Page 51: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2015)

ut in the middle of of the Arctic Ocean, a German ties and the food chain that depends on them.” icebreaker, Polarstern, punches its way slowly While it was this scienti? c vacuum that brought Whitcomb through arctic sea ice to a spot just a few hundred to the top of the world, he was not on Polarstern as a micro-

Omiles shy of the North Pole. biologist or geologist but as an engineer. Whitcomb is one of

Polarstern is no mere icebreaker, however: It is a ? oating the world’s leading experts in remotely controlled underwater scienti? c laboratory. Aboard was a team of international sci- robotic vehicles. entists and engineers intent on exploring one of the last re- maining scienti? c frontiers on Earth, A 20-Year Quest the world beneath moving arctic ice. Whitcomb went to the Arctic last “The phytoplankton communities summer as the co-principal investiga-

The Hardest Lesson that thrive under arctic ice during the tor, together with collaborators at the arctic summer are the primary means Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu-

Before she went down, Nereus of biological production,” says Louis tion, in the development of an entirely logged some 76 missions over seven

Whitcomb, chair of Mechanical En- new underwater vehicle, called Nereid years, providing an unprecedented gineering at the Whiting School, Under Ice. trove of scienti? c data from the and among the lucky few on the Po- Nereid will allow researchers to deep.

larstern. “Biological oceanographers observe the little understood and im- are beginning to understand and un- portant ecosystems below the moving ravel the mysteries of these communi- polar sea ice, under massive glacial ice www.marinetechnologynews.com

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