Department
Department of Physical Oceanography
Organization
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Email
clinder@whoi.edu
Phone
508-289-2802
Address
Clark 340, MS #21
Woods Hole , Massachusetts 02543United StatesBio"I use photography to educate and inspire people about science and conservation. My specialty is documenting field work in the Arctic and Antarctica."

Chris Linder is a Research Associate in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Physical Oceanography Department, and a professional science and natural history photographer. He received a B.S. degree in Oceanography from the United States Naval Academy and a M.S. in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. He currently divides his time at WHOI between researching the dynamics of ocean fronts and using photography to educate the public about scientific research.

Since 2002, Linder has focused on communicating the stories of scientists working in the Arctic and Antarctica. His education and training as an oceanographer give him a special insight into photographing marine science. He has spent over a year of his life on expeditions to the polar regions.

Linder has experience in educating the general public on general science in a variety of venues, including: Carnegie Museum of Natural History; American Geophysical Union; the Field Museum of Chicago; Houston Museum of Natural Science; Museum of Science, Boston; National Science Teachers Association Annual Meeting; and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; to name a few.

Representative Lecture Titles:



Greenland's supraglacial lakes

Adlie penguins of Ross Island

The Polaris Project: Climate Change Science in Siberia

Raptor of the South: the South Polar Skua



His most recent project, titled "Live from the Poles" connected researchers with the public during the International Polar Year (2007 2009) using daily online photo essays and lectures "from the ice" to museum audiences nationwide via satellite phone. This project, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, took him from the Greenland Ice Sheet to penguin colonies on Antarctica's Ross Island.

Linder's images have appeared in museums, books, calendars, and international magazines, including Geo (Germany), Nature's Best, Outdoor Photography, and Wired. A solo exhibition of his photographs, titled "Exploring the Arctic Seafloor," opened at the Field Museum in Chicago in February 2007 and is currently touring science and natural history museums. He is currently working on a book titled "Science on Ice," for the University of Chicago Press, which will be published in Fall 2011. Linder is a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.

Science Specialties

physical oceanography, science writing, climate change

Current Research

Edge of the Arctic Shelf outreach effort: www.whoi.edu/arcticedge