  A once-in-a-lifetime journey with Antarctica's 21st century explorers |
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people in the filmAllan Ashworth
His fossil-based research in Antarctica focuses on the ecology and biogeography of an extinct Transantarctic mountain ecosystem which existed before 15 million years ago. He also has interests in integrating fossil and modern studies to predict responses of beetles to global warming as part of longer term conservation efforts, and is collaborating on interdisciplinary studies to understand the history of these insects in the Pacific Northwest, North Dakota and southern Chile. He has traveled widely during the course of a long career and has conducted field studies in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and in remote locations from Baffin Island to the Transantarctic Mountains. Ashworth is chair of the United States National Committee for Quaternary Research and Vice-President for the International Quaternary Association; both organizations are interested in the interdisciplinary study of the history of the natural environment during the Quaternary period—roughly covering the past 1.8 million years. A native of southern England, Ashworth graduated from the University of Birmingham before moving to the United States. Adam Lewis
His research centers on understanding the role that Antarctica has played in earth's climate evolution, he has helped to show that the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet shifted from a dynamic temperate-style configuration to its current sluggish, cold-based configuration about 14 million years ago - and that little has happened since. Originally from Blackfoot, Idaho, he became interested in geology at an early age accompanying his father—a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survery--on field trips. After obtaining his B.S. from Idaho State University, he worked for several years in the private sector as an environmental geologist. In a student career marked by numerous honors and awards, he earned an MS in Quaternary Science from the University of Maine in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Boston University in 2005. Both his Masters and Doctoral theses focused on his Antarctic research. During his field work, Lewis became interested in interdisciplinary examination of the region when he and a fellow student discovered extremely ancient lake sediments, including evidence of plants and insects, while trying to track the glacial history of the continent’s Olympus Range. This eventually led to the current collaboration with Professor Allan Ashworth, also in association with Professor David Marchant of Boston University. Before joining the faculty in Fargo in the Spring of 2007, Lewis comes to NDSU from Ohio State University in Columbus where he did post-doctoral research as the Byrd Fellow at the Byrd Polar Research Center. Andrew Podoll & Kelly Gorz
In addition to his graduate studies, Podoll is dedicating himself to teaching high school. He has received a two-year K-12 graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation to assist in developing curriculum and inquiry-based exercises for local high school classrooms in Southern Illinois. Leading up to the expedition covered in ICE PEOPLE, Podoll worked with the 8th Grade Earth Science class at the Ben Franklin Middle School in Fargo. The class then followed the progress of the voyage through videoconferences at McMurdo Station, and via satellite phone communication from the field. Kelly Gorz moved to Fargo after graduating from the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago in 2003. She is currently an undergraduate student in geosciences at North Dakota State University, scheduled to graduate in 2008. She is a McNair scholar (part of the Department of Education’s Ronald E. McNair program), through which she is working with a faculty mentor to research an ancient glacial lake near Fargo. In 2005, she was accepted by the National Science Foundation’s program, Research Experience for Undergraduates, spending a summer with the University of Minnesota at Morris, through which she was able to study ancient glacial deposits in Brazil. In the summer of 2007, she returned to Brazil to serve as mentor in the same program.
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Professor Ashworth’s significant contributions to the natural sciences have led to an Antarctic glacier and four species of beetles being named after him. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the history of life on Earth, sedimentology and paleontology (the study of prehistoric life forms) at North Dakota State University in Fargo. His long-term paleoecological research has focused on the response of organisms to climate change.
A veteran of seven research seasons in Antarctica—working out to about a year-and-a-half in tents in the deep field—Dr. Adam Lewis is considered one of the world’s top experts on the glacial geology of the Transantarctic Mountains.
During the course of filming ICE PEOPLE, Andrew Podoll was in his last year as an undergraduate geology student at North Dakota State University in Fargo. He has since enrolled in the Masters degree program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, with a research focus on geomorphology and paleo-environmental change on the Northern Channel Islands of California.