Glen Kinoshita '97, Geology and Botany
Station Technician in Antartica for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Kinoshita takes a total column ozone measurement with a Dobson. These measurements monitor ozone destruction during the "ozone hole" period of the year, which happens mostly at first light, around August and September.

One of the last places that Glen Kinoshita thought he would end up was in the chilly terrain of Antarctica, leading to a lesson that life can’t always be mapped out as planned.

Kinoshita, who had always thought he would follow a career as a mechanical engineer, discovered the fields of geology and botany while at Cal Poly Pomona. After earning degrees in both subjects, he set out to find a job.

Several years later, Kinoshita’s mapped-out career took an unexpected detour. He soon found himself in Alaska working as a field technician for the Global Change Research Group at San Diego State University. His research focused on global climate change in the Southern California chaparral and Alaskan tundra ecosystems.

While conducting his thesis research in Barrow, Alaska, Kinoshita met researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who offered him a job working at the South Pole. He accepted the job as a station technician in Antarctica where he is currently monitoring meteorological measurements and solar radiation.

Kinoshita samples snow behind the Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO) for a project from the University of Arizona, one of many cooperative experiments that take place. For this particular project, snow is sampled twice a week year-round.

“My job brings me to one of the more ultimate places to do field work — one of the least traveled and still mostly unexplored and one of the most pristine places on earth. What better place to do field work in?” he writes from his NOAA office.

Even though Kinoshita’s area of expertise is in ecology and not atmospheric research, he saw the opportunity as a challenge.

“From my experience with different research groups, the ones who are really cutting edge are the ones who are able to think outside their fields and apply their knowledge to whatever they’re doing at the moment,” he says.

Kinoshita has also had to adapt to a completely new lifestyle where the average temperature is -45 degrees Fahrenheit with a high of -10 degrees in summer and a low of -100 degrees in the winter. Kinoshita doesn’t seem to mind these extreme temperatures, however, and says the Extreme Cold Weather gear they are issued helps keep him warm.

Most perceive the South Pole to be an isolated, cold and lonely place. According to Kinoshita, it isn’t all that bad.

At the ARO with boxes of air sampling flasks that have yet to brought inside. The flasks are for both NOAA and Scripps Institute of Oceanography, which has been sampling in the South Pole since the 1950s.

“Isolation is another issue here,” he writes. “But everyone focuses on the fact that they’re in one of the most unique working environments on earth. I also think there’s a good sense of community here that I don’t see in too many other places.”

Kinoshita has also learned a few tricks of the trade when it comes to one of the most important factors — food.

“I’ve learned over my years in remote field camps in Alaska that the best way to ensure I get some good food is to make friends with the cooks wherever I am, and this place is no exception,” he says.

Although they only enjoy fresh vegetables and fruit during the summer, they do have a hydroponic greenhouse which provides a little extra produce year round.

“There might not be a lot of variety, but they make up for it in other ways. And this is coming from a vegetarian — I’m definitely not starving over here,” he says.

Launching an ozone sonde with Jason Seifert from the NOAA Corps, who works with Kinoshita at the ARO. Launched balloons have an ozone measurement device and a radio transmitter attached to them. As the balloon travels through the atmosphere to its maximum height (about 35 km), it measures ozone concentration and transmits data back to a base station.

Kinoshita’s research at the South Pole is ongoing, however, he will most likely return to the United States in November when flights start up again (there are no flights between February and October in and out of the South Pole). Kinoshita’s drive to experience the unique opportunities his career has allotted him benefits him both on a professional and personal level. He says not only is he gaining valuable training but is also gaining friends and contacts that will stay with him throughout his career and may even lead to additional interesting work environments.

“I enjoy the work and the people I work with,” he says. “I think that’s the driving factor in finding where I want to be in life.”