glacier | forScience Foundation

The oases of Antarctica

Post author:Adam Nawrot
Post published:15 January 2023
Reading time:16 mins read

When we think of an oasis, the first image that comes to mind is usually that of a lush green area amidst the endless sands of a desert, with camels quenching their thirst at a spring and caravan drivers dozing in the shade. Oases provide refuge from the heat and…

Adam Nawrot

geomorphologist, hydrologist

A keen DIYer, wilderness enthusiast, Doctor of Earth Sciences. He took his first steps in science at the Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Later on, he also spent several months at the University of Luxembourg, the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and the University of Oslo. Currently, he works at the Department of Polar and Marine Research of the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences.

The activity that gives him more professional satisfaction than anything else is fieldwork, and his taste for harsh conditions means that he gladly does research and gets involved in projects carried out in mountainous regions and in the Far North, mainly in Spitsbergen. His love affair with this part of the world started in 2005. Since then, he has taken part in numerous fieldwork expeditions to the Arctic and twice overwintered at the Polish Polar Station Hornsund, including once as the expedition leader. He is also responsible for the programme of environmental monitoring conducted by the Station.

He enjoys new challenges, as a result of which in 2015 he spent a few months in India, where he gained personal experience of decidedly non-polar conditions while working at a local school as an IT teacher. Since 2017, he has actively participated in the efforts aimed at reviving the A.B. Dobrowolski Polish Antarctic Station. What usually helps him get out of trouble is his unshakeable faith in dynamic planning and a bright personality.

As the founder and president of forScience Foundation, he is responsible for formalities, reports and budgets. He is also a gold mine of ideas for new projects, which we hope will soon see the light of day.

Barbara Jóźwiak

educator, educational manager, translator

A free spirit, great fan of high mountains and long-distance walking trails, demon for work. Her practical skills and outdoor experience, as well as deep cultural sensitivity and respect for broadly-understood diversity developed during numerous, often self-organised travels, which offered a whole new perspective on the places she visited and people she met on the way.

As a graduate of English Philology at the University of Gdańsk, she has spent much of her adult life working in education. Soon after receiving a degree, she went abroad, which marked the beginning of a terrific adventure and gave rise to a lasting fascination with the countries and cultures of Central Asia. For several years she worked as a teacher of English and educational manager at International House schools in Russian and Kazakhstan, spending breaks between contracts doing voluntary teaching in remote Indian villages. The experience played a major part in shaping her current outlook on education and life in general.

In 2013, she first visited Svalbard and two years later spent a month at the Polish Polar Station Hornsund, trying her hand at project fieldwork. Afterwards, she returned to Poland, where she got temporarily involved with the British Council. Nowadays, she works as a freelance translator, cooperating, among others, with the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Silesia.

The rest of her time she devotes to forScience Foundation, where – apart from taking active part in project work – she handles everything that qualifies as the written word, from project proposals and e-mails to potential partners to posts which you can read on this website and the Foundation’s Facebook page.

The oases of Antarctica

Adam Nawrot

Adam Nawrot

Barbara Jóźwiak

Barbara Jóźwiak

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