Becoming an Arctic Ocean Scientist

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

welcome this morning we’re here in

chicago

at the shedd aquarium with the one and

only francis crabill who is a phd

student at the university of illinois

chicago

studying arctic ecology and

biogeochemistry

francis is well known for her trips

multiple trips across the northwest

passage

she’s here to teach us a lot about the

arctic ocean and its impact on life but

also

about resilience and perseverance so

let’s head into where it all began for

you at the shedd aquarium

thank you so much francis for being

happy today i’m so glad to be here the

shedd aquarium is so important to

just my career and where my love for

marine biology really started so it’s

really cool to be able to do this

it is very special for us to be here so

tell us about this place

and about how uh sort of your love

and passion for marine biology began

yeah so i grew up in chicago and i

wasn’t really

like like a nature kid i didn’t really

like the outdoors but i did really have

a passion for

animals and i like to read and watch you

know pbs

nature shows um and then one day in high

school i needed to

find some extracurriculars to do so i

just googled the shed aquarium and see

like what sort of opportunities for

teenagers they had and that’s when i got

involved in the work study program

for teens here so on weekends i would

come and i would stand in front of

exhibits like the caribbean reef here

and

teach different guests about the animals

and sort of what happens here and got to

learn a lot about what happened behind

the scenes as well

and then i sort of just like worked my

way through all the different teen

programs they had i

started in high school lake ecology

where we went on a week-long kayaking

and camping trip to study

lake ecology and lake superior and then

i also did marine high school marine

biology

where we went to the bahamas on a

research vessel for a week to study

coral reef and mangrove conservation so

the shed aquarium is

the place where that showed me that a

career in field research

and science is totally possible and

would really

sparked my interest in doing things like

that wonderful so it sounds like this

place has had a deep

impact on your career i understand

that you have made three separate

attempts

to cross the northwest passage tell us

about each one

sure so i was part of something called

the northwest passage project which was

an nsf and heisen-simmons foundation

funded research project that allowed

undergraduate students to participate in

arctic ocean research in the canadian

archipelago

so in 2017 i was part of this class of

23 students and

there were many roles for students like

in communication or data analysis

and i was one of the students chosen to

actually participate in the expedition

and go up to the northwest passage to do

the data collection

so that was your first your first time

you were you were supposed to go but you

didn’t end up going

yes we were supposed to go on this ship

called the oliver hazard perry which was

this big

three-mast sailing ship and we were

going to help sail the ship ourselves

but

just because of the feasibility and the

safety concerns with the sea ice

the trip was canceled into the next year

wow so then you didn’t give up then you

went a second time yes

i continued on um doing research with

the project on coral reefs and wetland

ecosystems

during that year we were supposed to go

on the canadian icebreaker but

they had an engine failure so we picked

a different ship which was the academic

yafe

which is a russian cruise ship so it had

taurus on it as well as us scientists

and we traveled up to northwest passage

and after one night on the ship um

we ran aground and hit a rock and we’re

stuck

um so we had coast guard planes flying

around us

and after 26 hours um another ship

nearby was able to come and rescue us

that must have been terrifying

but you came home and you were you were

not giving up you were still

thinking you’re going yes i was so hurt

that um you know we didn’t we set up all

of this and we didn’t get to do any of

it and i just met this amazing group of

people that

i really connected with and hope to do

science with but

i just continued on i wasn’t sure if

whether whether or not

i would get to participate in the

project again because i was graduating

so i just applied to grad school i

accepted

a position at uic and they allowed me

to continue with the project as a

graduate student so instead of an

undergraduate i would get to sort of

have a larger role

leading undergraduates and working on my

own research ideas as well so that

summer we were able to

have a successful trip through the

northwest passage on the swedish

icebreaker odin

where we got to do so many amazing

things we did live broadcasts

from the arctic to museums and to

facebook live we were able to work

closely with

the inuit communities up there and get

sort of their ancestral knowledge about

the changes that are happening and how

it’s affecting their communities

we were able to take a bunch of data and

do a bunch of sampling as well so

it was really great and turned out

incredible and if you couldn’t get there

the first two times now you had an

actual ship breaking the ice and making

the path

through the northwest passage for you

wonderful well i’m glad you finally got

a chance to accomplish

such an incredible feat at 24 years old

yes really exciting

yeah phenomenal as you think it back to

those three different

trips and especially the last one that

was successful

what did they teach you about resilience

or

perseverance yeah so perseverance

is really important when you’re doing

scientific research because

science goes wrong a lot and you need to

be prepared for that

you need to be ready for it to happen

and you need to mentally

prepare to just not give up and know

that what you’re doing is really

important

and just because it’s hard it doesn’t

mean you shouldn’t do it and just in

general i think

if you are passionate about something

and you are interested in it

just keep going like things get hard but

hard work definitely pays off like you

never know what could happen

and sometimes your path doesn’t

necessarily

look the way you imagined it or it might

take some more time

but as long as there’s still

opportunities out there and you’re still

interested

definitely just keep going because you

never know what could happen you could

end up being like a

24 year old arctic ocean scientist

pretty impressive so talk to us about

what you’re doing now and how that

trip has informed your current day work

so i um have sort of based my phd

research at uic

off of this arctic ocean trip i took

um so i’m building off of sort of the

data we collected there

i’m really interested in sort of these

freshwater inputs into the arctic and

how this is going to change things like

nutrient cycles and productivity in that

region

so i hope to continue um traveling

through the northwest passage and sort

of kind of studying the canadian arctic

i hope to travel through the entire

northwest passage and not just sort of a

small portion of it

i’m also working really closely with the

norwegian institute of water research

in norway and i hope to expand sort of

some of my questions to the norwegian

coast

they have something called their north

soup project where they

have these ships of opportunities like

ferries or freight ships that sort of go

back and forth daily

and they have sensors and are doing

continuous sampling

so they’re collecting all this data and

i hope to sort of use some of that data

and go on some of these ships to sort of

apply

my questions from the canadian arctic to

the norwegian coast as well

something i’m working on currently is

growing arctic phytoplankton cultures in

a lab setting so that i can do sort of

my own

manipulations with co2 or with light or

with temperature

and see how things are going on in the

lab as well

francis bring us full circle to working

with young people

and some of the ideas that you have to

ensure that you are not

the exception with stories like this

sure so one of

my friends and i she works at a national

park we were just

sort of talking recently about how

there’s a lot of stigma for

brown and black kids and to go outdoors

and into nature

whether they’re scared or they don’t

have the opportunities we want to sort

of help

break that barrier by starting sort of

like a summer program like the ones i

participated here at shed

for students in chicago for them to go

to national parks go on hikes

learn about conservation learn about

different careers in science and climate

policy

you know i believe there’s going to be

this big generation of

climate scientists and climate informed

citizens and we just want to make sure

that

brown and black kids from chicago are

have the opportunity to participate in

that

francis thank you so much for sharing

your story and your vision for the

future we’re really lucky to spend this

time with you here thank you so much

you