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Media Advisory 08-018
NSF, NASA Invite News Media to "Polar-Palooza" at National Geographic March 13th
Polar scientists available for interviews
March 10, 2008
As part of a national tour of science museums and science centers, "Polar-Palooza: Stories From a Changing Planet," an educational initiative supported jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), comes to the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., on March 13th. Polar-Palooza is an immersive multimedia presentation featuring original high-definition video clips, polar artifacts, soundscapes and still photographs -- along with engaging stories from some of the country's leading polar experts -- designed to focus public attention on, and help to explain to a general audience, the effects on the polar regions of global climatic changes. Members of the news media are invited to attend the March 13th event, which begins at 7:30 p.m., at the National Geographic building at 1600 M St., N.W. Polar scientists participating in this event will be available for interviews earlier in the day--between noon and 2 p.m.--at the M Street location. Earlier still, media can observe a Polar-palooza workshop involving scientists and students in grades 6 to 10, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The Polar-Palooza event in Washington, a presentation of the "National Geographic Live!" lecture series, features Richard Alley, a geoscientist at Pennsylvania State University; Jackie Richter-Menge, a sea ice researcher; Richard Glenn, a geologist, whaler, traditional drummer and vice president of the Alaskan Native-owned Lands at the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; Michael Castellini, of the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Andy Revkin, environment reporter, for The New York Times; and Waleed Abdalati, of the cryospheric sciences branch at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. NSF and NASA have funded the producers of Polar-Palooza to capture images and video of scientific field work in the Arctic and Antarctic, and created the national tour as part of their contributions to the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008, a global scientific campaign involving research, field work and satellite observations by scientists from 60 nations. NSF is the lead federal agency for IPY. Polar-Palooza is produced by Passport to Knowledge, of Morristown, N.J., as an integral part of IPY outreach efforts.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Peter West, NSF (703) 292-7761 pwest@nsf.gov
Maria C. Zacharias, NSF (703) 292-8070 mzachari@nsf.gov
Stephen Cole, NASA headquarters (202) 358-0918 stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
Stephanie Montgomery, National Geographic Society (202) 857-5838 smontgom@ngs.org
Related Websites
The U.S. Government's Web portal for the International Polar Year: http://www.ipy.gov
The Passport to Knowledge Polar-Palooza Web site: http://passporttoknowledge.com/polar-palooza/
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that
supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and
engineering, with an annual budget of $6.06 billion. NSF funds reach all 50
states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year,
NSF receives about 45,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes over
11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in
professional and service contracts yearly.
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