November  16, 2009

Center for Polar Studies lecture Dec. 2

Augustana will celebrate the opening of its new Center for Polar Studies with an inaugural lecture by Dr. William Hammer, director of the center and discoverer of the first dinosaur in Antarctica. The lecture, "From Giant Amphibians to Dinosaurs: Antarctica during the Age of Reptiles" and will begin at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2 in the John Deere Lecture Hall (820 38^th St.).

Dr. William Hammer

The Augustana Center for Polar Studies will promote the polar research of students and faculty members, support undergraduate courses in polar studies, and sponsor lectures, conferences, and academic trips to the Antarctic Peninsula region. Polar science and specific topics including polar ecosystems, global warming, atmospheric studies and meteorology will be the focus.

Dr. Hammer, a respected veteran of Antarctic science, has been teaching at Augustana since 1981. He was asked to direct the new center because of his ground-breaking research in Antarctica. In 1991, he excavated Antarctica's first dinosaur near the South Pole, and last year a 9,000-foot peak in Antarctica was christened Mount Augustana in honor of Dr. Hammer and Augustana. He plans to make his eighth trip to Antarctica in November 2010.

Dr. Hammer hopes the center will bring to Augustana and his area of research new interest. "The center will help to highlight some of my own research, but hopefully it will also get other people interested in polar studies and involved in polar issues," he says.

The Center for Polar Studies will be distinctive in its involvement of undergraduate students by offering them experience as researchers, student assistants, and members of a Student Advisory Board. With Dr. Hammer's guidance, they will have the opportunity to conduct polar research, participate in professional meetings and complete work study programs.

Dr. Jeff Abernathy, dean of the college, says the center will enable the community, Augustana students and faculty to take their global learning to the next step. "The center will focus faculty energies around critical issues facing the planet today, providing students with opportunity to learn and conduct inquiry alongside faculty members," he says.

The center also will host a series of four public lectures on polar research in the Arctic and Antarctic in 2010. The lectures will address the search for neutrinos from outer space at the South Pole, archeological investigations in Greenland, the hydrologic cycle, and ancient climate based on fossil plants. These lectures will be given in celebration of the 150^th anniversary of the founding of Augustana College in conjunction with the Roys Lecture series.

Kamy Beattie
Director of Public Relations
Office: (309) 794-7721 Mobile: (309) 912-1532 Fax: (309) 794-3461
kamybeattie@augustana.edu