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 ANNE GRUNOW - CURATOR AND RESEARCH SCIENTIST

I became curator of the US Polar Rock Repository in the summer of 2003 and have been busy establishing the organizational structure and policy of the repository, database and web site.  I've been conducting geological studies in Antarctica since 1982 and have been part of 12 expeditions in both East and West Antarctica.  My main research area is plate tectonics.  I use paleomagnetism to determine where Antarctica has been during the past 1 billion years. Currently, I am working with other researchers on Jurassic igneous rocks from the Transantarctic Mountains and on sediment from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet.  My research also involves a tectonic study on the Avalon terrane in the Boston area of Massachusetts. 

I became interested in geology when I had to take a science course in college (I was a former history major). I fell in love with geology because it combined learning about the history of the earth with working outdoors.  I graduated from Wellesley College in 1981 with a BA and from Columbia University in 1989 with a PhD in geology. I worked at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University as a University Fellow for a year and then spent 2 ½ years at the University of Oxford in England as a NATO fellow. I came back to OSU in 1993 and now work there as both a Research Scientist and Curator.  I frequently give talks to school groups about doing research in Antarctica and also provide tours of the repository.  

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