This year's holiday card embellishes an image selected from our Polar Geomicrobiology Group, taken by Alex Michaud on Whillans Subglacial Lake in 2013. The Lake's namesake, Ian Whillans, was a renowned glaciologist at the Byrd Center who was instrumental in revealing the unstable nature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Learn more about Ian Whillans and his groundbreaking contributions to polar science in our History Corner.

Years later, Professor Michaud was part of the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling team, which discovered that microorganisms could live in Whillans Subglacial Lake (SLW) and play an important role consuming methane beneath the ice sheet. SLW was first identified in 2007 through satellite imagery. Scientists have since been working to understand how such lakes function as part of the ice sheet system. Visit the National Science Foundation's website to read more about "What lies beneath West Antarctica?"