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GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society. This file may not be posted on the Internet. The Geological Society of America Special Paper 461 2009 Field glaciology and earth systems science: The Juneau Icefi eld Research Program (JIRP), 1946–2008 Cathy Connor Department of Natural Sciences, University Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA ABSTRACT For over 50 yr, the Juneau Icefi eld Research Program (JIRP) has provided under- graduate students with an 8 wk summer earth systems and glaciology fi eld camp. This fi eld experience engages students in the geosciences by placing them directly into the physically challenging glacierized alpine landscape of southeastern Alaska. Mountain- top camps across the Juneau Icefi eld provide essential shelter and facilitate the pro- gram’s instructional aim to enable direct observations by students of active glacier sur- face processes, glaciogenic landscapes, and the region’s tectonically deformed bedrock. Disciplinary knowledge is transferred by teams of JIRP faculty in the style of a scientifi c institute. JIRP staffers provide glacier safety training, facilitate essential camp logistics, and develop JIRP student fi eld skills through daily chores, remote camp management, and glacier travel in small fi eld parties. These practical elements are important com- ponents of the program’s instructional philosophy. Students receive on-glacier train- ing in mass-balance data collection and ice-velocity measurements as they ski ~320 km across the icefi eld glaciers between Juneau, Alaska, and Atlin, British Columbia. They use their glacier skills and disciplinary interests to develop research experiments, collect fi eld data, and produce reports. Students present their research at a public forum at the end of the summer. This experience develops its participants for successful careers as researchers in extreme and remote environments. The long-term value of the JIRP program is examined here through the professional evolution of six of its recent alumni. Since its inception, ~1300 students, faculty, and staff have participated in the Juneau Icefi eld Research Program. Most of these faculty and staff have participated for mul- tiple summers and many JIRP students have returned to work as program staff and sometimes later as faculty. The number of JIRP participants (1946–2008) can also be measured by adding up each summer’s participants, raising the total to ~2500. INTRODUCTION Program (JIRP) has created a singular summer fi eld experience founded on Emerson’s educational doctrine (Fig. 1). Southeast Ralph Waldo Emerson believed in “the education of the Alaska’s maritime rain forest and Coast Range Mountains pro- scholar by nature, by books, and by action” (Emerson, 1837). He vide the extraordinary glacier laboratory that has guided the was probably the fi rst North American philosopher to advocate program’s founder and director, Maynard M. Miller, with his for the education of students using a pedagogy with emphasis application of Emerson’s philosophy by “bringing the students on direct student involvement and experience relative to biblio- into nature” (Miller, 1994, personal commun.). Each summer, mania. Over the last half century, the Juneau Icefi eld Research JIRP students travel to Juneau, Alaska, and receive an extensive, Connor, C., 2009, Field glaciology and earth systems science: The Juneau Icefi eld Research Program (JIRP), 1946–2008, in Whitmeyer, S.J., Mogk, D.W., and Pyle, E.J., eds., Field Geology Education: Historical Perspectives and Modern Approaches: Geological Society of America Special Paper 461, p. 173–184, doi: 10.1130/2009.2461(15). For permission to copy, contact [email protected]. ©2009 The Geological Society of America. All rights reserved. 173 174 Connor Figure 1. The Juneau Icefi eld Research Program’s pedagogy is based on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1837) Philosophy. on-site synthesis of Alaska’s coastal geology, glaciology, clima- panhandle, was identifi ed as a more accessible and economical tology, geomorphology, ecology, meteorology, hydrology, geo- outdoor laboratory for cold regions research. Beginning in 1946, physics, and other landscape information. They are trained in the reconnaissance of the Juneau Icefi eld enabled planning for stud- acquisition of discipline-specifi c data from nunatak base camps ies of Taku Glacier’s mass balance (Heusser, 2007). The “Proj- located on bedrock ridge tops across the 3176 km2 glacierized ect on the Taku Glacier” (The Project), a 10 yr contract with the U.S.-Canada border region in the Coast Mountains of southeast- Offi ce of Naval Research to the American Geographical Society ern Alaska and northwestern British Columbia (Fig. 2). Students of New York, led to eight fi eld seasons beginning in 1948 through are required to develop a research experiment and the data collec- the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957–1958). During the tion methodology and analysis to address it. Since initial research IGY, researchers also measured and monitored Juneau Icefi eld’s on this glacier system beginning in 1946, Miller and his JIRP Lemon Creek Glacier, one of nine glaciers selected for its global faculty colleagues have incorporated geoscience education and climatic signifi cance (Marcus et al., 1995) and the location of student training into their own Juneau Icefi eld summer research JIRP Camp 17 (Fig. 2). Members of the Project on the Taku Gla- program, inspiring generations of earth system science students. cier also investigated icefi eld-wide glacier processes, the relation- At the 2002 meeting of the International Glaciological Society ships between hydrology and ice-terminus positions, their links held in Yakutat, Alaska, a straw poll of the audience revealed that to climate, and the paleoclimate records in adjacent landscapes over 50% of the attendees, a broad spectrum of the world’s work- through their glacier and bog sediments (Miller, 1947, 1950, ing and highly respected research climate scientists and their 1954, 1956–1957, 1957, 1961, 1963; Field and Miller, 1950; graduate students were JIRP alumni. Miller and Field, 1951; R.D. Miller, 1973, 1975; Heusser, 2007). Glacier studies in the Juneau region were built upon the work of Evolution of a Glacier Science Education Program: Cooper (1937), Field (1947), and others referenced in Connor et A Brief JIRP History al. (2009), who worked extensively on the post–Little Ice Age recessional glacier terminus positions in nearby Glacier Bay. Since its inception, research on the Juneau Icefi eld has been The nonprofi t Foundation for Glacier and Environmental directed toward the understanding of temperate coastal glacier Research (FGER) was established in 1955 to support the Juneau change under the infl uence of climate. Following World War Icefi eld Research Program, which followed the termination of the II and into the Cold War, U.S. strategic interests included Arc- Project on the Taku Glacier, and which has continued for the last tic sea-ice research and measurements of ice thickness to assess half century with student training in mountaineering techniques, effects on missile trajectories beneath the ice. The Taku Glacier glaciology, and extensive fi eld studies of the Taku Glacier region in the Juneau Icefi eld system, located in the southeastern Alaska (Miller, 1976, 1977, 1985; Pelto and Miller, 1990; Marcus et al., Field glaciology and earth systems science: The Juneau Icefi eld Research Program 175 Figure 2. Location map of the Juneau Icefi eld with selected research camps referenced in text. Basemap is by Bowen (2005). 1995; McGee et al., 1996–2007; Adema et al., 1997; Sprenke et Sir Edmund Hillary’s achievement in 1953, and included Miller’s al., 1999; Miller and Molnia, 2006; Pelto et al., 2008). A semi- analysis of tritium isotopes in fi rn pack stratigraphy collected at nal date for support of the early JIRP program was 3 November 7470 m (Miller et al., 1965). His annual Camp 10 (Fig. 3) sum- 1957, the launch by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of mer evening recount of this expedition has inspired generations of the fi rst satellite, Sputnik. This event intensifi ed the space race JIRP participants to combine their mountaineering and scientifi c (1957–1975) between the United States and Russia and resulted interests. In 1979, eight undergraduates were included in the JIRP in massive infusions of U.S. federal funding for science education. program for the fi rst time. With support from the NSF Research From 1960 through 1975, as selected