Our Officers

President: Liesl Schernthanner

Liesl studied Economics and Anthropology at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, prior to a career in applied human-environmental research.  A sabbatical led her to Antarctica in 1995 where she spent subsequent years supporting science, primarily working in station operations. Her experience at McMurdo, Palmer, South Pole, and field stations eventually led to a role helping to conserve historic sites on the peninsula with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.  

During work as Operations Manager at the South Pole, she learned of the Antarctican Society as a ‘great, inexpensive club, with an interesting newsletter, fun gatherings, and excellent slide-scanning service.’  And while wintering over as Station Manager, she started corresponding with Paul Dalrymple and other Antarcticans who had wintered at Pole 50 years earlier, thus joining the Society.  She served as Society Vice President from 2014-2019 and feels quite honored to be considered to follow in the footsteps of our illustrious past presidents.  Like other Antarctican Society members, Liesl is grateful for the opportunities she’s had to experience aspects of the southern continent. As a bonus, she’s pretty delighted to have met her husband at the South Pole, worked with two of her sisters there, learned a great deal, and befriended a great number of amazing Antarcticans.

Vice-President : Kathy Covert

Kathy studied Geography at the University of Colorado at Denver. Four years intoher career as a cartographer with the United States Geological Survey she led the two-person (satellite surveying, seismology) team at the South Pole Station,winter party 1982, and was a senior member of the geodetic control party at Minna Bluff, Mount Discovery, White Island, and Beaufort Island, 1986-87 season.

In mid-career she completed M.A.’s in Geography and Public Administra􀆟on at the Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

She met her late husband at the South Pole and enjoys life-long friendships with several members of the winter-over crew. Kathy served as Auction Committee Chair for the 2022 Gathering in Burlington, Vermont and served on the Working Group planning the 2024 Gathering held in Boulder, Colorado.

Treasurer: Tom Henderson

Tom Henderson has been a member of the Antarctican Society since 1983. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering. His career has included time with the U.S. Geological Survey, the New Mexico Highway and Transportation Department and the New York State Office of Homeland Security.

He made his first trip to Antarctica in 1979 as Topographic Engineer with the USGS field survey team on the Ellsworth Mountains Project and returned in 1981 as team leader on the Northern Victoria Land Project. After completing the 1981-82 summer season, he went immediately to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station where he joined the USGS winterover team monitoring satellites and managing the seismograph there. He returned to Antarctica in 1997-98, serving as a marine technician aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer on the Ross Sea Project.

Tom became a filmmaker in retirement. His first feature-length film was "Ice Eagles: American Aviation in Antarctica," which won an Award of Merit in the 2018 Impact DOCS Film Festival.

Secretary: Joan Boothe

Joan Boothe has been fascinated with stories of Antarctic adventure and exploration since childhood. In 1995, after many years working in the worlds of economics, finance, and teaching business administration to graduate business students, she at last made her first trip to Antarctica and saw where so many things she had read about took place. Ms Boothe has returned to the Antarctic regions many times since, including on a number of trips on which she has lectured on the subject of Antarctic exploration history. In 2010, she taught a course on Antarctica’s Heroic Age for Stanford University’s continuing education program. Her highly praised Antarctic history work, The Storied Ice: Exploration, Discovery and Adventure in the Antarctic Peninsula Region, was published in late 2011. Ms Boothe has two children, both raised in San Francisco, California, where she and her husband have lived since 1970.

Our Ex-Officio Officers

Jeff Rubin: Co-Editor

A member of the Antarctican Society since the early 1990s, Jeff is a freelancer who has written for publications ranging from Audubon, GEO, and the Chicago Tribune to Popular Mechanics, Stuff, and the Australian Financial Review.He first went to Antarctica in 1987 on assignment for TIME Magazine, spending several months with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) at Macquarie and Heard islands and at Davis Station in East Antarctica. Since 1990, he has worked occasionally as a lecturer and Zodiac driver aboard tour ships visiting Antarctica and the peri-Antarctic islands. He wrote the first four editions of Lonely Planet's guidebook to Antarctica and a long investigation into Antarctic wild foods for Gastronomica. Earlier in his career, Jeff worked for TIME as a correspondent and reporter in Sydney and New York. A graduate of Kalamazoo College, he was a fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a visiting fellow at Duke University.

