Employment in Antarctica


Employers / Contractors

Opportunity Categories

Job Types / Positions

Stations / Ships / Etc.

What It's Like

How To Apply


Employment in Antarctica

The National Science Foundation is the federal agency responsible for funding and managing the United Stated Antarctic Program (USAP). Each year the United States deploys to Antarctica about 650 people to perform scientific research and about 2,500 people to operate and maintain year-round research stations and provide logistics in support of this research. These persons include research teams from academia, industry, and government, military personnel, and contractor employees.

The program has three year-round research stations. In summer (the period of extensive sunlight and comparative warmth that lasts roughly October through February) additional camps are established for glaciologists, earth scientists, biologists, and others.

The program comprises research by scientists selected from universities and other research institutions and operations and support by contractors and the Navy, the Air National Guard, the Air Force, the Army, and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory of the Army.

Within the context of the Antarctic Treaty, extensive international cooperation takes place in Antarctica to more effectively accomplish both science projects and logistics. Some examples are exchanges of personnel among stations, cooperative planning and execution of large scale science projects such as deep rock core drilling and glaciological exploration, and the exchange or shared use of logistics assets such as ships and aircraft. The United States has pursued cooperative projects with every Antarctic Treaty consultative nation.

For more USAP Information click here!