May 15 lecture: Climate Change in Antarctica: How Life Survives at the Edge

Dr. Diane McKnight will show images from Antarctica, including Cape Royds and the Dry Valleys which were explored by Scott and Shackleton, and discuss her research on ecosystem responses to the interacting effects of the ozone hole and climate change.

Juneau, AK

Date of Press Release: May 8, 2008

A principal investigator on the US National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research Program in Antarctica will give a presentation at the UAS Egan Lecture Hall, Thursday May 15, 7p.m.  as part of the UAS International Polar Year Lecture Series. Diane McKnight is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. McKnight will show images from Antarctica, including Cape Royds and the Dry Valleys which were explored by Scott and Shackleton, and discuss her research on ecosystem responses to the interacting effects of the ozone hole and climate change.  She will also be signing copies of her children’s book, The Lost Seal, which describes the first documented encounter with a live seal in the remote McMurdo DryValleys of Antarctica. 

Dr. McKnight is the former president of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography and former member of the Polar Research Board.  She is currently a member of the National Research Council’s Water Science and Technology Board . She received her Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.