 Jeff served for many years on the American Polar Society's board of governors and as Antarctic Editor of its magazine The Polar Times, also writing the “Due South” column for each issue.

 Museums fascinate him, and he can't resist a secondhand bookshop or a swim.

Richard Wolak: Co-Editor

Dick graduated from West Point during the turbulence of the mid-60s soldiering on through the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools and year-long assignments in Korea’s DMZ and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. He left active duty in Saigon embarking on a year that included work with STP Motor Racing in Australia and at New Zealand’s Artificial Breeding Centre. In 1972, he began the first of two seasons at McMurdo’s NSF Chalet, a position that provided work-related travel to several current and historic sites (Hallett, Byrd, Siple, Vanda, South Pole and Vostok). He was next assigned as the first civilian manager of Amundsen-Scott Station, positioning him as the last leader of the subsurface IGY station at the South Pole, and the first of the geodesic dome station in 1975.  Immediately following his South Pole winter, he stayed on to work with a Russian geomorphologist doing a phototheodolite survey in the Dry Valleys. Wolak Peak was named in his honor in January 1976. During 1976-80, he was project manager of the HERO/Palmer Antarctic Research System, deploying each summer to the Peninsula. He returned to the Program during 1992-94 as a USAP Observer doing first-hand reports on the environmental practices of Antarctic tourism. Since 1999, Dick has lectured during eight austral summers aboard Antarctic expedition ships (working for five different employers). His penchant for Antarctic history was well served with visits to 16 foreign stations, South Georgia, Point Wild, Stonington Island, Paulet Island, the Snow Hill Emperor colony, and the South Orkneys.  His nearly 50 crossings of the Drake Passage have been aboard twelve different ships. His graduate thesis at MIT explored the effects of extreme polar isolation on group dynamics and mission accom­plishment. For ten years, he taught “Antarctic Endurance”, a seminar on leadership under adversity at the University of Connecticut.

Tom Henderson: Webmaster

Tom originally created the Antarctican Society website, www.antarctican.org, and has been the Society’s webmaster since 2008.  He strives to maintain a people-centered focus, serve existing members, attract new members, and preserve and document Antarctic history.  We are proud that much of the material on the website is found nowhere else because it is contributed by our members. Think of the website like the old-time general store where there is a profuse variety of different and interesting things which you can browse at your leisure, sometimes finding things that you have never seen before. Tom welcomes comments on the website and suggestions to improve it. He may contacted at webmaster@antarctican.org.

Charles Lagerbom: Archivist

Charles H. Lagerbom was field assistant in Antarctica in the 1990s with glacial geology research teams from University of Maine Quaternary Institute, now Climate Change Institute. A published author and avid polar and maritime book collector, Charles has frequently written, lectured and made presentations on cruise/ expedition ships, sailing vessels and ashore about the history, life, politics and science of Antarctica, Cape Horn and South Atlantic as well as colonial Maine and New England maritime history and archaeology. He is author of The Fifth Man: The Life of H.R. Bowers (Caedmon Publishing) and Whaling in Maine (The History Press). Charles is past Membership Chair of the American Polar Society and past President of the Antarctican Society. He has been our society's archivist and slide scan digitizer for nearly a decade, cataloging over 25K images. Charles teaches AP US History at Belfast Area High School and makes his home on the coast of Maine.

Lesley Urasky: Social Media Director

Lesley has been a middle/high school science teacher for 22 years.  During the 2010-2011 field season she worked with a research team on the Beardmore Glacier as a PolarTREC teacher.  Since then, she has become a charter member of the Polar Educators International (PEI) and regularly travels around Wyoming presenting to students about Antarctica.  Lesley is a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science (2015), a National Board Certified Teacher in Earth Science, and is currently the District XV Director for the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA).  As a curriculum writer, she is planning on writing lessons about Antarctica for NSTA.  Lesley has been on the BOD since 2014.

