 Falkner's research as a sea-going oceanographer for 30 years took her all over the world from two miles below the sea surface, to Lake Baikal, the Greenland Ice Cap, the Black Sea and the world's oceans.She has 20 years of leading field research in the Arctic including over a decade of being a member of the North Pole Environmental Observatory as well as Chief Scientist on multiple Arctic icebreaking and aircraft based expeditions.During 2007-2009, Falkner was the founding Program Director of the Antarctic Integrated System Science in the Antarctic Science Division of the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs.