Meet the 2002-2003 Stream Team

The Stream Team in the kitchen of F6

 

Diane McKnight Dr. Diane McKnight is a professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and she's the head of the Stream Team. An Antarctic veteran, Diane's been going "down to the ice" since 1987. She also does work in the Arctic and in other areas of the globe. Diane loves to travel and last year managed to visit four of the seven continents. Not bad!
Darryl Moorhead Dr. Darryl Moorhead is a professor of ecology at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He models the Dry Valleys' ecosystem. An Antarctic veteran like Diane, Darryl's been going to the valleys since 1991. When in the field, Darryl doesn't have much use for ATV's or snowmobiles. Instead he's known for hiking everywhere. It can be hard to keep up! His radio nickname is Dinty Moore.	Darryl helps out with chores at F6.
Jenny Baeseman Jen - known around the valleys as Just Baked - is a Ph.D. candidate studying microbial ecology at the University of Colorado - Boulder. When Jen wasn't busy searching the streams for signs of life like algae, she was trying to keep track of her favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers. Having growing up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin, Jen's been an avid Packer fan for quite a while. And she made sure to take her Packer hat with her everywhere in Antarctica, including the top of Canada Glacier.	Jen on top of Canada Glacier
Karen Cozzetto Karen - also known by her radio name Krispy Creme - is a Ph.D. student in water resources engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She grew up in the DC area but since then, has lived in places like New York, Wisconsin, and the Czech Republic. She loves to hike and bike and is always on the lookout for good chocolate. Karen worked with John and Pete on measuring stream flow and chemistry in the Dry Valleys.	Karen hangs out next to the Suess Glacier
John Gartner John - radio call name Juicy Grapefruit - is receiving his master's degree in geography from the University of Colorado-Boulder. John grew up in New Hampshire, went to college in Vermont, then worked as an Outward Bound sailing instructor in Maine. For fun John likes to do multi-day rock climbs in which you have to sleep on platforms anchored off a rock face high above the ground. (Yikes!) In the Dry Valleys though, John found a new pastime - perfecting his lake ice routine, which includes a forwards moonwalk, a backwards moonwalk, and a funky slide. John worked with Pete and Karen on measuring stream flow and chemistry.	John sports his new Antarctic hat.
Louise Huffman You might wonder how Louise, a native of Florida, became interested in heading to the considerably colder Antarctic. She'll tell you - it was over ten years ago, in 1989, after hearing polar explorer Will Steger, talk about the continent. Fascinated by his stories, the elementary and, for the past four years, junior high school teacher, started working Antarctica into her curriculum. Most recently, Louise was selected to go to Antarctica through the Teachers Experiencing Antarctica (TEA) program. In the Dry Valleys, Lemon Head, as she was known on the airwaves, led a double life - member of the Stream Team's algae operations (algae ops) by day, reporter for kids by night. You can check out her cool journals	Photo by Jenny Baeseman
Erin Keeley Erin just received her master's degree in environmental engineering from the University of Colorado - Boulder. (Congratulations Erin!) For her thesis she looked at algae collected from Dry Valleys' lakes. But on this trip, she was working with Jen and Louise to study algae in streams. Back in Colorado, Erin coaches a girl's high school gymnastics team. When she's not coaching, you can probably find her doing or planning to do her other favorite sport - rock climbing.	Erin in the kitchen of F6 Photo by Louise Huffman
Peter Spatz Pete, affectionately referred to as Pepperoni Stick, grew up in New Jersey. Since then, though, he's been moving west - probably so he can pursue two of his favorite pastimes, fly fishing and whitewater kayaking. He now lives in Wyoming and measures stream flow for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the agency responsible for obtaining flow data from streams across the country. One of Pete's roles on the team was to ensure that we followed standard USGS procedures for measuring flow. Multitalented, Pete also showed off some cooking skills at F6, especially when he made a very yummy lasagna.	Pete in the kitchen of F6 Photo by Louise Huffman

Radio names In the field we use radios to communicate over large distances. Because many people may be listening to a single radio channel, to get the attention of a particular person, you call him or her by their radio name. A radio name is typically made from the person's initials and the standard radio alphabet. But sometimes people get creative and change the alphabet. Check out the Stream Team bios to find out what radio names they were known by.