Question from Dan Bryant:

As a current college student, how does one get in contact or find the "path" to conduct research in Antarctica?

Hi Dan,
Great question. I highly recommend getting involved in undergraduate research. At my school there was a program called the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program that listed which professors in the Biology Department were looking students to work in their lab. At some institutions there are professors that are looking for students to work with them as research assistants in Antarctica.

Even if there are not professors who do Antarctic research at your school, I would still recommennd undergraduate research. You won't necessarily start off getting to go to remote field sites, but undergraduate research can help you get your foot in the door. My undergraduate research involved identifying and counting aquatic insects from streams in Venezuela. I didn't get to go to South America, but I learned a great deal about freshwater ecology from working in that lab, and I got to help out with field work around southeastern Michigan. I found that I really loved field ecology, and the professor I worked for recommended me for a job doing field work in Alaska, which was awesome. Eventually, I went to graduate school for ecology and met a Professor who was doing research in ecology got a proposal funded to work as a postdoctoral researcher in Antarctica.

If you don't make it to Antarctica as an undergraduate, there are opportunities to do graduate research here. If you're interested in ecology or environmental sciences, there are a number of professors involved with the Long Term Ecological Research program at McMurdo who conduct research and advise graduate students who do research in the Dry Valleys and beyond. I recommend finding professors who study topics that you find fascinating and contacting them about graduate school.