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Team Profiles
The first season traverse crew.
Jan-Gunnar Winther
Jan-Gunnar Winther holds a Ph.D. from 1993 in polar hydrology from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. Today, he is the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute. He specializes in using optical satellite imagery to study surface characteristics of snow and glaciers, and has considerable experience in cold-regions field research through a number of expeditions to Antarctica and Svalbard. On the traverse, he will especially be involved in ice coring and outreach activities. “My vision is that we will improve the scientific understanding of Antarctica in a global climate context. And by sharing our knowledge to stakeholders and the general public, make a difference when it comes to how mankind is tackling the climate change challenge.”
Mary Albert
Mary Albert received a BS degree in mathematics from Penn State, MS degree in engineering sciences from Dartmouth, and a PhD in applied mechanics (computational fluid dynamics) from University of California San Diego. Mary is an Adjunct Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and also is a senior research engineer at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL). She has spent many field seasons doing research both in Greenland and Antarctica, and Mary served as Chair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Polar Year from 2003-2006 for the NRC Polar Research Board. Mary is the lead U.S. Investigator on the Norwegian-US Traverse. Mary's traverse research focuses on the physical properties of the firn, impacts of accumulation rate on firn properties, and air-snow exchange modeling. With the synergy of the scientific expertise on this project and the adventure of the Antarctic experience, Mary is very excited about participating in this expedition.
Glen Liston
Glen E. Liston is a Senior Research Scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University. He received his B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, in 1982; his M.S. in Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Geophysics, University of Alaska, in 1986; and his Ph.D. in Mathematics-Engineering, Montana State University, in 1991. He has led and participated in over 25 Arctic and Antarctic field expeditions. On this project he is responsible for measuring surface roughness features, assisting with the ice-core drilling and ice-temperature profiling, and modeling surface-atmosphere interactions. He spent a year at the South Pole 25 years ago, and is looking forward to returning there and seeing the new station.
Atsuhiro Muto
Atsuhiro (Atsu) Muto is a Ph.D. student in the Geography department at the University of Colorado at Boulder, under the guidance of Dr. Ted Scambos and Dr. Konrad Steffen. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Earth Sciences from Chiba University in Japan. He has participated in the deep ice core drilling at Dome Fuji, East Antarctica, as a member of the 46th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2004-05. He also spent one month at McMurdo Station in 2006. He is responsible for firn temperature profile measurements and aims to write his Ph.D. thesis on surface temperature reconstruction using data obtained during traverses.
Stian Solbø
Stian Solbø received his degrees of Sivilingeniør (M. Sc.) and Dr. Scient (Ph.D.) from the department of physics and technology, University of Tromsø, in 2001 and 2007, respectively. He is affiliated to the Northern Research Institute (Norut) in Tromsø, Norway, where he works on extracting useful information for climate and environmental studies from remotely sensed data. His main tasks on the traverse will be to operate the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system and to set up automatic weather stations. Stian has never been to Antarctica before, but he hopes to be the first person from Senja driving a tracked vehicle to South Pole.
Karsten Müller
Karsten received his Master in Geosciences from the University of Oslo in 2005. Currently he is pursuing his Ph.D. on high-frequency radar interacting with snow and ice in the Polar Regions. He has conducted field work in the Arctic and is now looking forward to elucidate some of the secrets the ice on the other side of the planet may hold.
Tom Neumann
Tom earned a B.A. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Washington in 2003. This will be his third traverse, having participated in the 2001-2002 U.S. ITASE traverse in West Antarctica and the 2003-2004 Light Ground Traverse in East Antarctica. As a part-time member, he will play several roles this season, including assisting with ice core collection and processing, surface snow sample collection, and the deep radar system. He hopes to help get experiments underway, provide assistance where he can, and help keep the team on schedule.
Helgard Anschütz
Helgard studied geophysics at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. She did her Ph.D. at the glaciology department of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) Bremerhaven, and received her doctor’s degree in March 2007 from the University of Bremen.
During her Ph.D. thesis work she participated in two expeditions to the coastal parts of Dronning Maud Land. Prior to that she overwintered at the German Antarctic station “Neumayer.” Her research interests comprise the combination of GPR and ice core studies and during the traverse she will obtain low-frequency radar data and assist with ice core drilling. She looks forward to doing exciting research in an international group and especially to finally make it up onto the polar plateau.
