Search Speaker Bureau

About:

Valerie Alia is an award-winning journalist, academic, author, and photographer. She is known internationally for defining the discipline of political onomastics – the politics of naming – and for her work on media ethics, Indigenous Arctic cultures, identities, and communications.

Alia's latest books are The New Media Nation: Indigenous Peoples and Global Communication and Names and Nunavut: Culture and Identity in the Inuit Homeland. She wrote and narrated the documentary, Nunavut: Where Names Never Die, for CBC, and is listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. Alia states, "I have spoken on Arctic issues, media ethics, and other topics as a keynote speaker and invited guest speaker, and have given readings in public libraries and other places; I have been making public presentations for more than thirty years; I enjoy speaking, fostering and encouraging public dialogue." Alia is interested in addressing academic audiences, graduate seminars, and the general public. A few representative lecture titles are:

• The New Media Nation: Indigenous Networks
• Outlaws and Citizens: Indigenous people and 'The New Media Nation'
• Names, Numbers, and Northern Peoples / The Politics of Naming in the Arctic
• Media Ethics in the Arctic

Alia was born in New York and raised in Oklahoma City, where she was active in the civil rights movement, participating in one of the first successful lunch counter sit-ins. She has a BA from the University of Cincinnati, an MA from Michigan State, and a PhD from York University (Canada). Alia has taught in universities in the US, UK, and Canada; is Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences at Royal Roads University (Victoria, Canada) and Visiting Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University (UK); and was the Running Stream Professor of Ethics and Identity at Leeds Metropolitan, Distinguished Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University, and Senior Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge.

About:

George is the co-founder of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) which was established in the spring of 1973, as the world center for the study and preservation of cranes. Dr. Archibald received his undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University. For 27 years George served as the President of ICF. Today he continues to advance ICF’s mission in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Cuba, China, India, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, South Korea and Russia.

In recognition of his accomplishments, George has received four honorary doctorates and many awards, including the Gold Medal from the World Wildlife Fund, a Fellows Award from the MacArthur Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Medal from the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Lilly Medal and Indianapolis Prize presented by the Indianapolis Zoo (view award video), and the Douglas H. Pimlott Award from Nature Canada.

About:

Leonid M. Baskin was born at Moscow, 04 September 1939. He was educated in the Moscow State University as biologist-zoologist. After the university he was used as a director of reindeer farm at Kamchatka. Then, he finished post-graduation curse in the Moscow State University where in 1968 he received a degree of a candidate of biological sciences. The title of his candidate dissertation was "Ecological fundamentals of reindeer husbandry". Just after that Baskin was invited at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences where he was used as a junior scientist, later senior scientist, and since 1994 a chief scientist. In 1975, Baskin received a degree of doctor of biological sciences. The title of doctoral dissertation was "Behavioral fundamentals of ungulates' behavior". In 2006, Baskin received a title of Professor as a scientific leader of 8 doctors and candidates of sciences.

During his scientific career Baskin published 12 books and about 200 papers. His most well-known books are:

• Baskin, L.M. Reindeer. Ecology and behavior. Nauka publications, Moscow. 1970. 150 p (in Russian)
• Baskin, L.M. Behavior of ungulates. Nauka publications, Moscow. 1976 (in Russian). 295 p.
• Hudson, R.J., Drew, K.R., and Baskin, L.M. Wildlife Production Systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 1989. 469 p (In English)
• Baskin, L.M. and Danell, K. Ecology of Ungulates. Springer, Berlin. 2003. 434 p. (In English)
• Pruitt, W.O. and L.M. Baskin. Boreal forest of Canada and Russia. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia. 2004. 163 p., (In English)
• Baskin, L.M. Reindeer. Behavior and management. Hunting and reindeer husbandry. KMK Publications, Moscow. 2009. 284 p. (in Russian)
• Baskin, L.M. and Okhlopkov, I.M. Protection of large mammals from industrial threats. KMK Publications, Moscow. 2012. 201 p. (in Russian).

