Oral History Interview Control Form

Name of Interviewee: Dr. Norbert Untersteiner (Age 74)

Name of Interviewer: Brian Shoemaker

Date of Interview: 7 October 2000

Place of Interview: Regal Harvest House Hotel, Boulder Colorado

Number of Tapes: 4 (8 sides)

Restrictions: No

Cataloged: Yes

Transcribed: Yes

Abstract of Contents: Dr. Untersteiner, originally from Austria, began his polar career during IGY as the Chief Scientist on Ice Station Alpha in the Arctic Ocean. In a scientific sense, it was one of the most successful science programs during the IGY. After IGY he was invited to the University of Washington and has been working from there since minus a few assignments with Office of Naval Research, NOAA and NSF in Washington, DC. He was the genesis for Operation AIDJEX (Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment) the most comprehensive inter-scientific-disciplinary study of the Arctic Ocean ever attempted from the sea ice. AIDJEX was fielded from March 1975 to May 1976 and involved 125 people living on four ice floes in the central Beaufort Sea. It was extremely successful and became the model of later studies of the Arctic Ocean culminating with Operation SHEBA a follow-on to AIDJEX completed in 1998. He led numerous field operations and directed numerous science divisions and directorates at the University of Washington culminating with the Atmospheric Science Center from which he retired in 1997. In retirement he is a member of the Vice President’s (of the USA) MEDEA Commission and spends three months a year as the Sydney Chapman Chair of polar studies at the University of Alaska. The following is pertinent: 

1. Dr. Untersteiner stated that “without a doubt his father was his mentor.” He convinced Norbert to go into scientific research at a very early age.
2. After WWII he entered the University of Vienna. “There was no work so it was easy to stay in school.”
3. He began surveying glaciers at an early age. Later he became a weather forecaster and studied the weather that made the glaciers melt.
4. His first papers were published in the early 1950’s.
5. He is a mountain climber and combined his climbing skills with his science with a trip to Karakoram Mountains in Kashmir for studies on the human moisture balance in 1955.
6. He was trying to leave Austria in 1955 because the possibility of a professorship assignment in Austria was remote
7. Bert Crary called and asked if Norbert would go to the South Pole as part if the IGY. Later Harry Wexler called and changed it to the North Pole. He was to work for Richard Hubley (of the University of Washington) who was the coordinator of the IGY northern hemisphere glaciology program.
8. Phil Church was instrumental in equipping Untersteiner for his IGY work. Assigned Arne Hansen as his assistant.
9. Col Joe Fletcher and Father Tom Cunningham selected the ice floe for Ice Station Alpha. The O-in-C of Alpha was originally Maj. Freeman, then LCOL Stromquist, then Maj Joseph Bellota  and in the end was Capt Joe Smith. The science team, besides Untersteiner, included Morris Davidson, Ken Hunkins from Lamont, Arne Hansen,  4 U.S. Weather Bureau men and Terrance Mcdonald.
10. At first the senior scientist was Davidson – not long after it was switched to Untersteiner.
11. On the way to Alpha Untersteiner worked at the IGY station on the McCall Glacier in the Brookes Range.
12. Untersteiner names many of those that he worked with in IGY- it will be handy to review the transcript for coordination of future interviews.
13. His work on Alpha became a classic (my words – not his). He was to “establish a one year cycle in a slab of ice.” This he did and the model that he derived is still used today. That is big-time science – my words again!
14. He describes others research on the ice station.
15. Ice Station began to break up in April 1958. Had to move to a new ice floe.
16. Dr. Kenneth Hunkins measured the Ekman Spiral under the ice at ALPHA.
17. Describes rendezvous with the submarine USS Skate and CDR James Calvert.
18. Final ALPHA report published by Cabaniss, Hunkins and Untersteiner. He has a video of Alpha and plans to get me a copy.
19. Returned to Vienna in October 1958, but was invited back by Phil Church in 1962 – has been in USA since that time. Was made a full professor at the University of Washington.
20. Discusses the ice station ARLIS II and the work thereon.
21. Untersteiner was approached by Walt Whitman of Office of Naval Research in 1969 and asked to put together a plan for a multi-ice-station for research in the Arctic Ocean.
22. Joe Fletcher was the first head of the multi-station plan called AIDJEX (Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experimant). Later Untersteiner became the director when Fletcher took over the reins at the Office of Polar Programs at NSF. Fletcher pumped money to AIDJEX from NSF.
23. AIDJEX launched in 1975 – there was one main manned ice station and three smaller manned ice stations. In addition there were  8 unmanned automated camps.
24. Participants were the Danes from Greenland, the Canadian Outer Continental Shelf, Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation and NASA.
25. Had series of Washington DC jobs  1978-79 Special Advisor on Arctic Research  to the Chief of Naval Research and Director of Ocean Programs for NOAA in 1980. In 1980 he went back to University of Washington where he converted the AIDJEX staff into the Polar Science Center at the Applied Physics Laboratory.
26. Dr. Untersteiner established the Arctic Data Buoy Program with NSF money as a follow-on to AIDJEX – today it has grown into the International Arctic Data Buoy Program.
27. Became Director of the Atmospheric Science Center in 1988 and retired from that position in 1997.
28. In 1996 he was invited by Vice President Al Gore to sit on the MEDEA panel to advise on the use of overhead satellite imagery for polar research.
29. Has done two terms (8 years) with the national Research Council on the polar Research Board.
30. Put in charge of Nansen Drift Station. Very ambitious, but was killed by State Department.
31. Today he fills the Sydney Chapman Professor of Physical at the University of Alaska for three months a year  during February, March and April.