CENTER FOR OLDEST ICE EXPLORATION (COLDEX)
Since 2022, I have been privileged to contribute to the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) as a graduate student researcher. COLDEX is a five-year funded National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC) that is actively exploring Antarctica for the oldest possible ice core records of our planet’s climate history and striving to make polar science more inclusive and diverse.
My work on the COLDEX project entails supporting the Knowledge Transfer team, which is charged with facilitating the creation and exchange of COLDEX knowledge both inside and outside the Center. Under the guidance of COLDEX Director of Knowledge Transfer Dr. Heidi Roop, I have grown to understand and appreciate the differences between environmental communication and science communication by contributing to projects such as:
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An ongoing social network analysis to assess how participants in transdisciplinary, multi-institutional collaborations like COLDEX interact and exchange information
An analysis of U.S. newspaper coverage of Antarctica and climate change to improve communication between journalists and scientists
A strategic communication plan to inform, track, and measure targeted messaging interventions with news media, decision-makers, researchers, and industry and technology leaders
I’ve also committed to COLDEX’s goals of making polar science more inclusive and diverse by lending my insights as an early career researcher (ECR) on the COLDEX ECR Committee and the COLDEX DEI Committee. During my tenure, I took steps to foster inclusion amongst the ECR community by co-developing an in-person COLDEX ECR Day event at the 2022 COLDEX Annual Meeting, leading a science communication training for summer undergraduate researchers, and directing ECR communication and meetings.