Dan Hayes In 1992 Dan Hayes was living on his family's farm in Iowa. In 1998 he was conducting oceanographic research from an icebreaker frozen in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean. It wasn't his first excursion into research. In his junior year at Luther College (Iowa), he was accepted into the University of Wyoming's Undergraduate Research program, where he worked on a project involving infrared astronomy. Nor was it his first outside the U.S. His wife is from Cyprus, and after graduating summa cum laude from Luther College he worked for a month in the physics department at the university there. But it was by far the most exotic. "It was like being on the moon in a way," he recalls. For a scholar with a B.A. in physics and mathematics who chose to pursue a Ph.D. in oceanography because being an oceanographer would allow him to "get out and measure stuff," it was a dream come true. Hayes was part of an APL-UW group running an autonomous underwater vehicle back and forth at a set depth on a horizontal course beneath the ice and open-water leads. An upward-looking sonar, or "pinger," measured the distance to the bottom of the ice overhead to within an accuracy of three centimeters. Sensors on the vehicle measured small variations in the temperature and conductivity of the water. Additional sensors monitored the depth and pitch of the vehicle. Measurements of temperature and salinity in the ocean are routine. What is unique about Dan's data set is that the temperature and conductivity data will be used along with the vehicle's excursions from its set depth to derive the vertical heat flux along the vehicle's path. This is possible because of an innovative technique based on Kalman smoothing devised by Hayes' advisor, Principal Oceanographer Jamie Morison. Hayes developed the details, implemented the technique, and tested its feasibility. "His development of the Kalman smoothing algorithm for processing autonomous vehicle data was instrumental in the success of the field effort," says Morison. "I think Dan is an outstanding student." Dan's studies are being supported by a three-year grant from the Office of Naval Research. In addition to his own work, he was a teaching assistant for a 400-level oceanography course taught by APL-UW Principal Oceanographer Knut Aagaard. Aagaard was so impressed that he wrote a letter of commendation to the Director of the School of Oceanography complimenting Hayes on his outstanding performance. As part of qualification for his M.S. degree, Hayes is writing an article on his Kalman smoothing technique for submittal to a scientific journal. For his Ph.D., he will then begin the daunting task of analyzing the enormous amount of data he and the rest of Morison's group gathered in the Arctic. The results will contribute yet another step toward scientists' ability to understand and model arctic climate. "It is a complex system," Hayes notes, "and we only have one piece, but it is a very important one."