Dave Vaillencourt

Not many students can say they earned college credit for living in an old radio tower on an arctic island, receiving training in survival skills like cold water submersion and marksmanship (in case of a polar bear attack), and hiking a glacier at 3 a.m. in broad daylight. For David Vaillencourt ('10), these memorable experiences were part of an exciting summer participating in a research expedition in Svalbard, Norway, an island of icy mountains and large glaciers located in the Arctic Ocean. The expedition gave Dave, an Earth Systems major from Whitman, Massachusetts, his first foray into fieldwork. (Story continued below slideshow.)

Working closely with research scientists, Dave and other students conducted fieldwork on Lake Kongressvatnet. Dave hiked 2.5 miles to the lake each day to collect sediment samples by "coring," which involves dropping a plastic device as much as 150 feet in order to pull up a sample from the lake's floor. Other CNS students can participate in this Research Experience for Undergraduates program (REU) and other first-hand research opportunities for CNS undergraduates.

Back on campus, Dave was an undergraduate member of Professor Steve Petsch's Biogeochemistry research lab. Using the lab's sophisticated instrumentation to analyze the samples he collected in Norway, Dave could "go back 5,000 years" to tell what the climate was like at Kongressvatnet and create a model of the lake's history. In the climatology lab, Dave also worked alongside Dr. Petcsh and other researchers to study organisms that can be linked to producing oil in shale (a fine-grained sedimentary rock), work that may ultimately lead to advances in climate reconstruction and the discovery of new oil and natural gas formations.

Post-graduation, Dave, who was originally a business major at Bryant University before an inspiring meteorology class prompted him to switch majors—and to transfer to UMass Amherst, now aspires to a career in research. "Learning never ends in the academic realm," he says. "Science is always changing." No stranger to the cold, Dave was a member of the UMass Amherst ski club, and in his spare time participates in as many outdoor activities as he can and travels whenever possible.

Dave's advice to students is to take advantage of the many opportunities at CNS. "Be around professors, talk to professors, ask them questions," he says. Dave's hard work paid off when he offered to do grunt work in the climate center, and was soon working side by side with major researchers in his field. Dave reflects, "Without that I'd just be another undergraduate going home at the end of the day."

Dave is currently at Northern Arizona University pursuing a Master's degree. He spent three weeks doing fieldwork in Alaska this past summer.

—KA