About:

Janet Mancini Billson is a native of Canada. She attended one-room schools in southern Ontario and completed her education through high school in British Columbia.

Dr. Billson is the author of:

• Inuit Women: A Century of Change, with Kyra M. Reis, a study of the impact of rapid social change and Canadian resettlement policy on Inuit culture and women's status and roles in Baffin Island);
• Keepers of the Culture: The Power of Tradition in Women's Lives (1995/1999, which includes a chapter on Inuit women); and numerous articles and book chapters on women and identity.
  She has lectured widely on women in Canada, Native women, Inuit women and their families, and Nunavut.

As a sociologist, she specializes in gender and identity, particularly as affected by rapid social change and development. She interviewed Inuit women and men on Baffin Island, including dozens of focus groups. She developed a unique feminist research methodology in order to ensure that women in each community engaged in the process of interpreting data, testing emerging hypotheses, and reviewing the final draft of their community's chapter.

She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University and was a professor of sociology and women's studies at Rhode Island College for 18 years. In 1999 she was named Alumni of the Year at Baldwin-Wallace College and in 2000 she received the national Sociological Practice Award from the Society for Applied Sociology. She was Visiting Professor at The George Washington University until 1996 and has since directed a small consulting firm focusing on international development. Billson has served as associate editor of the Canadian Review of American Studies and is active in many professional organizations, including the Lecture topics include:

• Her Powerful Spirit—Inuit Women in a Century of Change
• Keepers of the Culture: Common Pain and Uncommon Strengths Among Canada's Native Women
• Defining a New Inuit Identity: Taking Nunavut into the 21 st Century
• Gender, Power, and Ethnicity in North America: Significance in the Next Century
• Domestic Violence in the Context of Inuit Culture

Janet Billson shows related slides in order to stimulate discussion and obtain feedback from both general and academic audiences.

About:

Dr. Syndonia Bret-Harte is currently a plant/ecosystem ecologist at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has worked in both the tundra and boreal forest, and has been a researcher at Toolik Lake, Alaska for more than ten years. Dr. Bret-Harte is interested in how plant species affect the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in northern ecosystems, and how the growth responses of individual plant species may influence the response of northern ecosystems to climate change. Dr. Bret-Harte is just starting a new research project on how the interactions between shrubs and winter snow cover may influence carbon and nitrogen cycling in tundra as shrubs expand in tundra ecosystems.

Dr. Bret-Harte has experience lecturing to a broad range of audiences including high school students, teachers, tourists, community residents, congressional staffers, and scientists. Because of summer fieldwork, Dr. Bret-Harte can only participate in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' program during the winter. If a venue in northern Alaska was available during the summer, however, she could possibly participate since her fieldwork is at Toolik Field Station.

Representative lecture titles include:

• Climate change and tundra plants
• The role of different plant species in the response of northern ecosystems to environmental perturbation
• Plant and soil responses to neighbor removal and fertilization in tussock tundra

Through participating in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' Program, Dr. Bret-Harte hopes to help inform the public of scientific issues.

About:

Dr. Burns is currently an Associate Professor and Program Head of the Department of International Environmental Policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He also serves as Co-Chair of the International Environmental Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. His research interests in the context of the Arctic are in the potential impacts of climate change on Arctic species and ecosystems, and the potential impacts of energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Dr. Burns is an experienced speaker giving approximately 30–40 presentations each year. He is interested in speaking to academic audiences and the general public and is available to participate in the Arctic Visiting Speakers Series throughout the year.

Representative lecture titles include:

• The impact of climate change on Arctic fauna and flora species
• Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The case not made
• The impact of climate change on cetaceans in the Arctic and the potential responses of the International Whaling Commission
• The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment: Implications for the future of Arctic ecosystems

Dr. Burns hopes that his participation in the Arctic Visiting Speakers Program will heighten public dialogue and interest in Arctic environmental issues and will stimulate student interest in pursuing careers in Arctic research.

About:

The Inuit as a culture are resilient, resourceful, gregarious and a truly unique component of our multi-cultural Canadian identity.

