In 2009, Lonnie Dupre led a team of explorers on a fifty-four day trek across the ice to the North Pole, following the footsteps of explorer, Robert Peary one hundred years earlier. This trip commemorated one of the most famous early polar expeditions and raised awareness of the effects of global warming. To mark the Academy of Natural Sciences' early support of Peary's explorations, Dupre planted the Academy flag at the Pole.