I’ve been home from Russia for a few months. Aside from a slight baggage mix-up at the Seatac airport, travel went as smoothly as I could have asked. But while it’s fresh in my head, I thought I’d throw out some information for people who apply to Polaris 2014.

1.) Be Adaptable

You will sleep everywhere from the Moscow airport floor to a barge chugging along the Kolyma. The weather ranged from 93 to about 43 Fahrenheit. Speaking of which…

2.) Metric is Your Friend 

Science is how we understand the world. Math is the language of science. Math is much better in a unit system that makes sense. You will talk about thaw depth and soil cores in terms of centimeters, water and ash weights in grams, and temperature in Celsius. Just try to have a few reference points that make sense to you. (1.4 meters, for instance, is from my toe to just below my collar bone when I stand.)

3.) Just Roll with the Acronyms. 

“Man, if there’s a link between the LOI and the SUVA, I could present it at AGU! Oh, I could see my GIS friends there too!”

Acronyms are handy. Time is precious and it’s faster to say “LOI” than “Loss on Ignition.” That said, if people are using an acronym you don’t know and can’t figure out, ask them early. It’s important for everyone to be on the same page. On the other side, if you’re trying to explain your project to someone, remember that you just had to learn that acronym a few weeks ago, and remember not everyone knows every detail of AGW (anthropogenic global warming).

4.) Chemistry is Handy 

There are some skills you pick up in chemistry classes and labs that are important to have at your command: “lab hands” (the ability to pour efficiently and not drop vials), mixing solutions, reading instrument outputs…

In my own project I used Gas Chromatography, UV Spectroscopy, The Ideal Gas Law, and Henry’s Law. Not everyone needed these tools, it’s not like I am a master of any of them, but being familiar and having used them before helped a great deal.

5.) Learn a Little Russian 

It’s good to do when travelling to any foreign country, but a little please and thank you goes a long way. We were lucky enough to travel with Sasha, a permafrost scientist fluent in Russian, on the way to Cherskiy, but on the way back we were limited to my pocket-dictionary.

That made ordering food in Yakutsk interesting.

But that’s another story.

6) There are Bugs 

When people think of the arctic, they tend to think of polar bears, caribou, maybe some seals… They rarely think of hordes of mosquitoes. It’s really important that you go to Siberia well prepared for huge numbers of bugs trying to eat you. It is not at all uncommon to slap a part of your body and leave behind a number of dead bugs somewhere in the teens. Know how you react to bugs, and make your bug kit a high priority when packing.

7.) Think Outside 

I do mean think outside the box. You’re doing original research, you need to get creative.

But I really mean think about the outdoors. Assume you will do several solid days totally out and about, not only on your own work, but exploring the area, doing terrestrial surveys, and helping others with their projects. For some people, this is the best part of the trip. For others, it’s the less awesome part that happens before the lab work.

8.) Know Your Computer 

It may seem obvious enough, but if something goes wrong up there it is very difficult to fix. A backup drive with your entire system on it would not be a ridiculous accessory to carry. (This would also be handy for backing up photos)

That said, the author is notoriously bad with computers. Most people were fine with their laptops and flash drives.

9.) Recognize the Value of the Experience

Polaris is a unique opportunity offered to a handful of students. It generates some incredibly powerful results; international collaboration, talk between veteran and burgeoning scientists, and an appreciation for the arctic systems unattainable without travel.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Polaris, though, is discovery. Piece by piece, we are learning more of the arctic’s story. They’re small fragments, like how nutrient availability varies with thaw depth, but together they weave into a better understanding of the arctic system, and how it connects to the rest of the planet.

10.) Apply

Check out the details, if you hit the hard requirements and think you could accomplish something with  Polaris, apply.

I was very close to not applying. Even though I had a firm background in math and science, I didn’t attend a school that was connected to Polaris. But I knew that the arctic was where my future life would be centered, and that I could handle the kind of questions Polaris was asking, so I submitted an application.

Just in reading this, you’re a part of the mission of Polaris, because you’re learning more about the arctic and climate science. If you want more though, send in your application.

And keep reading our blog to hear exactly what’s happening with AGU.