Profile

Stephen Pekar

Stephen Pekar, a geology professor at Queens College, has been investigating past climate and oceanographic changes during times (16- 45 million years ago) when CO2 was as high as what is predicted for this century (500-1000 ppm). As CO2 is rising rapidly today, which is predicted to be like putting our climate on a “hot plate”, exploring these times for him is like “Looking Back to Our Future”. To investigate climate change of the past, he looks at sediments, microfossil, and geochemical data obtained from cores obtained from near-shore to deep-sea locations ranging from the tropics to Antarctica. His research has taken him on expeditions around the world, including three to Antarctica, one of which he was project leader. This January, he will be part of a scientific team to recover Antarctic sediments deposited when Antarctica was ice-free as part of the Integrated Drilling Program Expedition 318: Wilkes Land.

Professor Pekar is a Queens native, growing up in the Rockaways and attending Queens College, first as a 20th century music composition major and then getting his BA in Education. He is enthralled and in love with exploring and discovering new places and ideas. He has traveled to over 40 countries, working in six of them ranging from archeology in France, grape picking in Germany, movie extra in China, to house pianist in a restaurant in Israel. However, as Antarctica is the most remote, coldest, and most harsh continent on Earth, for him going there to conduct research is like going to another planet and exploring undiscovered country.

Blog Contributors

Stephen Pekar's blog

Sampling the cores taken from Antarctica

Submitted by Stephen Pekar on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 19:34

Well, I am back on the JOIDES Resolution, with about half of the science party from the expedition taking samples from the cores we took from just a couple of months ago. I feel so fortunate that these cores were left on the ship so we could sample them on the JR. Last week, a large number of us took samples from the cores that were already shipped to the repository in Te

03 11 10: EPILOGUE

Submitted by Stephen Pekar on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 16:12

I have just arrived home after thirty plus hours of traveling. I return with mixed emotions (as many of my colleagues also feel), as it is good to be home, but there is a heavy heart and an emotional drain as the great adventure has ended for all.

03 07 10: "The Big Goodbye"

Submitted by Stephen Pekar on Sun, 03/07/2010 - 01:10

We are less than 24 hours from Hobart and the end of this most amazing expedition.

So, while the Wilkes Land Antarctic Expedition may have come to end,

As the sun sets on the last part of this Expedition yet another magical sunrise

Submitted by Stephen Pekar on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 00:09

It was a frosty morning during this time of an ever weakening light from the Antarctic sun. The spirits of this cold frozen land can now feel its withering rays as she fights to get above the horizon. And even after she wins that battle, she struggles to rise and can only manage to hang low in the sky even when she's at her most powerful at the noon.

Blog Entry 02 18 10 No one can say that we didn’t try

Submitted by Stephen Pekar on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 20:06

We tried and tried, but the spirits of the ice world would not let us through their door and to where we wanted to drill on the shelf. It was here in the shallow environs that we hoped to be able to recover proximal records of the evolution of the ice sheet during the transition from the greenhouse world to icehouse world.