berth in the main station building. I arranged to meet up with my new friend Julie Katch whom I'd met on the way through the first time. Julie works in Antarctica every year (four years...

Author(s): Katey Shirey
Region:
Related Expeditions: IceCube In-ice Antarctic Telescope 2010
Related Members:
Katey Shirey
Jim Madsen
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile

Anne Jensen

Anne Jensen
Position: Head of the Nuvuk Archaeology Project, Senior Scientist for UIC Science Center, Barrow, Alaska
Excerpt:

Submitted by PolarTREC teacher Frank Kelley on August 10, 2008

The Scientist of the Week for this week is the PI (Principal Investigator) for the Nuvuk Archaeology Project, Anne Jensen. She wears many hats. Head of the Nuvuk Archaeology Project, Senior Scientist for UIC (Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation) Science Center in Barrow, as well as other duties are all part of what Anne does...

Author(s): Frank Kelley
Region:
Full Profile: View Profile

Emily Miller

Emily Miller
Position: Research Technician
Quote: "I like to write computer programs to make things work better".
Excerpt:

Studying physics and applied mathematics as a girl is not common. What made you select this course of study?

I like to find out how things work. I believe physics is the basic science to all scientific work. It helps to really understand things in biology and other areas. When an employer sees a degree in physics they know you can think logically and that you can...

Region:
Full Profile: View Profile

Dr. Patricia (Tish) Yager

Position: Associate Professor
Quote: If you develop an interest in the natural world, it will train you to be a better observer.
Excerpt:

Listen to an interview with researcher Tish Yager conducted by PolarTREC teacher Lollie Garay by clicking on the audio file below.

Region:
Related Members:
Tish Yager
Lollie Garay
Robert Sherrell
Walker Smith
Full Profile: View Profile

Dr. Stacy Kim

Dr. Stacy Kim
Position: Benthic Ecologist & Adjunct Professor
Quote: I just keep coming back here because there are always more questions...and everything that you do just keeps generating more and more questions...
Excerpt:

How did you get interested in marine science?

I grew up by the ocean, so we did a lot of tide pooling, just going out for fun, when I was just a little kid. There were a couple of really distinctive things that I remember; one was finding an octopus, a little, small, octopus. I remember just being really curious about why that would happen, and another time we were walking on the...

Full Profile: View Profile

Yuki Takahashi

Yuki Takahashi
Position: Graduate Student
Quote: Well my advice would be to pursue things on your own and not just do homework or things...
Excerpt:

What is it that you're doing here, at the South Pole, Yuki?

We're called cosmologists and we study the cosmos-how the universe started and how it evolved. So we built a telescope so that we could study the radiation or the light from the big bang to study how the universe started.

Did you always want to be a scientist?

Well, not always. When I was a little boy, I...

Full Profile: View Profile

Dr. Calvin Mordy

Calvin Mordy
Position: Chemical Oceanographer
Quote: Calvin also never gave up when he did not get a job he applied for; he continued to apply multiple times. His message was to never give up.
Excerpt:

How did you become interested in studying chemical oceanography, and how did you get your current job?

Calvin grew up in Kansas. While in college he saw a flyer for a summer class doing chemical oceanography. That is all it took, and he was hooked! This experience then inspired him to go to graduate school in chemical oceanography.

To get his current job Calvin prepared...

Region:
Collections:
Full Profile: View Profile