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Chris Linder
Science on Ice

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, Chris has focused on communicating the stories of scientists working in the Arctic and Antarctic. 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 at sea on research ships, with over half of that time spent in the polar regions.

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 (polardiscovery.whoi.edu) 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.

Chris's images have appeared in museums, books, calendars, and international magazines, including Geo (Germany), Nature’s Best, Outdoor Photographer, 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 on display at the MIT Museum's Compton Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 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.