Division of Polar Programs

National Science Foundation (NSF)
Arlington, VA

Dr. Thomas Wilch appointed Antarctic Earth Sciences Program Director

Dr. Thomas Wilch has joined the Antarctic Sciences Section (ANT) as Program Director for Antarctic Earth Sciences (AES). He is a participant in the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Program (IPA), which temporarily assigns personnel between the Federal Government and state and local governments, colleges and universities, Indian Tribal governments, federally funded research and development centers, and other eligible organizations. He will be replacing Dr. Mark Kurz, who has managed the AES program since April 2013 and whose appointment ends on September 30, 2015.

Dr. Wilch has worked on a variety of Antarctic research projects, including two that focus on using volcanic records to reconstruct the history of the Antarctic ice sheet and on the multi-national ANDRILL project, which drills deep into Antarctic sediments to study glacial history and predict future climates. He comes to NSF from Albion College in Albion, Michigan, where he is Chairman of the Department of Geologic Sciences. A Quaternary geologist, he specializes in glacial geology, physical volcanology, and paleoclimate history. He holds a M.S. in Quaternary Studies from University of Maine, Orono, Maine, and a Ph.D. in Geology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico.