Gisela Dreschoff
Dr. Dreschhoff has spent a total of twenty field seasons and expeditions in both polar regions. She received her Ph.D. in Physics at the Technische Universitat, Braunschweig, in 1972. Soon after her arrival from Germany she became involved in the Apollo Program. She spent ten summers in Antarctica from 1976 to 1986 using gamma ray spectrometers in field surveys to evaluate the uranium resource potential of Antarctica. Dreschhoff's current work in Antarctica and Greenland in solar physics represents a significant advance in our understanding of the cosmic radiation which impinges on the Earth. This information will be useful to the current Space Exploration Initiative with regard to the effects of solar particle radiation on spacecraft. She has been named to the Women's Hall of Fame at the University of Kansas (1978), and she has been awarded the Antarctic Service Medal of the U.S. (1979) and the Group Achievement Award by NASA (1983). She holds a private pilot's license for aircraft operation since 1983. In 1997 Dreschhoff was nominated to the Board of Governors of the American Polar Society, and a mountain has been named for her, Dreschhoff Peak, 78°S 161°. She is a currently the Director of the Radiation Physics Laboratory in the Space Technology Center at the University of Kansas.