See Lesley’s posts on the Society’s facebook page here. (https://www.facebook.com/antarcticansociety)

Our Directors

Guy Guthridge

Guy was a science communicator at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, conveying information about Antarctica and its research to nonscientists by reaching outside the immediate framework of the scientific literature, from 1970 to 2005. There, he developed the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, which helped to open Antarctica to exploration by writers, photographers, painters, historians, poets, and sculptors. Other Antarctic Treaty nations adopted the model for participation of the arts and letters in their own Antarctic science programs. Work at the Foundation included editing Antarctic Journal of the United States, funding and managing the Antarctic Bibliography, and developing the Antarctic Sun newspaper. He wrote documents and brochures about Antarctica and the U.S. Antarctic Program, was key in preparing a study that won Congressional funding of a new (dedicated in 2009) $180-million research facility at the geographic South Pole, helped develop themes for Antarctic exhibits at museums, and arranged for K-12 teachers to join Antarctic research teams in the field. Publications include Britannica Yearbook articles about Antarctica for 15 years; updates on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean for the CIA’s World Factbook; the autobiographical “Maverick Among Scientists” in the book Antarctica: Life on the Ice (Susan Fox Rogers, ed., Travelers' Tales, 2007); the Introduction to a fine-art book of Antarctic photography, The Antarctic: From the Circle to the Pole (by Stuart Klipper, Chronicle Books, 2008); and "Witnessing early modern Antarctica," the introduction to Deep Freeze! A Photographer's Antarctic Odyssey in the Year 1959 (by Robert A. McCabe, International Photography Publishers LLC, 2010). A 2009 three-DVD set, Antarctica Calling (issued by the Antarctican Society) includes a 14-minute presentation by Guy describing his role in the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. He returned to NSF 2008-2012 to help document the agency’s lead U.S. role in the International Polar Year and to help produce the 224-page July 2012 report of the U.S. Antarctic Program Blue Ribbon Panel, More and Better Science in Antarctica Through Increased Logistical Effectiveness. In 2014 Guy worked with Paul Dalrymple and the Art of Stewardship project to present an Antarctic Artists and Writers day at the Antarctic Gathering in Port Clyde, Maine; he assumed Editorship of the Society Newsletter the same year. From 2013 to 2017, Guy lectured about the Antarctic austral summers aboard the cruise ship Zaandam, operated by Holland America Line. The Guthridge Nunataks in central Palmer Land are named in Guy’s honor.

Dale Andersen

Dale, an experienced limnologist/aquatic ecologist has a long history of work in polar regions and temperate deserts.  He has developed techniques for scientific diving and the use of ROV technology for the exploration of perennially ice-covered lakes in Antarctica. 

As a Senior Research Scientist at the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute, his research interests are with the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe, and since the 1980’s, he has been involved with NASA’s Exobiology and Astrobiology programs. Due to COVID19, this is the first year since 1995 that Dale’s scientific sojourns to the High Arctic and/or Antarctic have been interrupted, but he continues to locate, characterize and further understand environments where physical and chemical conditions approach or exceed the tolerances for life. His research diving in Antarctic lakes has resulted in many papers and achievement awards.  Recent projects include studying large conical microbialites in Lake Untersee, Antarctica, for the Chicago Field Museum (PI); Exobiology funded research to study microbialites in Lake Joyce Antarctica (PI); ASTEP funded research (Co-I) in University Valley Antarctica; and Scientific diving support and research (Co-I) Pavilion Lake Research Group.  He’s also an Eagle Scout, the inspiration for the naming of Andersen Creek in Antarctica, and has been on the Antarctican Society Board since 2014. 

Matthew Jordan

Matthew Jordan is a Professional Project Manager and Civil Construction Engineer with ~10 years’ experience working on major projects with values up to $300 million. He is the Assistant Project Manager for the Scott Base Redevelopment Project at Antarctica New Zealand. Matt volunteers with various Antarctic organisations, and is actively involved with the Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Antarctic Society, assisting with event planning, and writing articles for the Society’s magazine Antarctic.

Since moving to New Zealand from Australia three years ago, Matt has built a strong network within National Antarctic Programs, the polar tourism industry and other Antarctic organisations.  Inspired into a career in Antarctica after cruising to the Antarctic peninsula as a tourist in 2015, he has visited Antarctica a number of times. 

