Explore More - Epic Expedtions

102 VIKING.COM EXPLORE

102 VIKING.COM EXPLORE MORE

CULTURE & SCIENCE SCIENTIFIC PARTNERSHIPS Viking Resident Scientists provide invaluable insight To enrich your journey to the extraordinary, we will have a qualified team of Viking Resident Scientists on board our purpose-built expedition ships, as well as state-ofthe-art laboratories so you can participate in scientific field research. THE TEAM Our experienced expedition team is very fortunate to be led by Jørn Henriksen, Director of Expedition Operations. In addition to growing up and living in Arctic Norway for more than 45 years, with family roots in Norway’s indigenous heritage, Henriksen has worked in expedition management for 25 years. We are also happy to have the expertise of Dr. Damon Stanwell-Smith, Head of Science and Sustainability, a marine biologist with a 27-year career involved with Antarctica. Having visited many places across the globe, there is nowhere else that gives him the same sense of wilderness as the polar regions. Elsewhere, our independent Viking Scientific Advisory Group consists of several of the world’s leading scientific institutions in the fields of atmospheric sciences, botany, glaciology, marine biology and ornithology. We are thrilled to bring their knowledge, know-how and experience to our expeditions. Chairing the team is Professor Julian Dowdeswell, the director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, whom we are privileged to have. And we are honored to have the legendary polar explorers Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft as our ships’ godmothers. SCIENTIFIC PARTNERSHIPS Our lead partner is the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute, whose scientists will undertake fieldwork on board Viking Expedition vessels. This relationship is underpinned by a major Viking endowment for scientific research of the polar regions, The Viking Chair of Polar Marine Geoscience, a Cambridge University full professorship based at the Scott Polar Research Institute, as well as a sponsorship fund supporting the institute’s graduate students. We have also partnered up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, a globally recognized bird research facility. Their ornithologists will regularly be on board field-testing and collecting data for their observation database (eBird.com). Our onboard expedition program is designed to prepare guests for their onshore experiences, with each journey accompanied by more than 25 experts—our Viking Expedition Team (expedition leader and staff, photographer and submarine pilots) and Viking Resident Scientists (biologists, botanists, geologists, glaciologists, oceanographers, ornithologists, polar experts and researchers) from our partnerships. OUR EXCURSIONS To make the most of your Viking Expedition and maximize your discoveries, there is a range of excursions available. Offering incredible views of remote landscapes and remarkable wildlife up close, these opportunities will be led by our experienced team of highly skilled experts with a background in operating in rugged and polar environments. Hiking through the majestic landscape of northern Norway and taking a zodiac to land on Antarctica, where you might encounter penguins firsthand, are just some of the included experiences. You can also dive deep to explore the underwater world or spend time marveling at the power of Niagara’s spectacular Horseshoe Falls as they cascade dramatically. Our expedition ships have been specially designed to be able to traverse the locks from the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem. In order to maximize collaborative research opportunities while voyaging there, Viking has partnered with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, specifically their Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the preeminent body conducting research on the Great Lakes. Our planned collaborative research and the data gathered from our shipboard instrumentation during our Great Lakes voyages will contribute a vital component to the long-term meteorologic and oceanographic model developed by GLERL, which in turn will significantly inform weather prediction on the North American continent. To read more about this initiative, please visit glerl.noaa.gov. Facing page, clockwise from top left: Viking Resident Scientist, on hand to chat with guests; artist’s rendering of a Viking Expedition ship; Viking Executive Vice President Karine Hagen in Svalbard; the innovative slipway of the expedition ship’s Hangar; Karine’s father, Chairman Torstein Hagen, and Director of Expedition Operations Jørn Henriksen; the onboard research laboratory EXPLORE MORE VIKING.COM 103