CSE researcher makes history at the bottom of the world
Robert Schwarz at his desk at the South Pole station
Top: Robert Schwarz gives the thumbs up under bright auroras, with the South Pole telescope in the background. Above: Robert Schwarz monitors a suite of telescopes at the South Pole, called the Keck Array. Image credits: Robert Schwarz

Robert Schwarz has spent more winters at the South Pole than anyone else

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/11/2018) — Winter at the South Pole. Six months of darkness. Ice, far as the eye can see. Sub-zero temperatures…and no flights, in or out, from February to October. 

But none of that has deterred University of Minnesota astrophysicist Robert Schwarz. He holds a place unique in history. Over the past 22 years, he has spent 14 Southern Hemisphere winters at the Pole—more than anyone else. 

Every year, roughly 50 people winter at the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, keeping the station and the many world-class experiments there, up and running.

Schwarz watches over the Keck Array, a cluster of microwave telescopes at the geographic South Pole. They’re observing the echoes of the Big Bang embedded in the oldest light in the universe, the Cosmic Microwave Background.

Contacts:

Rhonda Zurn, College of Science and Engineering, rzurn@umn.edu, 612-626-7959

Lacey Nygard, University News Service, ljnygard@umn.edu, 612-625-0552

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