What do you do if you have diverse interests? You explore them all.
It’s a philosophy that has inspired Benjamin Urmston, MS ’19, to study aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado, sail the Atlantic (he has a Coast Guard captain’s license), teach American Sign Language at a school for the deaf, help astronauts hone team-building skills as a longtime instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School, play the cello as part of a band, and even rig an automatic door opener for his parents’ chicken coop.
But reading Endurance, an account of Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated voyage to Antarctica that began in 1914 and left the explorer and his crew stranded on the ice in 1915, rebooted everything and seeded a lifelong love affair with the continent.
Since 2006, Urmston has deployed to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station 10 times through the National Science Foundation’s United States Antarctic program. On his first deployment, he served as a general assistant. “We were just grunt workers…shoveling snow, cleaning dishes, working in the wastewater treatment plant,” Urmston remembers.
About a decade later, intent on getting a stronger background in electronics and electrical engineering, Urmston turned to the Whiting School’s Engineering for Professionals (EP) program to earn his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering.
He moved on to work at McMurdo as an electronics and solar power technician. In September, he embarked on another five-month rotation, this time as the field training supervisor, managing a group of six field safety coordinators who support and train scientists on base. During limited spare time while deployed, he skate skis and is a member of a rock band, IcePatch, a cover of his brother’s well-known indie/roots band, Dispatch.
Urmston enjoys building solutions, the scrappier the better. For an EP course led by oceanographer David Porter, who teaches in the Applied Physics program, Urmston built a remote temperature monitoring array for a skating pond. And on one of the Antarctic program’s research ships, he rigged a display for a depth meter using 3D printing and assorted parts. “It’s the creative activity of electronics I like so much,” he says.
Engineering has taught him problem-solving for mistakes—which inevitably happen. “I try to incorporate that philosophy in my life; if something is broken, let’s fix it,” he says.
Urmston’s wanderlust is striking again. The destination this time: outer space. Is being a NASA astronaut next on his career bingo card? “We’ll see,” he laughs. “My application is in.”