iExplore-Birgit Sattler

My childhood dream had always been to set foot on the frozen continent.  While others were longing for beaches and warm sun, I had frozen wilderness in my mind.  As a kid, I wasn't so advanced as to dream of a scientific career.  Instead, my scientific interest in the poles developed out of my wish to investigate anything about water--frozen or liquid.  ~~Birgit Sattler~~

You could say that Birgit Sattler's workplace is totally cool... literally, that is.   On an average day, the temperature in her outdoor "office" is about  -30°C (-27 F) or less!  Birgit works at the Institute of Ecology in Innsbruck, mainly out in the field.  She studies life in various ice forms like glacial ice in Antarctica and frozen high mountain lakes. She believes that living on the ice and doing research in Antarctica for months at a time is the "perfect school for life."

Birgit is passionate about finding these microscopic superhero life forms that thrive in places where humans, plants and animals cannot survive, as well as teaching everyone that ice is not something sterile.  Instead, she and her research expose that it is a busy, complex ecosystem filled with life.  "These extremely cold environments are inhabited by micro-organisms which are the kings of life since they can survive subzero temperatures," she says.

In Innsbruck, Birgit is leading the working group “Ice & Life,” is station manager for the “High Mountain Limnological Research Station” (2.417m), and is safety officer for radioactivity for her university's Faculty of Biology.  She also serves as Vice President of the “Austrian Society for Polar Research” and is the Austrian Delegate for the Antarctic Treaty (www.uibk.ac.at/ecology) . With her research she has won numerous prestigious awards, including the “Eduard Wallnoefer Research Prize” of the Tyrolean Industrial Society for “Ice & Life” (2003), Nominee for the “Austrian Scientist of the Year" (2005), “Air & Space Award” by WINGS WorldQuest (2008), and the “Sparkling Science School Award.”  Besides her research, she is actively engaged in working with young children in an educational program initiated by the Austrian Ministry of Science and Education (”Sparkling Science”), where polar and alpine research is promoted for kids of various ages with regard to awareness of climate change and extreme environments (www.sparklingscience.at).