With icy resolve – and help from donors – student scientists power through in the Arctic
For the past several months, Matt White has been applying his environmental engineering knowledge toward determining the most effective ways to crush large blocks of ice.
He began his research and experiments back in September, running through a series of lab tests using a rubber PVC connecter hose and a couple of metal O-rings to form a makeshift flexible cup in which he would freeze water, then use a simple clamp to crush the ice. The experiments and necessary tools evolved into something much bigger that later would require a heavy-duty car jack as the ice crusher.
The Radford University senior geology major from Austinville, Virginia, put in the long hours of work and research in order to transport his self-made crusher away from the climate-controlled comforts of the physics lab in the Artis College Science of Technology to the cold – that’s an understatement – environs of Utqiagvik, Alaska.
White was among the 12 talented Radford students enrolled in Physics Professor Rhett Herman’s Arctic Geophysics research course during the 2021-22 academic year who designed and built their own tools and research equipment to deploy on the Arctic sea ice near Utqiagvik, the northernmost town in the United States, where, during the trip, temperatures regularly dipped below zero and felt much colder, with the wind chill dipping to 30-35 below Fahrenheit.
As White soon learned when he arrived, the ice in Utqiagvik is much different from those blocks he froze for himself back in Radford.
“We were using tap water in the physics lab, and it is much stronger than the sea ice in Alaska,” White said. “But the work in the lab was a useful practice procedure. And sometimes, it was very messy.”
As White worked out on the ice in Utqiagvik, located more than 3,500 miles from Radford, other students who were part of this research crew, along with Herman, worked on their own projects that they, too, had been refining for months.
Jasmine Rollins was among them. Her research involved drilling a hole in the ice and then using infrared thermal sensors to capture thermal waves in the water below. The project required “a good bit of electrical engineering,” she noted, something that, at first, was not in the geology major’s comfort zone.
“It's nerve-wracking because if it doesn't work, you have to fix it, and we only have a set amount of time,” Rollins said during a virtual interview TV during the last days of the trip. “But, when it does work, wow! It's an amazing experience, and I'm really proud of my work.”
Grace Psenicska said her time on the ice was “definitely a roller coaster.” “Her project involved testing water turbidity using diode lasers and photoresistor receivers and measuring the velocity of the water below the sea ice using piezoelectric sensors. “A hole had to be drilled through the ice to place the sensors into the Arctic Ocean below the nearly-2-meter-thick ice.”
As with most of the projects, there were some challenges. “After finding out a couple of my sensors weren't waterproofed correctly, some repairs were made, and data was able to be collected for two days,” said the senior geology major from Sykesville, Maryland.
She hasn’t “officially analyzed the data yet,” Psenicska said, “but we hope to see a significant turbidity value change between the air and the water and slight turbidity and velocity value changes depending on the depth.”
The work in Utqiagvik, where Herman has been taking Radford students on research treks every other year since 2006, isn’t easy, they all can attest, even when the workday is done, and they marvel at the aurora borealis in the night sky.
“When your hands hurt, your feet hurt, your face hurts, you're tired and it's hard walking on that ice, it's nothing like you ever experienced, but they do a great job,” Herman said of the student researchers. “They all push, they shove, they repair at night, they work on this stuff. They don’t give up.”
The journey to Utqiagvik also isn’t easy, and it isn’t inexpensive either. During a crowdfunding initiative last summer, 34 generous donors exceeded the goal of $5,000 by contributing $6,530 toward the expedition. One of those donors was Andrew Kirby ’08, who majored in physics at Radford and is now a project manager at the Navy Crane Center.
“I’m happy to see this important work being acknowledged, and it feels great and nostalgic to be able to support an initiative in physics whose research and impact also matter to me personally,” Kirby said. “Dr. Herman is a great teacher and, more importantly, a great human being. Radford is lucky to have him, and I’m lucky to have had to opportunity to learn from him!”
Donations from Kirby and others provide an enormous boost to making courses such as the Arctic Geophysics Research Expedition “more inclusive,” Herman said.
“So many of our students simply do not have the economic advantage of being able to afford this costly, albeit priceless, trip,” the professor said. “The only way that many students can take advantage of this opportunity is through the funds that our alumni and friends contribute. By contributing to this cause, you give more students the opportunity for an amazing, unique and sometimes career-defining research experience that not only just a few people at Radford enjoy, but also very few people at any school get to have.”
Without donors, much of the students’ research may never have happened, White said.
“The help from those donors really made this trip and our work possible,” he said. “I am super thankful for their contributions, and in the future, I hope I can be part of that donor pool that helps the next generation go up to Alaska and deploy their own projects. One day, someone is going to make a big breakthrough on this trip, and the donors are behind making it happen.”
To contribute to future expeditions, visit https://connect.radford.edu/give and type in “Artic Geophysics Research Expedition.”