Wintering in the eternal ice: geophysicist Benita Wagner and her workplace at Neumayer Station in Antarctica
Geophysicist Benita Wagner has an unusual workplace. The Ellwangen native, who studied at the Bergakademie, wintered at the Neumayer III research station in the perpetual ice.
She will stay in Antarctica for a total of 14 months. The polar night began on 21 May 2022 and from then on the sun will not rise again until 22 July. Benita will spend the long time in the ice with her eight colleagues. Scientists live and work year-round at the research station, which was commissioned in 2009. For one year, the teams will collect scientific data and advance their mission. Benita applied for this job precisely because the workplace is so exotic and she can live out her love of adventure. Especially because of the environment here, there are simply completely different challenges and tasks in addition to the actual job. "Whether it's keeping the social interaction in a group of nine people in tact for nine months or coping with the physical isolation from the outside world. On the other hand, it is of course a great privilege that the job here can be combined with watching the northern lights and penguins without much effort," Benita says in the interview. She discovered her love of adventure early on and was able to live it out during her studies in Freiberg. Students here are involved in science at an early stage - even abroad. For example, Benita's final thesis for her Master's degree took her to Nepal. Together with a lecturer, she took geoelectric measurements in a hydrothermal area. The aim was to examine an earthquake area more closely. She took away a lot from the Seismik AG's measurement trip to Finland, which led to some lasting friendships and a real longing for the country.
During the handover with the "old overwinterers", the new ones realise that they now bear a lot of responsibility: for this "unique station, the precious decades of scientific measurement series and the care for each other". But there is also a lot of leeway and the privilege of living and working in a unique place.