bynrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu ( Ned Rozell)

Fifty-five summers ago, when Dave Klein first stepped on St. Matthew Island, driftwood on the beaches held no plastic bottles and hundreds of reindeer roamed the tundra hills.

Girls on Ice is a unique, free, wilderness science education program for high school girls. Each year two teams of nine teenage girls and three instructors spend 11 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers and the alpine landscape through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, ecologists, artists, and mountaineers.

Geophysical Institute Director Bob McCoy announced the appointment of Richard Collins as a new GI Associate Director. Collins will assist the director with the development of new opportunities for GI, including the burgeoning unmanned aircraft program. This appointment will be quarter time, effective July 2012.

The rain never let up, but that didn’t stop the excitement of the attendees to the Rockets & Gold: Poker Flat Research Range Open House. The event, scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 19, drew more than 200 people who toured lower range facilities, built rockets, learned about unmanned aircraft and the history of Poker Flat.