The Roy-Chowdhurys: Globe-Trotting in Pursuit of Natural Wonders

Married—and traveling together—for 40 years, Namita and Jayanta Roy-Chowdhury are both professors of medicine and of genetics at Einstein who study the mechanism and treatment of inherited metabolic liver diseases. But in addition to exploring the world at the metabolic level, they pay attention on a larger scale when they turn their focus to wildlife.

The explorers approach glaciers on South Shetland Island as a Gentoo penguin watches from the shore

Jayanta, whom colleagues call “Roy,” noted, “Albert Einstein advised that we should look deeply into nature, and then we will understand. The main force that drives us personally to scientific research is the opportunity to look into nature, albeit in a different way.”

A shared love of nature photography inspires them to travel whenever they get the chance. With their recent expedition to Antarctica, they’ve now ventured to all seven continents, and they estimate they’ve logged enough miles to circle the globe 30 times.

Having slept on the other six continents on trips to visit colleagues, friends and students, “we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sleep on an Antarctic glacier,” said Roy.

“We don’t think of a vacation as relaxing in one place,” added Namita. “This trip involved significant physical participation and exploration.”

The End of the Earth

Getting from New York City to Antarctica is as long and convoluted a trip as one might expect. For the Roy-Chowdhurys, the first leg involved an 11-hour flight to Buenos Aires, followed by a three-and-a-half-hour chartered flight to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. They then boarded an icebreaker repurposed as an expedition ship for a three-day trip crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Because it encountered icebergs, the ship weighed anchor off the coast of Antarctica, requiring the voyage to be continued via a motorized inflatable raft.

The couple made their trip in late November and early December 2015—the start of summer in Antarctica—when daytime temperatures typically hover just above freezing, and drop to 14oF at night. The weather was highly changeable and unpredictable during their three-and-a-half-day stay.

“At times, wind blasts reached 40 miles per hour before dying down, and when the very dry and powdery snow on the surface blows around it can be quite piercing,” Roy recalled.

A highlight of the trip was sleeping on a glacier “under the open sky, which never darkened at night, while listening to the roar of avalanches piercing the intense Antarctic silence,” he added.

Candid Camera

Since 2012, the couple’s photographs from trips to the Canary Islands, Egypt and Kenya have been displayed in annual exhibits at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, India. They also regularly contribute photographs to Ad Libitum, the annual fine arts and literary magazine published by Einstein students and postdocs. The 2016 issue includes a small selection of their Antarctica photographs, which also appear in a book they compiled: Antarctica: An Expedition That Exceeds All Expectations (Kolkata: Environ Publications, 2017).

Along with a narrative about the trip and the history, geology, ornithology and marine biology of Antarctica, the book includes dozens of photographs of local and migratory birds—including several species of albatross (black-browed, sooty, wandering), petrel (Cape, southern giant) and penguin (Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, macaroni)—as well as seals (leopard, southern elephant, Weddell) and whales (humpback and blue). Perhaps the most stunning images are of gleaming white and translucent blue icebergs sculpted by the wind and the sea.

Namita’s favorite photograph shows penguins chasing away south polar skuas trying to steal their eggs, while Roy’s is of a pair of chinstrap penguins “serenading each other in mutual ecstasy.”

The couple also produced a companion DVD of the trip of the wildlife they encountered, shot by Namita and narrated by Roy.

After visiting all seven continents, what’s left? “Most of each continent still remains unexplored by us. The more you see, the more you want to see,” said Namita. Her husband agreed, adding: “Our bucket list keeps extending faster than it is depleted.”