Frey and the students departed for Siberia on July 2 as part of The Polaris Project, which trains future leaders in arctic research and education.

Dr. R. Max Holmes, an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center and director of The Polaris Project, says, "The Arctic is central to the global climate change issue, and Russia has by far the largest share of the Arctic. Yet few western scientists, much less students, ever get the chance to work in the Siberian Arctic. This research experience is a unique collaboration among students, educators, and scientists from distinct cultures working together to address a critically important scientific challenge."

Students and scientists in the Polaris Project field course will focus on how carbon and nutrients change as they float from terrestrial uplands to the Arctic Ocean. The researchers will pay special attention to how different ecosystems are linked, and how climate changes disrupt their intricate balance.

"I teach courses focused on climate change and the Arctic to undergraduates during the academic year, but nothing compares to the opportunity to bring students into the field," Frey says. "Not only are the students learning about Arctic environments first-hand, but they also have an opportunity to ask important scientific questions and actually answer them through the sampling and laboratory techniques we teach them while at the research station. Ultimately, the students are contributing to new knowledge about Arctic ecosystems and many of them will present their findings at national conferences in the months following the field expedition."

Frey is an assistant professor in Clark's Graduate School of Geography. Her research focuses on impacts of permafrost thaw on river biogeochemistry and impacts of sea ice changes on biological productivity.

While in Siberia, the students and scientists will be based at the Northeast Science Station approximately 80 kilometers south of the Arctic Ocean on the Kolyma River, near Cherskiy. The participants will stay on a 30-meter barge – their mobile base for field trips up and down the river.

Clark seniors Boyd Zapatka of Bangkok, Thailand, Blaize Denfield of South Windsor, Conn. and Claire Griffin of Austin, Texas, will be among the 11 students participating in the Polaris Project this summer.

Zapatka, who was part of the Polaris Project last summer, is returning to the field station this year in an expanded role as a student assistant. "My experiences in Siberia have taught me more about science than I have ever learned in any classroom," he says.

"In the classroom, we are constantly bombarded with groundbreaking research concerning the effects of global climate change in Arctic regions but rarely does anyone, let alone an undergraduate at a small liberal arts college, get the opportunity to take part in research at the forefront of such a 'hot' topic," Zapatka writes. "With the help of the professors involved, I have learned how the different Arctic system components function and how this balance is being disturbed. Furthermore, I now understand how the research process works, how data collection and analysis is performed, and how to formulate hypotheses and test them. While in Siberia, I was able to explore the surrounding landscape, ask questions, and seek answers."

Follow the experience via blogs, twitter and facebook.

Visit our summer research pages and see what our students have been up to over the summer!

The Polaris Project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Economic Geography is committed to publishing cutting-edge research that makes theoretical advances to the discipline. The journal states its "long-standing specialization is to publish the best theoretically-based empirical articles that deepen the understanding of significant economic geography issues around the world."

The Institute for Scientific information (ISI) "impact factors" are measurements derived by tracking and indexing the number of citations, or references, made to papers in a scholarly journal, thus indicating a level of quality and influence on particular fields and research. According to ISI/Thomson Reuters, these indexing tools help scientists "expedite their research process, evaluate the impact of their work, spot scientific trends, and trace the history of modern scientific thoughts."

The journal is edited by an international team of scholars. Professor Yuko Aoyama (Clark) serves as editor-in-chief, with Professor Gernot Grabher (HCU Hamburg), Professor David Rigby (UCLA), and Professor Henry Wai-Chung Yeung (National University of Singapore) as editors. Professor James T. Murphy (Clark) serves as Book Review Editor and Joanne Miller (Clark) as Managing Editor. The editorial board includes 23 prominent scholars in economic geography, many of whom are highly cited authors in the discipline. Clark University maintains an editorial office for the journal on campus.

"Economic Geography has always been one of the top scholarly journals in geography, and we are proud that Clark University founded and still maintains the journal of such high caliber. The journal's reputation compliments that of Clark's Graduate School of Geography, which is also top ranked in the nation," said Yuko Aoyama, editor-in-chief and professor at Clark.

Economic Geography covers independent scholarly research conducted around the world and represents a broad range of epistemological traditions and methodological orientations. The journal also publishes annual Roepke lectures delivered at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meetings. The journal's July 2009 issue features an article by Clark research professor Susan Hanson, titled "Changing Places through Women's Entrepreneurship," which discusses geographic studies of women's entrepreneurship and access to microcredit in Botswana, India, Peru, and the United States.

Among past Economic Geography editors from Clark are Provost David Angel (1999-2006), Professor Hanson (1992-1999), Professor Richard Peet (1992-1998), and founding editor Wallace Atwood (1925-1945), who was Clark's second president.

Clark and UPCS were also featured in the WBUR/WGBH public radio and TV series called "Project Dropout." Virtually every student at UPCS has gone on to post-secondary education (including at Clark) and UPCS and Clark "are getting attention from educators around the world," WBUR reported.

Together, Clark and the Worcester Public Schools opened the University Park Campus School to ensure that students in the neighborhood would have access to a strong college-preparatory high school program. Clark also invests in other schools in the neighborhood; each is a "professional development school," a clinical training site in Clark's collaborative teacher education program. And Clark offers free tuition to any student who has lived in the neighborhood for five years and is accepted through the regular admission process.

