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News Release 16-139

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to visit NSF Antarctic research stations

Kerry scheduled to meet with researchers at McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole stations

A 2015 photograph of NSF's McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

A 2015 photograph of NSF's McMurdo Station, Antarctica.


November 7, 2016

FOR b-roll of McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, please contact Dena Headlee, deal@nsf.gov / (703) 292-7739.

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled later this week to visit McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole stations in Antarctica, where he'll meet with researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Kerry is set to become the first secretary of state, and the most senior U.S. government official, to travel to Antarctica, where the U.S. has maintained a scientific presence since the late 1950s.

The secretary's Antarctic visit is scheduled to take place Nov. 10-12 as part of a global tour.

NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it makes awards to researchers across the nation and provides the logistical infrastructure to support U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent.

"We are honored that Secretary Kerry will visit NSF's facilities in Antarctica, a vast and globally important region," NSF Director France A. Córdova said. "He will meet with researchers whose work forges new frontiers in science."

Kerry's Antarctic itinerary includes a visit to NSF's facilities in Christchurch, New Zealand, the gateway city to Antarctica.

While in Antarctica, Kerry will visit McMurdo Station, NSF's logistics hub and the largest of the three U.S. Antarctic Program stations. There, he'll meet with scientists studying a wide range of subjects, from geophysics and glaciology to astrophysics and biology as well as the effects of climate change. Two of NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites are located in Antarctica, including one near McMurdo Station in the McMurdo Dry valleys.

The secretary will then visit Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, located at the earth's southern axis atop the 9,300-foot high, ice-covered Antarctic plateau. Amundsen-Scott is the site of long-term atmospheric monitoring and large-scale, cutting-edge astrophysics and particle physics experiments.

Kerry will also see firsthand part of the recently established Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area, the world's largest marine protected area (598,000 square miles or 1.55 million square kilometers).

The U.S. is a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, which sets the continent aside for peaceful purposes. Under the treaty, scientific research is the principal expression of national interest in Antarctica.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF, (703) 292-7530, email: pwest@nsf.gov

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.

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