2 Dr. In-Young Ahn
Scientists Name: Dr. In-Young Ahn |
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Time period: Modern (1956 ~)Subject: Science (Coastal Oceanography) |
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Biography:Born in 1956 in a small town in Gangwon, Dr. Ahn started her journey in marine science after she graduated with a nursing degree from the National University of Seoul. She doesn’t know what prompted her to take a sudden change in direction, but soon after graduating with a degree in Biological Oceanography, Dr. Ahn got her PhD in Coastal Oceanography from the State University of New York in 1990. However, getting a job was difficult for Dr. Ahn when she returned from the states back to Korea. After nearly 10 months of job-searching, she finally got a job offer from the South Korean Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), and her legacy as the station leader began. Even now, Dr. Ahn serves as a principal investigator for Environmental Monitoring Program at the King Sejong Station in Antarctica. She contributes to the research of benthic marine life and their response to climate change in Antarctica.
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Summary of their contributions:As a principal investigator stationed in Antarctica, Dr. Ahn has contributed to a variety of research in many different fields, including atmospheric sciences, terrestrial, coastal marine biology, and oceanography. Her primary expertise is in marine biology, more specifically benthic invertebrates. She has reported on the physiological and molecular mechanisms related to cold adaptation and she has reported on the stress response of marine organisms to climate change as well. Dr. Ahn’s contribution to climate change research mostly revolves around the study of Antarctic marine organisms. As these organisms have evolved for an incredibly long time in a stable environment, they are more sensitive to climate change than most other organisms. Dr. Ahn has observed the changes made in the responses to the Antarctic marine organisms to report on the severity of climate change.
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Integration with the BC Secondary Science Curriculum:Climate change is for sure a topic within the BC science curriculum. Especially in Environmental Sciences 12, there is a whole unit on how human activities cause change in the global climate system. As Dr. Ahn’s work in the Antarctic, she has also mentioned the high biodiversity of Antarctic marine life compared to the low biodiversity of Antarctic terrestrial life, which could be a talking point in the biodiversity unit. There is a connection to ecology as well since the Antarctic’s terrestrial temperature variation is much higher than the marine temperature variation, and that may in turn have an effect on the organisms that live there. As you can see, there are lots of talking points in Dr. Ahn’s work, as work in the Arctic environment has a lot of other fields it can connect to. Hence, Dr. Ahn’s work should be able to be integrated into the BC secondary science curriculum with no problem.
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