Jenny Baeseman
Jenny Baeseman is an American polar researcher who studies the survival mechanisms of bacteria in cold environments. She is the founding director of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, and was previously the executive director of the World [Climate Research Programme|World Climate Research Program] Climate and Cryosphere.
Early life and education
Baeseman grew up in Wisconsin, where she earned a B.S. in water resources and chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. There she began research looking at nitrogen in streams. She received an M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in civil engineering with an environmental emphasis from the University of Colorado Boulder. She then completed postdoctoral research in geosciences at Princeton University.Career
Baeseman is the executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Previously, she was the executive director of the World Climate Research Program Climate and Cryosphere, and the founding director of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists.Baeseman's research concerns the survival mechanisms of bacteria in cold environments and possible applications of their biochemistry. She has published in the fields of microbial ecology, polar and climate science, and education and communication of polar science. She has spent three summer seasons in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica and periods living in Fairbanks, Alaska and Tromsø, Norway. She also participated in a Students On Ice Antarctic University expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula.