Davis' initial encounter with antipodal ice came as an undergraduate researcher. In the summer of 1987, right before his senior year at the University of Kansas, his professors in the electrical and computer engineering department asked if he would like to work with a graduate student on a National Science Foundation-sponsored project in Antarctica. The project included designing, building and testing a radar system to measure the thickness of the ice sheet. Davis would learn how to operate a radar system and manage fieldwork logistics. There was a catch: to participate Davis had to enroll in graduate school, which he had not planned to do.

Davis decided it was a deal he couldn't refuse. "Antarctica is by far one of the most remote and difficult places to reach on this Earth," he says. "Very few people get such an opportunity, and normally, these are scientists and grad students, not undergraduate students."

With that trip Davis altered the course of his career. The next year, as a doctoral student, he received funding from NASA to use satellite data to study the ice sheets. "And I've been doing it ever since," he says. "I've been continuously funded by NASA or NSF to do this work since 1989."

Davis' first faculty post came at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1993. He moved to Columbia in 1999 and within two years had earned the Distinguished Professor Award, a designation given by the College of Engineering for outstanding contributions in scholarly research. A "penguin crossing" sign decorates the door of his office at MU's Engineering Building West, and a huge map of Antarctica hangs above his windows. On the opposite wall there are photos from his two visits to Antarctica. In one he's wearing swimming trunks, sitting on a beach towel and raising a drink. Snow and ice stretch as far as the eye can see. "Obviously, that one was posed," he says with a laugh. "The beach goes on like that for mile after mile after mile."

In addition to studying ice sheets, Davis founded and still directs the Center for Geospatial Intelligence, an interdisciplinary center involving faculty from electrical, computer, civil and environmental engineering; computer science; geography; and geological sciences. The center uses satellites and airborne remote sensing to provide "Earth-related intelligence" for national security, homeland defense and military combat support. Davis also teaches courses on digital communications.

He has filled his career with variety because, Davis says, he gets tired of sitting in front of a computer all day crunching data from the ice sheets. Still, that's the work that has brought him the most recognition. In 2003, for example, his ice sheet expertise secured him a coveted slot in the Earth Observing System Interdisciplinary Science Program (EOS/IDS), a project run by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE).

NASA created the ESE in 1991 "to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its responses to natural or human-induced changes in order to improve prediction of climate, weather and natural hazards." In 2004, the ESE merged with the Space Science Enterprise to form NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The Earth Observing System, based at the Goddard Space Flight Center complex near Washington, D.C., is the centerpiece of the former ESE. The EOS is comprised of a series of satellites and a data system that provide NASA with information on all things Earth, including its atmosphere, land and oceans. As a member of the IDS program, Davis receives funding to use data from those satellites for his Antarctica research. "The reason I got funded was not necessarily because we just want to know about the ice sheets, but because we want to know about the ice sheets and how they're contributing to the sea levels' rise," Davis says.

Published by the Office of Research.

©2006 Curators of the University of Missouri. Click here to contact the editor.