Named in honor of one of America’s most famous explorers, the Byrd Polar Research Center is recognized internationally as a leader in polar and alpine research. The Center’s research programs are conducted throughout the world. Scientists at the Byrd Center are reconstructing past climate by studying chemical records preserved in ice cores collected from glaciers in Greenland, Asia, North and South America, and Antarctica. Fossils provide important evidence for much older changes in climate and plant fossils collected in the Transantarctic Mountains indicate that parts of the southern continent were once forested. Environmental studies include programs in Alaska and Russia which are concerned with hydrologic and geochemical cycles in permafrost terrains and interactions with the biosphere. Modern processes such as the motion of the great ice sheets and the circulation of storm systems around Antarctica are being studied with sophisticated computer models and with satellite-borne sensors capable of imaging the surface through cloud cover and during the long polar night. The Center has an archival program which is a collaborative effort of the Center and The Ohio State University Libraries/Archives. The Center encourages the involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in its research programs and also sponsors a weekly seminar which is open to the public.