Jacob Helgeson is a Masters student in Geological Sciences at The University of Alabama, supervised by Dr. Rebecca Totten. His research focuses on the impacts of glacial melting and volcanic inputs on biological systems during the Holocene. His study area includes the Getz Ice Shelf, Antarctica and the fjords of southern Patagonia. Jacob specializes in polar marine diatoms (microscopic protists that photosynthesize and have cell walls made of glass), and he will also be studying foraminifera (microscopic protists that live in the water and on the seafloor and often eat things like diatoms). For this expedition, Jacob is particularly excited about diatom communities and how they may change with ocean dynamics and with the input of nutrients via volcanic tephra after eruptions.
Jacob recently earned his B.Sc. in Marine Sciences in Biology from The University of Alabama, and is excited to experience the beauty of Patagonia.
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