Ariel Waldman

Last updated
Ariel Waldman
Ariel Waldman in 2024.jpg
Ariel Waldman at her studio in 2024
EducationGraphic designer
Occupation(s)Explorer, filmmaker and writer
Known forScience Hack Day
Notable work
  • Antarctica Unearthed
  • What’s It Like in Space?
  • Life Under The Ice
Website arielwaldman.com

Ariel Waldman is an explorer, filmmaker and writer [1] specializing in the intersection of science, space, technology and art. She describes herself as "on a mission to make science and space exploration disruptively accessible." [2]

Contents

Ariel Waldman is the director of “Antarctica Unearthed”, a nature documentary about the McMurdo Dry Valleys, which she filmed entirely solo without a film crew during her two month expedition as a researcher with the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER team. In 2024, the documentary was awarded “Official Selection” at Wildscreen Festival. [3]

In 2018, she traveled to Antarctica for five weeks as a principal investigator with the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers program. [4] She climbed glaciers and camped in the Dry Valleys in order to photograph microbes living in extreme environments. The resulting project, Life Under the Ice, features microscopy photos of bacteria, diatoms, tardigrades and other Antarctic life forms, and was the topic of her 2020 TED Talk, "The Invisible Life Hidden Beneath Antarctica's Ice".

Waldman is the global director of Science Hack Day, which organizes events worldwide to bring together people to make things using science. The idea sprang from a South by Southwest panel she organized in 2010 on how to make use of open data. She is also the founder of SpaceHack.org, a directory of ways for anyone to participate in space exploration.

Waldman has been a National Geographic Explorer since 2018. [5] She formerly chaired the external council for NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which provides grants to develop innovative ideas in aerospace that could transform future NASA missions. [6] She co-authored "Pathways to Exploration," a 2014 report from the National Academies on the future of human spaceflight. [7]

In 2013, Waldman received an honor from the Obama White House for being a Champion of Change in citizen science, "for her dedication to increasing public engagement in science and science literacy." [8] She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMurdo Station</span> American Antarctic base

McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research station on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand–claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,500 residents, and serves as one of three year-round United States Antarctic science facilities. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo. McMurdo Station continues to operate as the hub for American activities on the Antarctic continent. By road, McMurdo is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from New Zealand's smaller Scott Base.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMurdo Dry Valleys</span> Snow-free valleys in Antarctica

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ice from nearby glaciers. The rocks here are granites and gneisses, and glacial tills dot this bedrock landscape, with loose gravel covering the ground. It is one of the driest places on Earth, though there are several anecdotal accounts of rainfall within the Dry Valleys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center</span>

The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC) is a polar, alpine, and climate research center at Ohio State University founded in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMurdo Sound</span> Geographic location

The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the South Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Antarctic Program</span> American government initiative

The United States Antarctic Program is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the Antarctica continent. Founded in 1959, the USAP manages all U.S. scientific research and related logistics in Antarctica as well as aboard ships in the Southern Ocean.

Operation Deep Freeze is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on.. Given the continuing and constant US presence in Antarctica since that date, "Operation Deep Freeze" has come to be used as a general term for US operations in that continent, and in particular for the regular missions to resupply US Antarctic bases, coordinated by the United States military. Task Force 199 was involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Pole Traverse</span> Highway in Antarctica

The South Pole Traverse, also called the South Pole Overland Traverse, is an approximately 995-mile-long (1,601 km) flagged route over compacted snow and ice in Antarctica that links McMurdo Station on the coast to the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, both operated by the National Science Foundation of the United States. It was constructed by levelling snow and filling in crevasses; flags mark its route from McMurdo Station across the Ross Ice Shelf to the Leverett Glacier, where the route ascends to the polar plateau and on to the South Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Bonney (Antarctica)</span> Lake in Antarctica

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood Falls</span> Red-colored seep of saltwater flowing from Taylor Glacier in Antarctica

Blood Falls is an outflow of an iron(III) oxide–tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serena Auñón-Chancellor</span> American physician, engineer, and NASA astronaut

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Meir</span> American astronaut and marine biologist

Jessica Ulrika Meir is an American NASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following postdoctoral research in comparative physiology at the University of British Columbia. She has studied the diving physiology and behavior of emperor penguins in Antarctica, and the physiology of bar-headed geese, which are able to migrate over the Himalayas. In September 2002, Meir served as an aquanaut on the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 4 crew. In 2013, she was selected by NASA to Astronaut Group 21. In 2016, Meir participated in ESA CAVES, a training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. Meir launched on September 25, 2019, to the ISS onboard Soyuz MS-15, where she served as a flight Engineer during Expedition 61 and 62. On October 18, 2019, Meir and Christina Koch were the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk.

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Christina Koch is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering at North Carolina State University. She also did advanced study while working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Just before becoming an astronaut, she served at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as station chief for American Samoa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cristina Takacs-Vesbach</span> American microbial ecologist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Walker (US scientist)</span> American Earth and planetary scientist

Catherine Walker is an American Earth and planetary scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she is on the scientific staff in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering. Her research spans fracture mechanics and dynamics in ice, cryosphere change, physical oceanography, and geomorphology on Earth and other planets and moons using a variety of methodologies including remote sensing.

References

  1. Waldman, Ariel (5 April 2016). What's it like in space? : stories from astronauts who've been there. Standeford, Brian. San Francisco. ISBN   978-1-4521-4476-4. OCLC   910424290.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. "What to expect at the 2013 San Francisco Science Hack Day — Tech News and Analysis". 2014-02-23. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  3. Irons, Hazel (2024-08-15). "Wildscreen Festival Announces 2024 Official Selection". Wildscreen. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  4. "NSF Award Search: Award#1745408 - Life Under the Ice". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  5. "Explorer Home". explorers.nationalgeographic.org. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  6. "NIAC External Council (NEC) | NASA". 2020-10-07. Archived from the original on 2020-10-07. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  7. National Research Council (2014-06-04). Pathways to Exploration: Rationales and Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human Space Exploration. National Academies Press. ISBN   978-0-309-30507-5.
  8. "Hacking Science and Space Exploration". whitehouse.gov. 2013-06-25. Retrieved 2020-04-20.