OUR MISSION

The High Arc­tic Insti­tute is an IRS des­ig­nated 501(c)(3) not-for-profit con­ser­va­tion, research and edu­ca­tion orga­ni­za­tion that was founded by Kurt Burn­ham in 2006.  Based in the United States, sci­en­tists from the High Arc­tic Insti­tute travel to north­west Green­land each sum­mer to con­duct a vari­ety of sci­en­tific stud­ies on the many species of birds which occur there.  For more infor­ma­tion on the types of research we con­duct visit our Con­ser­va­tion, Research, and Edu­ca­tion page to see our cur­rent and com­pleted projects. Con­ser­va­tion Goal:  To mon­i­tor avian species in the Thule area to doc­u­ment changes in the over­all num­ber of indi­vid­u­als or pairs, dis­tri­b­u­tion of the local pop­u­la­tion, and nest­ing chronol­ogy, with spe­cific atten­tion given to species which occur at rel­a­tively low lev­els. Research Goal:  To con­duct research on little-known or poorly under­stood species and top­ics and to advance the over­all sci­en­tific knowl­edge of High Arc­tic species and ecosys­tems. Edu­ca­tion Goal:  To pro­vide hands-on research expe­ri­ence to under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents by hav­ing them accom­pany High Arc­tic Insti­tute sci­en­tists into the field.