Home Page | Mary Albert Mary Albert Professor of Engineering, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire Working with the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Mary Albert was Chair of the U.S. Committee to the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) from its inception in 2003 until June 2005. She heads the US Ice Core Drilling Program office, advising NSF on future policy and practices. Formerly at the Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, CRREL (in some ways similar to China's CAREERI in Lanzhou), her current field research is centered on transfer processes in porous media, including air-snow exchange in the polar regions and in soils in temperate areas. At Dartmouth College she serves as thesis advisor to students at undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D. levels. She is a strong supporter of education and outreach, and has worked with the U.S. National Science Teachers Association and with science centers and museums to engage the general public and students. In Spring 2007 she led an experiment at Summit Station, Greenland, and is the U.S. Principal Investigator on the Norwegian-U.S. Traverse from Troll Station to the South Pole (2007-2008) and the return from Pole to Troll, successfully accomplished in 2009. The Traverse was studying the climate history of the past 1,000 years in some of the most inaccessible regions of East Antarctica, which Mary calls the "sleeping giant" of Earth's climate system.