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Building of new US South Pole Station focus of UD Lecture

To be Webcast and simulcast in Second Life

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 5 p.m. at the University of Delaware, Jerry Marty, facilities construction and maintenance manager for the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, Division of Antarctic Sciences, will present "Building for Science at the South Pole."

Marty has spent the past seven years as the on-site construction manager for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which opened in January 2008. He will talk about what it took to build this "home-away-from-home" for scientists working in the heart of Antarctica.

The new research station sits at the Earth's axis atop a constantly shifting continental ice sheet nearly two miles thick. Among its most novel features, hydraulic jack columns allow the building to be raised in 10-inch increments to keep it out of drifting snow.

Marty will be introduced by Thomas Gaisser, UD's Martin A. Pomerantz Chair of Physics and Astronomy. A veteran Antarctic researcher, Gaisser is leading a team from the University of Delaware's Bartol Research Institute in developing "Ice Top," the surface array of detectors for the world's largest neutrino telescope, called "Ice Cube," which is being built deep within the polar ice sheet. The team has shared their experiences with the public in a popular blog series.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be Webcast live at http://www.udel.edu/UMS/udlive/ and be made available as a podcast after the event at http://www.ums.udel.edu/podcast/. The lecture also will be simulcast into the University of Delaware's virtual world in Second Life. The lecture will be presented at http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Delaware/131/100/24 in UD Second Life. Note that you must have an avatar in Second Life to visit using this link.

The William S. Carlson International Polar Year Events celebrate UD's president from 1946-1950, who also was an Arctic explorer, and UD's significant polar research in the world's fourth International Polar Year. The global scientific and education program began in March 2007 and concludes in March 2009.

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