The Ice Hunters

Follow two of the world’s leading paleoclimatologists to the top of the world and both poles!

Using ice cores they drill themselves, Marshall graduates Lonnie Thompson, from Gassaway, and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, from Charleston, study the history of climate at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.  Lonnie was the first scientist in the world to drill ice cores on glaciers in tropical regions.  And he has spent more time above 20,000 feet than anyone in history.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson was one of the first women to lead an ice-drilling expedition to a polar region, and recently returned from an ice-drilling expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula. Lonnie has received the nation’s highest award in science — the National Medal of Science.