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.
Palmer Station is a United States research station in Antarctica located on Anvers Island, the only US station located north of the Antarctic Circle. Initial construction of the station finished in 1968. The station, like the other U.S. Antarctic stations, is operated by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) of the National Science Foundation. The base is about as distant from the equator as Fairbanks, Alaska.
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.
Robert Charles Swan, OBE, FRGS is the first person to walk to both poles.
Felicity Ann Dawn Aston is a British explorer, author and climate scientist.
Justine Shaw is an Australian Antarctic researcher, best known for her conservation work on subantarctic islands, currently working at the Queensland University of Technology. She has a wide global research network, having worked in Australia, South Africa, sub-Antarctic/Antarctic and the Arctic.
Lois M. Jones was an American geochemist who led the first all-woman science team to Antarctica in 1969. They were also the first women to reach the South Pole. Jones was well regarded for her contribution to geological research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, and published many papers and abstracts.
Samantha "Sam" Hall is an Australian environmental researcher. She is also an Antarctic scientist and entrepreneur.
There may have been women in Antarctica, exploring the regions around Antarctica for many centuries. The most celebrated "first" for women was in 1935 when Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on one of Antarctica's islands. Early male explorers, such as Richard Byrd, named areas of Antarctica after wives and female heads of state. As Antarctica moved from a place of exploration and conquest to a scientific frontier, women worked to be included in the sciences. The first countries to have female scientists working in Antarctica were the Soviet Union, South Africa and Argentina.
This is a Timeline ofwomen in Antarctica. This article describes many of the firsts and accomplishments that women from various countries have accomplished in different fields of endeavor on the continent of Antarctica.
Jessamyn Fairfield is an American physicist who researches biocompatible nanomaterials and neuromorphic devices at NUI Galway.
María Margarita Gual Soler is a Spanish science diplomat, policy advisor, international speaker and educator. She is best known for helping elevate the role of science in international diplomacy and strengthening the connections between science, policy and society. She played a major role in promoting science diplomacy around the world by developing its educational and training approaches with the Center for Science Diplomacy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She advised the science diplomacy strategies of several governments and the European Union and helped re-establish the scientific linkages between the United States and Cuba. Gual Soler has received many fellowships and awards, including the Global Competitiveness Leadership Fellowship at Georgetown University, was named one of 40 Under 40 Latinos in Foreign Policy by The Huffington Post and is a former Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar. In 2019 she was selected to join Homeward Bound, the largest-ever expedition of women in Antarctica.
Jessica Melbourne-Thomas is a marine, Antarctic, and climate change scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia. Her research focuses on climate change, its effects on the marine environment, and how to adapt and response to these changes.
Amelia E. Shevenell is an American marine geologist who specializes in high-latitude paleoclimatology and paleoceanography. She is currently a Professor in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. She has made notable contributions to understanding the history of the Antarctic ice sheets and published in high-impact journals and, as a result, was awarded full membership of Sigma Xi. She has a long record of participation in international ocean drilling programs and has served in leadership positions of these organizations. Shevenell served as the elected Geological Oceanography Council Member for The Oceanography Society (2019-2021).
Lee Constable is a science communicator, television presenter, children's author, and biologist who lives and works in Australia. She is best known for her work as a presenter on Scope between 2016 and 2020, Network Ten's science show aimed at children aged 7–13.
Anika Molesworth is an agroecology and scientist. She is a public figure on issues of food security, nature conservation, climate change and rural community development. Molesworth currently sits on the Board of Directors of Farmers for Climate Action, the NSW committee of the Crawford Fund, and is a Governor of WWF-Australia.
Alicia R. Pérez-Porro is a Spanish marine biologist specialized in the study of marine sponges, an environmental activist and a feminist. Since 2018, she has presided over the Association of Spanish Scientists in the United States (ECUSA), from where she fights to break the glass ceiling in the scientific field and for women to occupy leadership positions.
Uxua López Flamarique is a Spanish telecommunications engineer and environmental activist, expert in renewable energy, and a member of an international network of women leaders aiming to build a global collaboration of 10,000 women with backgrounds in STEMM by 2036, an initiative of Homeward Bound.
Melania Guerra is a strategy scientist, connecting scientific knowledge and policy making. Guerra's background is in mechanical engineering, research, marine science, and advocating for climate change, ocean conservation and female empowerment.
Phoebe Elizabeth Barnard is an American global change scientist and professor of conservation biology and environmental futures at the University of Washington. Barnard has written more than 180 publications on the vulnerability of biodiversity and ecosystems to climate and land use change. She is a member of several global initiatives including the Club of Rome's Planetary Emergency Partnership, one of five core co-authors of the 2020 paper World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency, lead author of the action-focused 2021 World Scientists' Warnings into Action: Local to Global, second of 11 co-authors of the 2023 World Scientists' Warning: the Behavioural Crisis Driving Ecological Overshoot, a provocative collaboration of scientists, educators and global marketing strategists, and major co-author of Earth at Risk: an Urgent Call to End the Age of Destruction and Forge a Just and Sustainable Future.
