Animal Physiologist at the Alaska SeaLife Center and Research Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
WHAT SHE STUDIES:
- Marine mammal energetics
- Animal physiology
- Thermoregulation
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. Animal Physiology
B.S. Biology
HOMETOWN:
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
WHY IS TEAMWORK ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT WHILE WORKING IN ANTARCTICA?"We're working together not just to get the science done but to keep each other safe. It's fieldwork that we do on a routine basis, but we're in the Antarctic and you really are taking your life in your hands every time you go out on the sea ice. We really care about each other. And we're there, number one, to look out for one another and then, number two, to get the science done."
Dr. Jo-Ann Mellish describes what she loves about working as a scientist in Antarctica. (1:18)
It's the kind of place where you can feel isolated and connected to everything around you at the same time. If you're out on the sea ice you don't hear any motorized vehicles, there's nobody else around you. All you hear is the wind and the cracking of the ice moving underneath you and the seals around you and sometimes if you're lucky a penguin and it's just, you have that moment of being in a space that so few other people get to experience that it, it's a spiritual moment. There's no other way for me to explain it but you just, time stops and you just want to be there in the moment and experience it. All the rest, everything else just kind of goes away. And to get to be a part of that as your career with people that you want to be with, you just can't beat that kind of experience, and it makes you want to go back!