[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 20, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E580-E581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             RECOGNITION OF THE BYRD POLAR RESEARCH CENTER

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                          HON. MARY JO KILROY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 20, 2010

  Ms. KILROY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor The Byrd Polar 
Research Center at The Ohio State University for fifty years of 
leadership in polar and alpine research. My staff and I had the 
pleasure of visiting this innovative research center on the campus of 
The Ohio State University where we met with Director Ellen Mosley-
Thompson and Dr. Lonnie Thompson and saw some of their pioneering 
research first hand. We visited interactive classrooms, the cold lab, 
and cold storage facility, which houses the research center's 
impressive collection of ice cores.

[[Page E581]]

  Founded in 1960 as the Institute for Polar Studies, The Byrd Polar 
Research Center focuses on the history and evolution of global climate 
systems and the role of cold regions in climate change. In 1987 the 
facility was renamed for famous American Polar Explorer, Admiral 
Richard E. Byrd. The Research Center now includes eight research 
groups, a library, an archival program, and the U.S. Polar Rock 
Repository. Undergraduate and graduate students at The Ohio State 
University are able to participate in and learn from this cutting edge 
facility that organizes expeditions around the world. To reconstruct 
past climate trends The Byrd Polar Research Center uses a variety of 
methods, including the study of chemical records preserved in ice cores 
collected from glaciers in Greenland, Asia, North and South America, 
and Antarctica.
  Our planet is in peril and during this critical time The Byrd Polar 
Research Center has advanced our knowledge of how cold regions play a 
role in our Earth's changes. The phenomenon of climate change has been 
well documented in the scientific community by groups like The Byrd 
Polar Research Center. Climate change demands immediate attention and 
action; for fifty years The Byrd Polar Research Center has contributed 
to our understanding of climate change and our ability to mitigate and 
adapt to its effects.
  The Byrd Polar Research Center strives to improve our understanding 
of the environment and the changes that are occurring to it and 
provides central Ohioans with a world-class education and research 
facility. I am proud to recognize and honor The Byrd Polar Research 
Center and its hard working staff for fifty years of dedication to the 
advancement of scientific understanding of the world around us.

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