This might belong in GQ. But at the moment I am just looking for brainstorming from the world at large, and I don’t want the world to think I’m asking for cheaters help on my homework.
There is an international research facility at the South Pole. I am a Chemical Engineering undergrad at the University of Pitsburgh. I think it would be really, really cool to try to go work at the South Pole. On one hand, its a long shot, they may require people to have PhD’s, or be mountineers, or goodness knows what. On the other hand, you don’t know until you ask.
So now, I’m looking for someone to ask. I’m e-mailing the Group Chief of the Observatory Operations group and a couple of people with NSF’s Office of Polar Programs. Any other suggustions? anyone with a clue as to how to go about finding a contact at a research facility on the South Pole?
Try looking at NZ papers. It’s a long shot but there are jobs advertised in the Antarctic program each year. The christchurch Press is online somewhere ;).
Walk down the street to CMU. Go to the 8th floor of Wean Hall. Talk to the prof who runs CMU’s telescope at the South Pole, and takes/sends several people down every year. If nothing else, he knows the ins and outs of the way NSF does things down there and knows several other groups doing work there.
And/or, email the president of this company. He wintered-over at least once at the Pole for CMU and has a lot of other experience at the Pole, and his company (as you can see) still does stuff down there. Plus, he’s a really friendly and interesting guy with a lot of cool stories to tell (and his dog is friendly, too).
Just to be pedantic, working at the South Pole is a death wish, and nothing happens there. It’s just an icy wasteland.
What you’re technically looking for is work at a Research Station on the Antarctic Continent. And unless you have a penguin fixation, or are some kind of lunatic, I wouldn’t recommend it. I think the minimum stay there is several months, and there’s also a maximum stay of a year or so to prevent folk from going stir crazy.
Philbuck, thank you for the lead, I will indeed do that, after I find out who he is…that sort of thing should be mentioned on CMU’s site somewhere, don’t you think?
GuanoLad, nothing may happen there, but its the last frontier of mankind. I know you have to stick around for several months and its cold. I want to do something cool with my life somewhere in it. It may not be an experiance I enjoy while I’m there, but for the rest of my life after that, I would have done something special.
Hmm, that may have been a redundant link - I haven’t looked at the site in a couple years and it looks like ASA and Raytheon are working together now. Seves me right for not checking on it before typing in the link.
Well, FWIW, I’ve worked with and talked with several people who have spent time at the Pole ranging from a week to two winterovers in a row, and I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t love it. Yes, it takes a certain personality to be one of the 30-50 or so winterovers, but there are hundreds of other people every year who work there during the austral summer, and they’re all busy enough that they aren’t going crazy.
PS - MC, I hope you get to go down there - don’t listen to any nay-sayers, as it really would be the oppurtunity of a lifetime for you. I’ve been following the NSF programs at the McMurdo, Palmer and Amundsen Stations for 5 years now, and it’s a fascinating place for scientific activity.
Palmer is at a protected harbor, and climate-wise, it’s the most hospitable (with an average mean temp. of -3c). The main areas of study at Palmer are ecological research, meteorology, upper atmosphere physics, glaciology, and geology. The typical scientific expeditions take place during the summer - usually January through March, with some programs lasting a bit longer. Generally, only minimal support staff are present during the harsh winter months.
You also aren’t required to have a PhD, or any mountaineering experience! (But you do need to get your foot in a door someplace. You’ve already gotten some great info in the previous posts.)
From what I have heard, if you have a masters in something scientific, you would have a better chance of getting on board if you added a license as a generator mechanic, or an electrician, or a EMT than going for just another PHD. They got PHD’s coming out of their you-know-whats, despite the fact that “Nothing is happening there.”
There is a new project from Berkley (AMANDA) starting up to turn a kilometer cube of ice into a neutrino detector. It sounds like just the sort of “Nothing happening” that could use an engineer with a minor in auto repair, and a first aid certification. Get involved now, and you could be summering at the South Pole for years to come. Maybe even wintering over with the astronomers.
I guess I wasn’t clear about my pedantry. I just meant, the Pole is in fact at the centre of the continent and is an almost impossible to reach hellhole. Whereas the Research Stations are actually all near the coast of the continent, and not at the Pole at all, and they are much more pleasant. Relatively speaking.
Not that I’ve been there, but I lived within cooee for thirty years.
