UNH Today

Summer of ’24 has already broken heat records here in New England, but some in our UNH community are staying cool. Here are five ways our ’Cats are beating the dog days of summer.

Cruising on an icebreaker.

Three researchers from UNH’s world-renowned Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping — director Larry Mayer, associate director Brian Calder, and affiliate assistant research professor Liz Weidner ’23G — are in northern Greenland on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden. They’re mapping the seafloor of this unexplored region, contributing to our understanding of the melting Greenland Ice Sheet and its impact on sea level rise.

Chilling above the Arctic Circle.

At Sweden’s Abisko Research Station, professor of Earth sciences Ruth Varner and a team of researchers, including UNH students, sample permafrost to learn how its thawing is affecting Arctic lakes and streams. Also in Sweden, UNH researchers and students chase a retreating glacier at the Tarfala Research Station to understand how glacially ground-up rock transforms into soils and ecosystems.

Hanging out at absolute zero.

To learn more about the origins of the universe, assistant professor of physics Fabian Kislat uses special gamma ray detectors inside a dilution refrigerator that keeps his experiments at a cool minus-460 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of space and the lowest temperature that can theoretically be reached.

Biking in the cold.

To investigate whether cold exposure during exercise could increase energy expenditure and potentially help decrease obesity rates, kinesiology major Jack Souza ’25 recruits research subjects to ride an indoor bicycle at room temperature and at a brisk 39 degrees.

Diving into marine research.

Shoals Marine Lab, a remote field station on Appledore Island in the Gulf of Maine, catches cool breezes that elude the mainland. And Shoals, a leader in undergraduate marine education, abounds with opportunities for students to get their feet — and more — wet.