Songqiao (Shawn) Wei, a McDonnell Scholar and second-year PhD student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, went to Antarctica for his fieldwork from December 2011 to January 2012.
He traveled from McMurdo Station to Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with the Prime Minister of Norway, who was attending the centennial celebration of Amundsen’s arrival to the South Pole in 1911. Songqiao’s group was based in the South Pole Station and traveled to each of their seismic stations on the polar plateau for servicing or installation. Songqiao’s group was the first group of people to arrive at the two stations. For this reason, one of the new stations was named after Songqiao as “SWEI.”