 He participated in a demonstration project testing methods for operating in ice to extend the navigation season on the Great Lakes, the committee on the delimitation of the coast line of the United States and issues related to U.S. control of the economic exploitation of the continental shelf, a task force on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a task force on oil spills, an interagency committee on oceanography, the Interagency Arctic Research Committee, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and an inspection team for U.S. bases in Antarctica.His duties took him on visits to Alaska, Antarctica, the International Hydrographic Bureau in Monaco, and the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.In 1972, under Nygren's direction, the NOAA Corps became the first of the seven uniformed services of the United States to recruit women on the same basis as men.