Science Distilled: Story of Water, Part 1

Featured panelists:

Dr. Joe McConnel’s research interests include snow and global-scale hydrology, ice core and atmospheric chemistry, glaciology, and ice sheet mass balance – with particular emphasis on documenting the impacts of human activities on remote environments during recent decades to millennia. Current NSF-funded and other research projects include ice core chemistry-based studies in Greenland, Antarctica, and the Americas. Central to this research are national and international, multi-disciplinary collaborations and DRIs unique ultra-trace ice core analytical laboratory.

Nathan Chellman is an Assistant Research Professor with the Division of Hydrologic Sciences at DRI. He specializes in the collection, processing, and analysis of ice cores — cylindrical samples of ice drilled from glaciers and ice sheets around the world. Nathan grew up in Reno and holds a B.Sc. in Geology/Biology from Brown University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Hydrology from the University of Nevada, Reno. He first worked at DRI as a high school intern in 2008, then later returned to DRI during and after college to work with Joe McConnell in the Ice Core Lab.

Drake McCrimmon is a hydrology Ph.D. student at UNR working in the Ice Core Lab at the Desert Research Institue under Nathan Chellman, Ph.D., where he studies markers of past wildfires in Greenland ice cores. Drake had the exciting opportunity to accompany Joe McConnell and his team to Tunu, Greenland in the Summer of 2022 to extract the Tunu ice core. In his free time, Drake enjoys hiking, skiing, photography, and playing the banjo.

Sophie Wensman is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at DRI in Reno, NV working with Joe McConnell studying lead isotopes in polar ice cores to examine and trace historical changes in lead pollution sources. Sophie owes her interest in science and research “in part to my mother, who taught me and my brother outside the classroom. We worked with people of all ages investigating the natural world through direct involvement in environmental programs, including University of New Hampshire Marine Docents, Great Bay Coast Watch, Seacoast Science Center, and New Hampshire Audubon.