A fluent public speaker, Matt represents Toastmasters New Zealand as an Area Director and sits on the District Executive Committee while also representing his club – Avon Toastmasters – as the Vice President for Education. He has a strategic focus on growing a number of clubs in the Christchurch area with a focus on increasing membership and attracting new personnel to the organisation.  With experience over all seven continents, Matt’s resume includes kayak guiding in the Norwegian Fjords, building power stations in Australia and teaching English in Brazil. Recreationally, Matt enjoys playing golf, rock climbing, snowboarding, kayaking, hiking, cycling and running and is learning Spanish in his free time.

Matt is youthful, enthusiastic and experienced with social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin and Twitter among others. With this technological savviness, Matt plans to establish and grow the Society’s social media channels and update the newsletter, while providing strategic direction to the Society. 

Valmar Kurol

Valmar was born in London, England; grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick; and now lives in Montreal.  While interested in music, photography, and art since his early teens, Valmar obtained a B.Sc. (McGill University, 1971), and MBA (McGill University, 1973), and is currently retired.

Having first visited Antarctica in 1992 as a tourist, he began, as a hobby, to focus on study of its scientific, cultural and artistic aspects, with four return trips south, most recently in 2015 to the Ross Sea area and Western Antarctica.  Valmar has composed and produced three CDs of instrumental music about Antarctica over 1999 – 2019.  He also began oil painting Antarctic scenes in 2001 as a further hobby.

Valmar’s Antarctic Symphony CD’s have been sent through our Society to Palmer and South Pole Stations; he’s been on the Board since 2014.  You can listen to a sample of his musical composition here and see some of his paintings here.

Michele Raney, M.D.

Ron Thoreson

Ron graduated from the University of Minnesota with degrees in Biology and Anthropology. He had the opportunity while still in college to manage the ‘Biolab’ laboratory for the NSF at McMurdo. Those 13 months spent on the Ice (1969-1970) were eventful with the arrival of the first women scientists, visits from a NASA astronaut team training in the Dry Valleys, and JPL researchers culturing soil samples with implications for the Mars Viking Lander program and subsequent exploratory missions and evolving technologies.

Since his stint in Antarctica, Ron served in the US Army Third Infantry and Honor Guard Unit at Fort Myer, Arlington, Virginia. Besides ceremonial duties at Arlington National Cemetery and within the Washington District, Ron was a member of the Army Precision Drill Team, performing regular drill exhibitions at the Jefferson Memorial, but also at many out-of-state functions and venues. He joined the National Park Service and was privileged to work in resource management, law enforcement and interpretation at the National Visitor Center, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Canyonlands and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Ron has also worked as a polymer chemist for a company that installed large aquariums around the world with ocean-duplicating environments and aquatic species, such as iconic sharks. On-site assignments included projects in France, China, Taiwan, and Spain.

Ron has kept up his interest in the Antarctic through his long friendship with Paul Dalrymple, and the many continuing and new acquaintances he has maintained through the Antarctican Society gatherings.  Ron lives in Montrose, Colorado with his wife Sallie, where they enjoy bicycling, hiking and skiing.

LCDR Stephen Wilson, USNR Retired

USNR Retired, LCDR Stephen Wilson’s interest in Antarctica started early and is ongoing.  He graduated from Dartmouth College with a thesis entitled, “Antarctica: A Problem of Sovereignty,” and was a member of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps which led to his first polar experience on the Blue Dolphin, a research schooner. The Navy then assigned him to the icebreaker USS Glacier from 1955 to 1958 for Operation Deepfreeze I, II, and III.  He participated in the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center’s Polar Oral History Program (Interview link), and contributed his IGY Daily Journal to the archives at OSU.  Stephen has experience far and wide: he has worked in Greenland with the US Army Corps of Engineers; aboard the R/V Chain capturing the first photographs of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Ridge; as a Geographer, conducted research, planning, and teaching at multiple institutions; and closer to home, Steve is an avid environmentalist, dedicated non-profit volunteer, renown beekeeper, and knowledgeable Nordic skier/biathlete.  As a long-time member of the Antarctican Society, he will be a welcome new addition to the Board of Directors.