Charles Cahill has hands on experience with the Inuit lifestyle and culture in Nunavut. He is an experienced presenter, having spoken at more than 1000 audiences of teachers, academics and students since 1999. He currently lives and works in Nunavut for part of the year and he feels that he can provide valuable first hand information on life in the arctic.

Charlie worked as Economic Development Officer for the Government of the Northwest Territories for ten years and still works 4-5 months a year in Nunavut. His work involved interaction with local hunters and trappers groups, Inuit arts and crafts Associations and many Inuit businesses. He also served on the local Education Committee, the Hamlet Council and various community Boards and agencies.

Charlie feels that he can provide an overview of life in Nunavut today and insights into the transition that Nunavut is experiencing. He would be happy to speak to any of the potential audiences and is available upon request.

About:

Patricia Cochran was born and raised in Nome, Alaska. Ms. Cochran serves as Executive Director of the Alaska Native Science Commission, an organization that brings together research and science in partnership with Alaska Native communities. Ms. Cochran also served as Chair of the 2009 Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change and is Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples' Global Network on Climate Change. She is the past Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an international organization representing 160,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Russian and Greenland; and former Chair of the Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat to the 8 nation, Arctic Council.

Ms. Cochran has served as Principal and Co-Principal Investigator on numerous research projects throughout the Arctic, including the Survey of Living Conditions, Traditional Knowledge and Contaminants Project, Indigenous Knowledge Systems Colloquium and Bering Sea Sub Network. Ms. Cochran has extensive knowledge of key issues impacting Arctic communities and has spoken at forums worldwide. She has written numerous articles and publications and appeared internationally on programs reporting on climate change and indigenous issues.

Ms. Cochran previously served as Administrator of the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage; Executive Director of the Alaska Community Development Corporation; Local Government Program Director with the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and Director of Employment and Training for the North Pacific Rim Native Corporation (Chugachmiut).

Ms. Cochran has served as Chair of the American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Caucus of the American Public Health Association; Science Advisor to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission; Member of the Science Steering committee for the National Science Foundation Human Dimension of the Arctic System; Advisory Committee Member for NSF Office of Polar Programs; Chair of the Indigenous People's Working Group for the International Congress on Circumpolar Health; Treasurer and Governing Council Member of the International Union for Circumpolar Health; Member of the National Native Science Education Advisory Council; Member of the National Research Council Committee on Managing Wolf and Bear Populations in Alaska and Committee on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Alaskan North Slope Oil and Gas Activities; Board Member of the American Society for Circumpolar Health, President of the Albrecht-Milan Foundation, Board President of the Abused Women's Aid in Crisis center; Member of the Southcentral Native Educators' Association; Steering Committee Member of the Northern Research Forum, Working Group Member of ICARP II (International Conference on Arctic Research Planning), Program Steering Committee Member of the Native American Cancer Research Partnership, Vice Chair of the Advisory Panel for North Pacific Research Board, President of Spirit Days Incorporated, U.S. lead for the Youth and Elders Initiative of the Arctic Council, Board Member of the Alaska Forum on the Environment and Commissioner of the Aspen Institute Dialogue and Commission on Climate Change.

About:

Terrence Cole is professor of Northern Studies and History and director of the Office of Public History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He studied geography, northern studies and history at UAF and earned a doctorate in American history at the University of Washington. He returned to his alma mater in 1988 to teach and pursue his passion about polar exploration. Students have twice chosen him as Outstanding Teacher of the Year. He has also received the Emil Usibelli Teaching Award, the Edith Bullock Service Award and the governor's Distinguished Service to the Humanities Award. He has written five books on Alaska history, and was awarded the 2011 Alaska Historian of the Year for, "Fighting for the Forty-Ninth Star: C.W. Snedden and the Long Struggle for Alaska Statehood" published by University of Alaska Press. Terrence and his twin brother Dermot are the recipients of the Fairbanks 2011 Distinguished Citizens of the Year, recently awarded in September. Although he claims to have never kissed the Blarney Stone, Terrence loves to talk about history and politics. He is married to Gay Salisbury and has three children, Henry, Desmond and Elizabeth.

