A University of Maine Ph.D. candidate with deep roots in the local community has written a successful grant to take his former teacher on a research trip to Alaska’s Denali National Park.
Seth Campbell is a climate scientist who attended Nobleboro Central School 20 years ago and graduated from Lincoln Academy in 1996.
He has maintained a growing friendship with NCS science teacher Ken Williams, sharing his love of outdoor adventure.
“I’ve been nagging him for years to take me with him,” Williams told the NCS School Board at their Dec. 10 meeting. In addition to teaching science, Williams leads the school’s Outing Club.
Williams will get his chance to share an adventure with his former student this coming spring, with the support of grantor PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating).
Campbell’s research is focused on determining the 3D ice flow dynamics of several glaciers in Denali National Park.
In May, his team from the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. will drill core samples from Kahiltna Glacier on Mount Hunter, that they hope will provide a picture of Alaska’s climate over the last 1000-5000 years. The University of New Hampshire is part of the team with Dartmouth and UMaine.
Williams will spend a week in March training and preparing for the two-week trek to 13,000 feet that will take place in May.
That climb will take him to parts of Mt. McKinley and Mount Hunter and expose the teacher and his colleagues to temperatures that may plunge to 20-degrees below zero as they carry some of the 5000 pounds of equipment that will be used in the field.
While Williams is on the ice, he will send reports back to students at NCS and other AOS 93 schools.
PolarTREC received approximately 200 applications for the funding, which was awarded to six projects in the Antarctic and six in the Arctic region. The grant covers Williams’ expenses for technical support, equipment, food, and logistics as well as a replacement teacher while he is away and the cost to set up satellite communication between Williams and his NCS classroom.
The National Science Foundation has provided close to $1 million for the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab project, which is expected to take two or more years to complete.
“The best part of this, for me, is I get to give him homework 20 years later,” Campbell said. He said he would continue to communicate with Williams over the three-hour time difference, after the NCS teacher returns to Maine.
While Williams is with the research team, the group will fly to 7000 feet. From there, they will ski up the glacier, climbing to 10,000 feet and acclimating themselves for the push to the sampling site. Williams may not be with the team when they finally locate the site to drill their 700-foot deep core samples.
The samples will be flown from the glacier to a rendezvous with a freezer truck that will carry them across the continent to laboratories at UNH and Dartmouth where they will be examined to extract data about precipitation, air chemistry and temperature.
“The goal is to expand the network of ice cores,” Campbell said. He said there is information about Alaska’s coastal region, but not from the interior.
Campbell and Williams worked together on the 50-60 page grant application.
“One thing I remember Seth writing is that he wants to give back to this community in any way that he can as a research scientist,” Williams told the board.