While some students spent their summers enjoying the sun and warm weather, senior geology major Ryan Cumpston experienced the 30 degree weather of the North Pole.

Cumpston spent about a month this summer on Svalbard, a collection of islands between the North Pole and Norway. NIU research professor Ross Powell and a student and professor from the University of Massachusetts accompanied Cumpston.

The trip was part of a pilot Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, sponsored and funded by the National Science Foundation.

The work day began at 7 a.m. and usually did not end until 1 a.m. This time included spending about 8 hours a day in a small near glaciers collecting samples.

The long work day took some getting used to, Cumpston said.

“The sun never set at all, which was weird,” he said.

The group members spent their days gathering samples and doing research on sediment from fjords, or inlets of sea between cliffs. They also examined core to see how the climate has changed, taking samples off of icebergs and taking water column measurements.

The samples will be shipped to DeKalb to be examined further by Cumpston and Powell. Cumpston will use this as the subject of his undergraduate research and his senior thesis.

The toughest thing about the trip physically was trying to keep his hands and feet warm, Cumpston said.

“There was no getting them warm. They were always cold,” he said, “It was also hard being away from my family, friends and girlfriend. Summer is our time together.”

But it was an opportunity Cumpston could not pass up.

“The whole time I was there, I was just trying to soak in information,” he said. “This is something that I could potentially see myself going into as a career.”

Cumpston is currently examining aerial photos taken on the trip to study a delta that formed while the research team was there.

“Not too many people even know [the delta] is there because it formed so recently,” Cumpston said.

Cumpston kept in contact with his roommate and friend Angelo Angelos, a senior math education major, throughout the trip.

“Ryan had access to the Internet, so he would show me pictures and tell me about what he was doing there,” Angelos said, “He was so excited about it. It was a good experience for him to get out there and have some hands-on experience with professor Powell.”

Cumpston is still in awe over his trip and hopes to do more research in the future.

“I want to make other people aware of the planet, how the climate is changing and what we’re really doing to it,” he said.