astronomy

Nancy Bertler

Nancy Bertler is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nancy Bertler rather than just read about it. In short: Nancy Bertler is a German-New Zealand Antarctic researcher. She has led major initiatives to investigate climate history using Antarctic ice cores, and best known for her leadership of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE).

Key takeaways

Nancy Bertler belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nancy Bertler to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nancy Bertler from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nancy Bertler is a German-New Zealand Antarctic researcher. She has led major initiatives to investigate climate history using Antarctic ice cores, and best known for her leadership of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE). She is a full professor at the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

Early life and education Bertler was born in Munich, Germany. She completed her undergraduate degree in geology and geography in 1996 at LMU Munich. In 1999, she graduated with an M.Sc. in Quaternary science from Royal Holloway at the University of London, UK. Bertler then moved to New Zealand to commence her PhD in geology at the Victoria University of Wellington under the supervision of Peter Barrett, then director of the Antarctic Research Centre. She completed her PhD in 2004.

Career and impact Bertler researches climate history using ice cores. During her PhD Nancy established collaborations with international partners in Germany and the US and initiated New Zealand's ice core research capability in the Ross Sea. As postdoctoral fellow with guidance and help by her mentors, Profs. Peter Barrett, Tim Naish, Alex Malahoff, Bertler went on to establish major infrastructure in support of ice core research in New Zealand. This included the development of a national ice core research facility with GNS Science, the building of a New Zealand intermediate ice core drilling system with Victoria University of Wellington. Since her joint appointment with Victoria University of Wellington and GNS Science in 2004, Bertler has led and managed the National Ice Core Research Programme. This culminated in the successful development of international science projects – in particular the NZ contribution to the International TransAntarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) project and the NZ-led 9-nation Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) project, the latter of which she is the Chief Scientist. Bertler was one of the early pioneers to target and interpret ice core records from the Antarctic coastal regions. These records have proven to provide highly complementary information to the deep ice core records from the Antarctic interior. Bertler is a leading or co-author on 39 internationally peer-reviewed publications and three peer-reviewed book chapters. She also co-authored two book chapters for public outreach and has worked with a large range of media. Bertler has led 13 scientific expeditions to Antarctica with over 30 months (cumulative) of field work including leading the 9 nation Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice coring project in Antarctica.

Awards and honours Bertler was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2011 and is Chief Scientist and Field Leader of Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE), 9 nation ice core drilling project (NZ, USA, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, China, Sweden). She has featured in numerous science communication features In 2016, Bertler received a Blake Leader Award from the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

References

External links Nancy Bertler's webpage Nancy Bertler publications indexed by Google Scholar

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nancy Bertler

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nancy Bertler claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nancy Bertler before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nancy Bertler ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nancy Bertler

In research: Nancy Bertler appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nancy Bertler in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nancy Bertler is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington, German climatologists, German emigrants to New Zealand, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nancy Bertler outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nancy Bertler in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nancy Bertler means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nancy Bertler out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nancy Bertler in simple terms?

Why does Nancy Bertler matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nancy Bertler?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nancy Bertler.