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UAF photo by Leif Van Cise.
Brian Barnes, in the green tropical shirt, enjoys his retirement party at The Pub on campus, Oct. 25, 2024.

By Sara Wilbur

Kelly Drew recently described a moment that proved pivotal to her research career: cupping a cold, barely breathing, arctic ground squirrel in her hands.

“Having that ground squirrel in my hands completely changed the direction of my research,” said Drew, who today is a UAF professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “Those animals are so amazing when they’re hibernating. They’re in a completely different state of consciousness from what I had ever imagined.”

Drew has been answering questions about subzero survival strategies for nearly 30 years, focusing on how the arctic ground squirrel’s brain and nervous system stay resilient and functional during hibernation. As a part of these efforts, she directs the National Institutes of Health-funded , which seeks to use hibernation science to improve human health.

She credits Brian Barnes — the man who handed her that curled-up ground squirrel — with sparking the scientific curiosity about hibernation for her and many others over the years.

Barnes retired in early October from nearly 40 years as a Department of Biology and Wildlife faculty member and Institute of Arctic Biology researcher. He was also director of IAB from 2000-2020; director of the �ֻ�ֱ�� INBRE (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) program since 2014; and science director, and later co-science director with Professor Syndonia Bret-Harte, of Toolik Field Station.

In some circles Barnes’ name is now synonymous with arctic ground squirrels, but his research career began in California, where he focused on the golden-mantled ground squirrel. When Barnes was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, his advisor saw an advertisement in Science magazine seeking a vertebrate endocrinologist at the �ֻ�ֱ�� and suggested Barnes apply.

Barnes traveled to Fairbanks in 1985 for the job interview. Bob White, founder of the Large Animal Research Station in Fairbanks, chatted with Barnes the next day during a cross-country ski excursion. Barnes accepted the subsequent offer.

“There were many UC Berkeley faculty and colleagues who were surprised by our choice to move to Fairbanks to work at UAF,” Barnes said. “Next to my asking Alison to marry me, it was the best decision of my life.”

Barnes and his wife, Alison York, drove to Fairbanks in 1986. They had two rules along the way: Go swimming every day, and always set up the tent before making martinis.

“The transition from California to �ֻ�ֱ�� was wonderful,” Barnes said. “We lived on campus for the first two years. At the time, there were few, but nice, people at the university and no traffic.”

Barnes and York began hosting potlucks at their home to return the favor to those nice colleagues who warmly welcomed them. Barnes estimated that they’ve hosted over 300 potlucks for fellow scientists, university staff, graduate students and family members since the late 1980s.

Barnes’ research at UAF has focused on how Arctic animals survive and maintain physiological integrity during the region’s long winters. Just a few years after establishing his new research lab, Barnes describing his discovery that arctic ground squirrels “were able to adopt and spontaneously arouse from core body temperatures as low as -2.9°C without freezing” — the lowest body temperature ever measured in a mammal.

In subsequent publications through the 1990s, he described and wrote a Nature article titled “” about hibernating Australian mammals. A more recent article provided evidence for , work that was led by then-Ph.D. student Don Larson. UAF science writer Ned Rozell described the phenomenon in his 1996 �ֻ�ֱ�� Science Forum article, “.”

Barnes conducted or initiated much of his arctic ground squirrel research at Toolik Field Station, which he first visited in 1986. Located on the North Slope and operated by IAB with support from the National Science Foundation, Toolik is the U.S.’ largest Arctic research station and has been a major site for Arctic research since 1975.

C. Loren Buck, professor at both Northern Arizona University and the University of São Paulo, was a Ph.D. student in the Barnes lab in the 1990s and fondly remembers the early days at Toolik under Barnes’ guidance.

“Brian was very hands-off in his mentoring,” Buck said. “After arriving at Toolik for the first time, Brian quickly showed me how to capture, handle and sample wild arctic ground squirrels and then left me there, knowing that with sufficient time and effort in the field that I would generate questions that would either be supported or not, depending upon future efforts in the field.”

Significant research from Buck and Barnes’ work at Toolik includes the discovery that to defend a subzero internal temperature against much colder burrow temperatures. This and other early Toolik-based studies inspired the investigation of the relationships between hibernation, reproductive timing and climate warming near the field station, work that was recently published in .

Barnes also led an NSF grant to build a winter dormitory at Toolik, allowing year-round operation and providing increased access to research sites. From 2000-2011, he served as the principal investigator for the station’s cooperative agreement with NSF and continued to support the station’s growth.

“Throughout all of his roles at UAF, Brian’s dedication to Toolik Field Station has been a constant,” said Bret-Harte, the station’s current principal investigator. “He was an excellent advocate and mentor as we worked to make the station a key part of the U.S. Arctic Research Program.”

Barnes became IAB director in 2000 and kept that position for 20 years. When he arrived in Fairbanks, the institute employed about a dozen faculty members, a number that has since tripled. Barnes sees significant growth of the institute as his major highlight as director.

“Back then, we had a smallish budget and were very much a third wheel on campus to the Geophysical Institute and the Institute of Marine Science,” Barnes said. “But it was a good time for biological sciences.”

During Barnes’ time as director, IAB acquired its first INBRE and COBRE (Center for Biological Research Excellence) awards, the latter of which founded the Center for �ֻ�ֱ�� Native Health Research. The Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program, or EPSCoR, was also established with IAB’s leadership, and Toolik grew as a national, and then international, center.

Near the end of his time at UAF, Barnes supported research examining the , and . The latter cites Barnes’ 1976 paper on , which was his first published article as co-author.

Since 1986, Barnes has been the principal investigator or a co-principal investigator on over $182 million in grants, and his groundbreaking hibernation discoveries and leadership roles at UAF gained him recognition as a in 2011. He received the University of �ֻ�ֱ�� Foundation’s for Excellence in 2020.

Julie Benson, associate director of �ֻ�ֱ�� INBRE, described Barnes as a remarkably approachable person and scientist.

“He can talk to any scientist about almost anything, anytime, anywhere, at any event or occasion,” Benson said. “I remember going to multiple meetings early on to just listen to Brian talk science. I mean, pick a topic. Any topic. Any piece of equipment, any piece of data. You’d have this beautiful dialogue, this beautiful exchange happening.”

As he settles into retirement, Barnes is most looking forward to mowing his lawn, finishing several books he’s started and “not being in charge anymore.” Although he won’t be making as many big decisions, he will remain connected to the scientific community. His work with IAB will also reverberate.

Barnes believes the institute will continue to help scientists and the public better understand and prepare for a rapidly changing Arctic. In particular, he believes research conducted at Toolik draws national and international eyes to UAF and to �ֻ�ֱ��.

“What happens in the Arctic no longer stays in the Arctic, in terms of impact on the Earth’s system,” Barnes said. “That’s always been true, but only more so now in the sense of the ticking time bomb of carbon sequestered in permafrost.

“And I’m excited about the role that our scientists are playing in quantifying just how that’s going to play out.”

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Sara Wilbur is a communications coordinator at the UAF Geophysical Institute and a past graduate student of Barnes'.