As Dartmouth students who have survived a winter in the Northeast can attest, cold weather poses serious problems for transportation, construction and even clothing choices.
For the military, problems associated with severe cold can complicate even the simplest of maneuvers. Arctic submarines must be specially equipped to resurface through ice barriers, army bases in Alaska must be built to withstand extremely low temperatures, and in snow-covered regions, "smart" missiles must find their targets without the benefits of normal acoustic feedback.
CRREL, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory -- located just a mile up the road from the Dartmouth Medical School -- was founded under the umbrella of the Department of Defense to research and develop solutions to these and other complications of snow, ice and cold weather.
Their mission, includes both military and civil works, engages them in a variety of research projects, accommodated by CRREL's extensive technology and spacious facilities.
Roads in colder climates, which have to withstand many yearly cycles of freezing and thawing, are one of CRREL's main focuses. One temperature-controlled building has "pressurized" tires that rapidly wear down roads, causing 20 years' worth of damage in just a few months. By studying cold-weather wear patterns, the researchers hope to build driving surfaces that better survive severe snow and ice.
Another building, a greenhouse, is equipped with a scanner to take digital readings of the root growth of plants. The goal is to find plants best suited to withstand the physical pressure of tank battalions in cold weather.
In characterizing the researchers' enthusiasm for their sub-zero work, Sue Koh, the Chief of Strategic Workforce Planning for CRREL said, "They all tend to be frostbitten. Once they get into cold regions, that's all they want to study."
The lab is headed by Dr. Barbara Sotirin, a recently-appointed member of the Thayer School of Engineering's Board of Overseers. Sotirin and her staff have maintained several programs in conjunction with the College.
STEP, or the Student Temporary Employment Program, is designed to provide jobs non-competitively to area students at the high school and college level.
Joan Pugh, the Human Resource Specialist in charge of STEP, said that "these jobs can range from groundwork to clerical to administrative."
Further cooperation with Dartmouth's Institute of Arctic Studies offers another avenue for students to earn valuable work experience in the fields of science and math.
CRREL also offers jobs to Dartmouth students through the Women in Science Program, which matches mostly freshman female science majors with mentors and job opportunities.
Jackie Richter-Menge, Chief of the Snow and Ice Branch, said that these jobs are able to "expose students to more than just the copy machine at the end of the hallway."
Sophomore Mike Engle, who has worked for CRREL for almost a year, agreed. After spending the summer working with digital images to assess ice melting patterns in Alaska, he said the work "becomes more fun as I get more practical experience."
The CRREL-Dartmouth relationship, formalized by these employment programs, is a situation in which "everyone wins," Engle said. "The grants that these researchers get from the government through the National Science Foundation require an educational component, and I count as an educational outreach.
"I would recommend a job at CRREL to anyone interested in engineering, biology, chemistry, math, computer science ... well, basically anyone who's not an English major."