Cold Regions Lab
THE prospect of having one of the Government's important research units located in Hanover was made known by the College last month with the announcement that discussions are now being carried on between Dartmouth officials and the Army Corps of Engineers looking toward the establishment here of the nation's principal cold regions research and engineering laboratory.
The new laboratory, which would be erected and operated by the Government, would consolidate the activities of the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment, now located in Wilmette, Ill., and the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory, located in Cambridge, Mass. Both units are civilian organizations under the Corps of Engineers and are considered the western world's top research centers concerned with scientific and engineering studies related to the cold regions.
The scope of the proposed research establishment is indicated by the announcement that it would initially employ about one hundred persons, mainly civilian scientists, and that the new laboratory building would possibly cost in excess of one million dollars. College officials and representatives of the Office of the Army Chief of Engineers are presently exploring possible sites owned by the College which might be made available for the laboratory. Two possible locations being talked about are the Record Farm on Lyme Road and the former Clark School property on West Lebanon Road. If the plans materialize, it is expected that construction would begin within the next two years.
The factors arguing for the location of a combined SIPRE and ACFEL in Hanover are both academic and geographical. It is contemplated that there will be close cooperative arrangements between the proposed new laboratory and Dartmouth's pioneer Northern Studies Program, organized in 1953 under the direction of Prof. Robert A. McKennan '25. Northern studies are now carried on at Dartmouth in the fields of engineering, geology, physics, anthropology, geography and physiology.
The laboratory would have access to the world-famous Stefansson library with its unmatched resources for polar research, and also to Dartmouth's properties at Mt. Washington and Mt. Moosilauke, where arctic conditions prevail. The noted explorer and authority on the Arctic, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, is himself a resident of Hanover. He is associated with the College as Arctic Consultant and, with Mrs. Stefansson, is engaged in cataloguing and classifying the immense amount of material in the collection bearing his name.
For an undergraduate college Dartmouth has an exceptional roster of faculty members who are widely known for their work in the Arctic and northern regions. A. Lincoln Washburn '35, Professor of Northern Geology, was director of SIPRE in Wilmette before coming to Dartmouth in 1953, and prior to that he was executive director of the Arctic Institute of North America. Trevor Lloyd, Professor of Geography, has specialized in the North and has done important work in both Canada and Greenland. David C. Nutt '41, Arctic Specialist in the Museum, has for a number of years taken the Blue Dolphin north for oceanographic studies for the Office of Naval Research and other scientific organizations. S. Russell Stearns '37, Professor of Engineering in Thayer School, is a member of the SIPRE research staff this year and will spend the summer in Greenland on a field trip before resuming his teaching duties here in the fall. Prof. Millett G. Morgan, director of research at Thayer School, is internationally known for his work in ionospheric physics and has been engaged in solving problems of radio communication in the North. Professors McKennan and Elmer Harp, in anthropology, Professors Andrew H. McNair and Richard E. Stoiber '32, in geology, and several members of the Dartmouth Medical School faculty, in physiology, are among others at Dartmouth who are carrying on work related to the northern regions.
