Media availability: Antarctic research and construction of the new south pole station

Media event is part of a daylong seminar at the Maryland Science Center

NSF, an independent federal agency that supports all areas of fundamental science and engineering research, manages the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Bruce Marsh, a geologist from Johns Hopkins University, Ted Rosenberg, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Maryland, Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Kelly Tyler, a Baltimore�based writer, will discuss major Antarctic research efforts and the transition from a 30-year-old U.S. station at the South Pole to a new $133 million facility. New video of the multi-year station construction will be released at the availability.

Amy Farrar, a Girl Scout from Silver Spring, Md., who traveled to scientific sites in Antarctica this season under NSF's auspices, will join the panel.

The media event is part of a daylong, NSF-sponsored seminar held in conjunction with a new exhibit and IMAX film about British Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Endurance expedition. Numerous Antarctic researchers from across the United States will be available for interviews throughout the day.

The seminar, entitled "Revelations in the Ice. Shackleton's legacy: Antarctica Today," will feature: a showing of the IMAX film for local elementary students; a Webcast of a presentation for students about dinosaurs in Antarctica; an interactive teleconference with scientists at McMurdo Station, NSF's science and logistics hub in Antarctica; and exhibits about the science NSF supports in the Antarctic. Two evening panel discussions one on Shackleton's legacy in Antarctica today and the other on clues to global climate change in Antarctica � are open to the public.

For more information, contact:
Peter West, (703) 292-8070, [email protected]
Whitney Hannon, (410) 545-5960, [email protected]