Alberta professor Dr. Maya Bhatia killed on research trip [Video]

One year ago, an esteemed arctic climate researcher died while conducting field work in a remote part of the Canadian arctic, prompting the University of Alberta to review and enhance its safety protocols for field researchers.

According to her husband, Dr. Maya Bhatia – a biogeochemist and tenured associate professor – was collecting a water sample from a glacier in Grise Fiord, Nunavut when she slipped and fell into a stream.

“Maya jumped out of the helicopter. It landed. It couldn’t stop its rotors because it was slippery, the surface,” Ben Gready recently told CTV News Edmonton.

“She went up to the stream to take a sample with a bottle, that she would do some chemical analysis on back in the lab, and she slipped and there was nothing to purchase on.”

Gready said he heard from the student and the helicopter pilot accompanying Bhatia, she was swept into a …