Online media coverage:

3 area schools named to top list

Worcester Telegram & Gazette 6/14/2009

The Top of the Class

Newsweek 6/8/2009

During the Clinton administration, Clark and the CDC received a neighborhood revitalization grant that led to the construction of the Boys & Girls Club in 2006. The club and development of the surrounding neighborhood is a part of the University Park Partnership, a national model in urban revitalization of which Clark is a primary partner.

Clark will soon help the city break ground to build a new athletic field next to the club.

"No matter how much we appropriate money, like I did for the CDC and Clark University, if the CDC and Clark University hadn’t wanted to do what they did, hadn’t had the vision, the money would still be sitting there," Clinton said.

Representative McGovern, a Worcester native, spoke about the positive changes in the neighborhood "transformed by this great Boys & Girls Club, by 65 affordable new homes, by new business and storefronts, by a nationally renowned high school and soon by a new synthetic turf playing field on the lot next to this building.

"This transformation didn't happen by accident. It happened because of a partnership between Clark University, the Main South CDC, the city of Worcester, the Boys & Girls Club and many, many community leaders."

Clinton told the crowd that Worcester was one of his favorite cities. "I'm glad that I could be some help in what I see here," he said. "But really, the people in this community deserve all the credit. I don't know how many times I've told people around America, that if they would just come here and see what you all are doing and how you have given people remarkable opportunities against great odds—they could do the same thing."

While in Worcester, Clinton also attended a fund-raiser and rally for McGovern.

Horner presented his winning paper on the emerging geography of India's pharmaceutical firms in the global economy, at the annual AAG conference in Las Vegas. He was among Clark graduates, undergraduates and faculty who joined some 7,000 geographers from around the world at the conference, March 22 to 27.

Horner, originally from Ireland, received his B.A. with honors in Economics and Geography from Trinity College, Dublin.

Horner's dissertation research focuses on the Indian Big Pharma multinational enterprises (MNEs). "The industry has been undergoing substantial restructuring in recent years, and I hope to understand the organizational and geographical dynamics involved," he said.

Last year, Horner received the John Henry Thompson '41 Endowed Summer Research Fellowship in Geography, which he said helped support him while he conducted the pre-dissertation work that formed the basis of his paper.

Horner was awarded a $250 prize, a certificate, a ticket to the AAG awards banquet, and formal recognition at the banquet and in the AAG Newsletter.

Economic Geography Specialty Group is one of the largest specialty groups of the AAG. Its purpose is "to stimulate research, teaching, and applications in industrial and economic geography; to aid in the advancement of its members and the field of economic geography; and to help represent economic geography within the discipline of geography and to related disciplines, agencies in government, the private sector, and the general public."

Fiore has taught American history, world history and Russian history at Leicester High School for 26 years. In 2004, she was recognized as a “Christa's Teacher” by the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence at Framingham State College. She was awarded the Blakeslee Fellowship and Teacher of the Year Award by Clark's Teachers Center for Global Studies in 1988.

Margaret Lajoie Luciano of Clark's Class of 2009 nominated Fiore for the award. Luciano is a 2005 graduate of Leicester High.

Luciano said Fiore "was outstanding in her unflinching commitment to quality of student work. She set and maintained high standards, regardless of popular practice. Donna was always willing to go the extra mile for her students."

Luciano says it was Fiore—a Clark alum—who recommended that she attend Clark University.

"She always spoke very highly of Clark and its learning environment," said Luciano. "She suggested Clark as an option for me as I was searching for a school which encourages academic inquiry and discussion."

According to the student, Fiore always encouraged her to set and maintain high standards, both in terms of goals and academic integrity. Now, she is on the path toward a PhD.

"A PhD is a personal goal I never would have set for myself without her encouragement, and one I would not have been able to hope to achieve without the critical thinking and writing skills I learned from her," said Luciano.

Fiore earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Clark in 1981, and graduated magna cum laude, with honors in history. She earned a Master of Education degree from Worcester State College in 1986. Recognizing the importance of mentors in her own academic career, she created the John J. Shannon History Book Award in honor of an influential high school history teacher who was also a Clark alumnus.

"It is so gratifying to be recognized and honored by an institution like Clark and a student like Maggie who still adhere to high standards of excellence in a time when so many students (and their parents) expect self-esteem to be conferred by inflated grades rather than earned through hard work," said Fiore.

"Donna continues to demonstrate an exemplary leadership in the classroom and beyond. She embodies the very essence of the Clark Spirit," said Ronald (Chay) Atupem, president of Clark's Alumni Association.

Fiore is a resident of Worcester.

Luciano is the daughter of David and Mary Lajoie of Leicester. She is majors in psychology at Clark. She plans to pursue her MBA through Clark's Accelerated B.A./Master's Degree Program.

This is the 25th year that Clark's Alumni Association has presented the Outstanding Secondary Educator Award. Clark seniors nominate their high-school teachers for the award and then discuss the nominees with a committee of Alumni Association members.