An International Experiment
CORSACS is funded by the US National Science Foundation, and takes place on a US icebreaker, the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Despite the clear investment by the US, it is also a very international research expedition. The group includes number of international participants, and below is a brief synopsis of each:
- Dr. Giulio Catalano. Giulio is from the Istituto di Scienze Marine Sezione di Trieste in Trieste, Italy. He is a member of the VIMS team, and specializes in nutrient chemistry. He is measuring nutrients and dissolved organic matter on the cruise.
- Sasha Tozzi. Sasha is an Italian VIMS graduate student who is studying the fluorescent properties of phytoplankton.
- Dr. Phillipe Tortell. Phil is Canadian and a professor at the University of British Columbia. While he is not on the cruise (slacker), he leads a group from UBC, including
- Chris Payne. Chris is Phil's technical expert and is leading the group in Phil's absence. He is also Canadian.
- Charlotte Trimborn. Charlotte is from Germany and is a graduate student at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
- Yingyu Li, a graduate student at UBC who hails from Harbin, China.
- Yuanyuan Feng, a graduate student of Dr. Dave Hutchins (University of Delaware) who is from Mongolia, China.
- Dr. Peter Lee, a post-doctoral associate from the University of Charleston and working with Dr. Jack DiTullio; Pete is from New Zealand.
- Dr. Peter Sedwick, an Australian (Sydney) who is a Principal Investigator on the project. Peter is from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science (which is incorporated in Woods Hole).
- Ana Aguilarislas. A graduate student at UC Santa Cruz. Ana is from Mexico, although she has been in the US for 17 years.
- Dr. Maeve Lohan, working in the trace metal group, is Irish and works out of Southampton, England.
- Angela Milne, also from England, who is measuring hydrogen peroxide as part of the trace metal group. And finally
- Chris Marsay, who works for Pete Sedwick, and hails from England but lives in Bermuda.
That means that more than 40% of the science party consists of international participants, a very impressive number. On top of that, the officers, crew, and Raytheon assistants include people from the Philippines, Russia, New Zealand, and Germany. As you might predict, the accents that you hear at meals provide an eclectic mix! But CORSACS nicely merges the expertise and enthusiasm of various people and countries, and the resultant mixture is a true exercise in international science.