Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled later this week to visit McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott South Pole stations in Antarctica, where he'll meet with researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

At McMurdo Station he will meet with scientists and researchers studying a wide range of subjects in the extreme south of the planet, including climate change.  He will also see firsthand part of the recently established Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area, the world's largest marine protected area.  The Secretary will be hosted by the U.S. National Science Foundation, which manages the U.S. Antarctic program. His visit will be from November 10-12 as a part of the global tour. 

NSF manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, through which it makes awards to researchers across the nation and provides the logistical infrastructure to support U.S. scientific research on the southernmost continent.

While in Antarctica, Kerry will visit McMurdo Station, NSF's logistics hub and the largest of the three U.S. Antarctic Program stations. There, he'll meet with scientists studying a wide range of subjects, from geophysics and glaciology to astrophysics and biology as well as the effects of climate change. Two of NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites are located in Antarctica, including one near McMurdo Station in the McMurdo Dry valleys.

Secretary Kerry will then travel to Wellington, New Zealand, from November 12-13, where he will meet with Prime Minister John Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully for consultations on a range of bilateral and global issues and will also participate in the dedication of the site of the United States Memorial and a wreath laying ceremony at New Zealand's National War Memorial Park. 

The U.S. is a signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, which sets the continent aside for peaceful purposes. Under the treaty, scientific research is the principal expression of national interest in Antarctica.