Chair’s Welcome

Aaron Donohoe, PSC Chair,
adonohoe©uw•edu  (adonohoe©uw•edu)  

The Polar Science Center, 50 Years of Polar Research

Since its founding after the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment (AIDJEX) in 1976, the Polar Science Center has been a leader in exploring and understanding Earth’s polar regions.

Our research spans a wide range of polar topics—from tiny microbes living in sea ice, to the vast ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, to how changes in sea ice impact ecosystems and the Indigenous communities that depend on it for traditional hunting. Our curiosity even extends beyond Earth, to places like Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter.

We travel to remote parts of the Arctic and Antarctic to collect data, analyze samples in our labs, and test scientific ideas. We also study the polar regions from space using satellites and create computer models to better understand how these frozen parts of the world work. To do our research, we build custom tools and instruments that can survive the extreme cold and harsh conditions of the poles. The scale and complexity of our research are made possible through strong collaborations—especially with the engineering expertise of the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and the deep scientific knowledge within the UW College of the Environment.

The polar regions are changing rapidly, and our mission is to understand what’s happening—and why it matters. By learning from the past, we aim to better predict and prepare for the future.

We invite you to explore these pages to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and what we’re discovering along the way. 

The Polar Science Center is funded through grants and contracts from federal and state agencies and private foundations. If you would like to support our research, education, and outreach activities through a personal gift, please talk to us or you can make a donation online.

Thank you,

Aaron Donohoe