Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

Jeff Peneston can walk or snowshoe out his back door into the forest and lakes of Camp Talooli, a children’s camp that he has helped his wife direct for 24 years. Each school day he leaves his forested home to teach Earth Science at Liverpool High School, just North of Syracuse, New York. Mr. Peneston has been teaching for 22 years and his passion has been to find ways to bring his students out into the natural world where they can learn to solve authentic problems. In 2000 he helped create the Expedition Earth Science program and each year he leads groups of students to locations around Upstate New York where they can act as field scientists for a day or a weekend. Mr. Peneston believes what one of his students once told him, “Real science begins where the classroom ends!” Mr. Peneston will be joining a team of international scientists on the Oden icebreaker.

Dr. Patricia (Tish) Yager is an associate professor in marine sciences at the University of Georgia. Her expertise includes biological and chemical oceanography, marine microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. Her research focuses on the feedbacks between climate change and marine ecosystems. Her field research combines microbial ecology and community structure with inorganic carbon chemistry. She has spent several seasons working in Antarctica, and also studies microbial communities in the Amazon River. For the project in Barrow, Alaska, Tish will be the lead-PI responsible for project oversight, coordination, and synthesis. To learn more about Dr. Yager, please visit her faculty biography page.