Nick Brown won the Dr. Thomas Betz Memorial Award and Anna Crawford won a David and Rachel Epstein Foundation Scholarship.
Nick Brown is a MSc student and studies the changes taking place in permafrost. Perpetually sub-zero ground underlies much of the Canadian North and it is gradually warming up. As it warms, there are a number of important physical changes which take place. Some of these, like the melting of ice, can be hard to measure directly. Nick will be investigating techniques which use temperature records to get a clearer picture of how much change is taking place in the ground. His work will involve both computer simulation and field investigations. Nick moved down to Ottawa last fall from Yellowknife and is looking forward to another northern summer at the end of the term.
Anna Crawford is a PhD student who has conducted research on ice islands (very large, tabular icebergs) in the Canadian Arctic for five years. She is currently researching the deterioration processes and occurrence patterns of ice islands which originate from the Petermann Glacier of northwest Greenland. Anna is working with others in the Water and Ice Research Lab within the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies to develop methods for detecting and predicting the deterioration of ice islands with remote sensing methods. This research has taken Anna on numerous trips to the Canadian Arctic to collect field data from these infrequently visited ice features. She is flattered to have received a David and Rachel Epstein Scholarship, which is presented to outstanding graduate students at Carleton University.