Press Statement - April 10, 1999

PS 99-3
Media contacts:	Mary Hanson/Peter West	(703) 292-8070

Statement by Dr. Rita Colwell
Director, National Science Foundation

On Scientific Ice Expedition '99 (SCICEX)

SCICEX '99 opens a window on globally significant scientific knowledge that would otherwise be locked away by the tenacious grip of Arctic ice. It celebrates a productive scientific-military partnership. And it recognizes that women are achieving more leadership roles in science.

SCICEX '99 promises to shed new light on critical scientific questions concerning climate change. USS Hawkbill (SSN 666) and her sister ships on previous SCICEX missions are giving us new insights into Arctic ocean currents and the topography beneath perpetually ice-covered seas. The data gathered on this and other SCICEX missions are uncovering important clues about the circulation of the Arctic Ocean currents and their potential effects in altering the composition of the Arctic ice pack. These clues may help us to better understand the cause and effects of global climate change.

Forty years after USS Skate (SSN 578) became the first submarine to surface at the North Pole, a nuclear submarine remains the best tool available to pry these clues from the Arctic waters. The remote ice-covered Arctic ocean could not be as effectively explored by any other vessel. SCICEX '99 is the 5th such mission conducted jointly by the U.S. Navy and the National Science Foundation. The U.S. Navy is once again dedicating one of its most precious assets in the peaceful pursuit of scientific knowledge. What a marvelous example of interagency cooperation.

SCICEX also demonstrates that, just as the pursuit of scientific knowledge should know no geographic or physical boundaries, neither should gender be a limiting factor. I am especially proud that a woman scientist will lead this year's SCICEX mission. The selection of Margo H. Edwards, a geologist and geophysicist at the University of Hawaii, as chief scientist for SCICEX '99 shows the great progress women scientists have made over the last decade in achieving leadership of large science programs.

Submarines are built to hunt. Rather than Red October, this submarine hunts for new knowledge and greater understanding. Its enemies are ignorance and apathy. Its victory will be a better world for future generations.

Editors' Note: Colwell will visit USS Hawkbill (SSN 666) April 10-11. She is the first female director of the National Science Foundation and the first NSF director to visit a submarine during the five-year series of SCICEX missions. SCICEX '99 Chief Scientist Margo Edwards is the first female to hold that position.