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Contacts: Diane Greenberg, (631) 344-2347 or Mona S. Rowe, (631) 344-5056 Film on Sailing Trip to Antarctica to be Shown at Brookhaven Lab, March 4January 24, 2008  Eric Forsyth at Greenwich Island, Antarctica. (Click image to download a high-resolution version.) UPTON, NY - The Brookhaven Retired Employees Association will sponsor the premiere of Eric Forsyth's one-hour film about his sailing trip from Long Island to Antarctica aboard his 42-foot yacht, Fiona. The film will be shown on Tuesday, March 4, at noon in Berkner Hall at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Forsyth, a retired electrical engineer from Brookhaven Lab, will be on hand to comment on the film and answer questions from the audience. The event is free and open to the public. All visitors to the Laboratory age 16 and over must bring a photo ID. The film features the highlights of Forsyth's 11-month long sailing adventure in which he logged 19,830 nautical miles between June 2006 and May 2007. Forsyth picked up a total of 13 crewmembers along the trip, but no more than four were on board Fiona at any time, and he sometimes sailed alone. He circumnavigated the entire continent of South America and took a detour to Bermuda and Spain's Canary Islands along the way. In narrating the film, he speaks of the people and places he encountered at many exotic ports, from Santa Cruz in the Azores to Mar del Plata in Argentina and beyond. Forsyth describes Antarctica as "spectacular," a vast ice-covered land devoid of life, except for a few research bases and some cold-weather creatures, such as penguins, seals and whales. This trip was his second to the continent. He first sailed to Antarctica in 1999, and he was awarded the 2000 Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America for that cruise. Forsyth noticed signs of climate change during his recent visit to the continent. He saw much less ice and snow than during his previous trip, noting, for instance, that he cruised through the Le Maire Strait in 2007, a passage that in 1999 had been impassable due to ice. Eric Forsyth joined Brookhaven Lab in 1960 to work at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, one of the Lab's particle accelerators. From 1972 to 1986, Forsyth was in charge of Brookhaven Lab's Power Transmission Project, a program to develop a viable and cost-effective means of transmitting large amounts of electrical power underground. From 1986 to 1990, he was Chair of the Accelerator Development Department, at that time responsible for the pre-construction design and planning of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Brookhaven's world-class accelerator that began operations in 2000, among other projects. Forsyth took a leave of absence from Brookhaven in 1990 and returned on a part-time basis in 1992, working on RHIC design. In 2007, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. honored Forsyth with the Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award for his pioneering contributions to the design of power cable systems. Forsyth has sailed extensively since his retirement in 1995, twice circumnavigating the world. In addition to his trips to Antarctica, he has cruised to the Arctic and Baltic. This year, he is planning a four-month long cruise beginning in June, with Greenland being the ultimate destination. Related Links
Number: 08-06 | BNL Media & Communications Office |
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