Dr. Robert Wharton, research professor and vice president for research at the Desert Research Institute, has been appointed to the National Research Council's Polar Research Board. The board provides oversight and guidance for federal programs involving U.S. scientists.
The board also represents U.S. interests on international polar research issues and acts as an information clearinghouse for the polar science community. Some of the key issues facing the board include the role of polar regions in global climate change, human impacts in polar regions, and rebuilding the U.S. research base at the South Pole. Wharton, a veteran of eleven Antarctic research expeditions, will serve on the board through December 2000.
Wharton has established an international reputation for his studies of cold desert environments in polar regions, particularly for his research of perennially ice-covered lakes in Antarctica. He developed and directed the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research project for the National Science Foundation for the last five years.
That program, featured in a public television episode of Nova, included the discovery of unexpectedly robust communities of algae and microorganisms on the bottom of Antarctic lakes permanently capped by 15 feet of ice.
Wharton has also developed and led NASA/NSF supported studies of Arctic and Antarctic environments as possible Earth-based models of early Martian environments. He developed and led a joint NASA/NSF supported project to test technologies relevant to the exploration of cold deserts on Mars.
Wharton is a recipient of the Antarctic Service Medal, and has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Geographical Society, and The Explorers Club.