Lou Albershardt
Lou Albershardt has spent a numerous seasons in the Arctic and the Antarctic as part of logistical and science support efforts. She worked as a lead driller on GISP-II, Taylor Dome, and Siple Dome research projects. Currently she is working for the Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS) at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. For Lou, this expedition represents a dream-come-true to be involved with an internationally-recognized group of researchers dedicated to such a high-quality and comprehensive climate-reconstruction effort.
John Guldahl
John Guldahl is the Operations Manager for Antarctic programs for the Norwegian Polar Institute. John has led the logistics planning and organisation of numerous expeditions both in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and he has spent several seasons in the polar regions as an expedition leader. He was the project manager for the conversion of Troll Station to a full year station, as well as the establishment of the blue ice airfield at Troll. John has been in charge of the logistics planning for this traverse. En route he will keep a watchful eye over the operation, maintain liaisons with external operators, coordinate air operations and generally make sure that everything goes according to plans. John is fully enjoying the sublime challenge of planning and conducting one of the longest scientific traverses of the Antarctic continent.Einar Johansen
Einar is our camp manager, and will be in charge of provisions and supplies. Everybody else takes a keen interest in Einar's work, because he is the one who decides the weekly menus!Einar is a trained mechanic and cook. He joined the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1998 and currently works as an engineer at the Operations and Logistics Department. Having spent a total of 17 years in Svalbard in Arctic Norway and 7 summer seasons in Antarctica, he has extensive experience in fieldwork under frigid and harsh circumstances. He has mainly been working with field logistics, and as a field assistant to glaciology, polar bear, walrus and reindeer scientists. Although he has travelled far and wide in Antarctica, he regards the traverse from Troll Station to the South Pole as a unique challenge.
Kjetil Bakkland
Kjetil Bakkland is the mechanic and first aid responder on the traverse to the South Pole. His normal work is with the Fire and Rescue Services of the City of Sandefjord in Southern Norway. Kjetil is a trained mechanic and paramedic, and he has several years of experience as an ambulance driver. This is Kjetil’s third summer season in Antarctica, and he is hoping for the traverse to be a safe journey for all participants. Kjetil has a keen interest in Antarctic research and exploring, and he is looking forward to visit the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. When getting there he will, however, be looking even more forward to getting back to Norway, to his wife Lise and his three children, Hanna (6), Steffen (16) and Marius (18).
Stein Tronstad
Stein Tronstad earned his M.Sc. from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1984, and has the somewhat unlikely background of a city planner. After having grappled with the urban expansion of the City of Tromsø for 14 years, he came to the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1998. Currently he is heading the Institute's Environmental Data Section. On his spare time he has been working with climbing and mountaineering safety for the Norwegian Climbing Federation over the last 12 years. His main responsibility during the traverse is travel safety and navigation. He will drive the crevasse detecting radar which doubles as a 400 MHz snow radar. En route he will also indulge in other hobbies of his, such as collecting GPS data, processing ice cores, and digging snow pits. This will be his fourth Antarctic season.Art Howard
Art Howard has held a camera in his hands since the 7th grade. That camera has been a ticket to explore and capture both the beauty and hardships of the planet..shooting a George Lucas documentary for Japanese television, capturing the action in the trenches of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and traveling to 49 states and 25 countries for broadcast clients, and Museums. Art represents Polar-Palooza, an award winning outreach program dedicated to science education during International Polar Year. After 4 trips to the Arctic, this will be Art’s first South. Unni Ødegård
Unni Ødegård is a journalist working for NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. She is focusing on climate change in her work, and has been busy lately making a documentary on the melting sea ice in the Arctic. Her goal is to make the traverse a happening to the Norwegian public. Every day she and cameraman Torbjørn Krane will post stories, videos and pictures to a website: http://www.nrk.no/sydpolen. They will also make a tv-series for Schrödingers Katt, a weekly science show on NRK. Unni has never been to the Antarctic before and is VERY excited.
Traverse team assembled at Troll Station