12 February 2008

The American Geographical Society and the University of Delaware are pleased to announce that Captain Lawson W. Brigham, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), will sign the AGS Flier's and Explorers Globe at 7:30 pm EST on February 12, 2008. The event will take place on the campus of the University of Delaware in Newark, DE The ceremony will be web cast, and can be viewed in real time at http://www.udel.edu/UMS/udlive. The video of the event will be archived and available for future viewing through the University's web site.

The signing of the AGS Globe forms the introduction to the W. S. Carlson International Polar Year Events, a year-long series of public lectures, seminars, exhibits, films, and other events held at the University of Delaware to celebrate the fourth International Polar Year. AGS and UD are partners in the series, which will take place throughout 2008. The series is named for William Samuel Carlson, UD's 20th President (1946-50), who participated in numerous scientific expeditions to Greenland and helped develop several important air transport routes in the Arctic for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.

The February 12 ceremony will commemorate the epic voyage of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea to the polar limits of the global ocean, under the command of Captain Brigham. In 1994 Brigham took Polar Sea from the Ross Ice Shelf off Antarctica to the Arctic Ocean, passing through the North Pole to Svalbard, then circumnavigating North America and Greenland. This spectacular journey also involved considerable scientific accomplishment.

The Fliers and Explorers Globe has been signed by more than 75 of the world's most celebrated explorers, including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Sir Edmund Hillary, John Glenn, and Neil Armstrong. It is particularly appropriate that Brigham's signing is occurring during the International Polar Year 2007-2009. More than 30 of the Globe's signers, including Roald Amundsen, Louise Boyd, Laurence Gould, Matthew Henson, Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Peary, Richard Byrd, and Sir Hubert Wilkins, were honored for their accomplishments in the polar regions.

The February 12 ceremony will feature an illustrated talk by Captain Brigham, describing his voyage. Brigham will be introduced by Dr. Jerome Dobson (AGS President), John Noble Wilford (senior science correspondent for The New York Times), and Dr. Don Walsh (a previous signer who holds the world record for diving to the deepest point in the world ocean).

Please join us, in person or online, on February 12 for the ceremony. Further information can be found at http://www.udel.edu/research/polar/events.html.

Fritz Nelson
University of Delaware
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