22 July 2010 The Team in Barrow

I think it's time to introduce you to my research team. Today you'll meet the Barrow Team: Rob and Jenny.

Rob loves plants. He thinks they are the coolest thing in the world, which is probably why he majored in biology as an undergraduate and is now pursuing a master's degree in biology as well. He loves the sitcom The Office and the music group Maroon 5. His thesis is on how global warming affects plant growth and reproduction. He's a pretty cool, laid back guy who loves cooking everything with  zucchini and pepper jack cheese--this includes eggs and pizza. One of his experiments is to see how long his beard can grow in the ten weeks he's in Barrow. He's actually competing with Jeremy who is currently in Atqasuk and whom you will meet later. We'll do a comparison at the end of the season and you can be the judge. Another project he's working on is creating three-dimensional resins of plants just because he thinks they're cool.

Rob calls out plant types and measurements to Jenny as they point frame a plot. Note the beard after 53 days of growth.

Jenny is a first-year graduate student studying ways of predicting community change in the Arctic. She wants to figure out which plants will do better in the warmer temperatures. She loves peanut butter and avocados, although I have yet to see her eat a peanut butter and avocado sandwich. She is also known to carry a 5-pound bag of Craisins into the field for snack time. She started college as an art major and loves to draw cartoons of the field, using all 64 crayons in the Crayola 64 pack. She majored in English as an undergraduate and is also certified in secondary education. She originally got started on this project because a friend invited her to apply…and now she's pursuing a master's degree focusing on Arctic Ecology. How cool is that?