About:

Dr. Crate is an applied social scientist trained in cultural anthropology and human ecology with a focus on the complex issues of human-environment interactions. She practices ethnography and uses the contemporary theory intrinsic to human-ecological interactions, political ecology, sustainability studies and the politics of social change in her analyses. Her academic training, approach to teaching, and research orientation are interdisciplinary, as evidenced in her evolving research agenda, her publications to date, and her teaching.

The overarching theme of her ongoing research, teaching and service is the investigation into and fostering of sustainability in our contemporary world. This has been the central focus of her research in Russia since 1988 and is also the objective of her nascent domestic research agenda. The concepts and practices of sustainability are also integral to her teaching and active service, especially in campus greening. Dr. Crate is also involved in several international working groups that focus on sustainability in the arctic.

About:

Dennis Darby is Professor of Geological Oceanography in the Department of Ocean, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at Old Dominion University, where he has been since 1977. He earned a B.S. in 1966 and an M.S. in 1968, both in Geology, from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Geology and Oceanography in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research deals with the paleoclimatology and paleoceanography of the Arctic Ocean as determined by fingerprinting iron oxide sand grains using their chemical composition measured by electron microprobe and matching these grains to similar grain types in potential source areas around the Arctic Ocean. Knowing the precise source of each grain provides a detailed picture of the mix of sources for each layer in deep-sea sediment cores and this helps to elucidate the past circulation patterns of drifting ice that transported these grains. It also indicates where glacial ice existed and when this ice calved into the Arctic. The same technique is used to study modern ice floes and the export of this ice through Fram Strait into the Greenland Sea where it can melt and affect climate.

Darby has served on a number of national committees and organizing groups, including the NSF Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Program Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice Interaction Science Steering Committee and the Arctic Program Planning Group of Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), charged with developing a science plan for arctic deep-sea drilling dealing with global climate problems.

Darby recently lead two successful coring expeditions to the central Arctic as part of the Healy-Oden Trans-Arctic Expedition (HOTRAX). This historic expedition, only the second crossing of the central Arctic by icebreakers, collected nearly 500 meters of sediment core and used multibeam swath mapping of the seafloor and chirp seismic to profile the sub-bottom in the upper 50 meters. This was the first such coring expedition to the central Arctic to use such technology to locate core sites and interpret the geologic setting of each site.

Darby is interested in addressing all types of audiences and is available at all times of year. His lecture topics include:

• The Role of the Arctic Ocean in global climate * Past Circulation Changes in the Arctic Ocean Based on Ice-rafted Detritus * Future Paleoceanographic Research in the Arctic Ocean: From Ocean Drilling to High Resolution Piston Coring * The HOTRAX'05 Expedition, Crossing the Arctic the Hard Way

Darby is interested in participating in the Visiting Speakers program because there is a need to educate people about arctic research.

About:

Jan de Vroede was born in Belgium and speaks Flemish, French, English, German, Danish, and Greenlandic. He graduated cum laude from the University of Gent with a MA in musicology and from the University of Antwerp with a MA in international relations and politics (specializing in arctic issues). De Vroede currently lives in Greenland and works as an international manager for Katuaq Greenland Culture House. His research interests include cultural politics and policy, arctic music, identity, aboriginal films, and arctic nationalism. De Vroede first became interested in arctic contemporary culture through his involvement as a member of Chilly Friday, Greenland's most popular rock band, and has lectured on this subject in Belgium, Greenland, Holland, Canada, and Denmark. As a member of the Greenland Film Association, he has been an announcer for arctic film festivals and has arranged arctic culture festivals. He also arranges international arctic festivals as chair of the Etoiles Polaires Association, a member of UNESCO's Global Alliance.

De Vroede is interested in presenting to all audiences and sample lectures include:

• Contemporary Arctic Music: An Introduction
• Greenland's Cultural Policy
• To be Inuit—Who Sets the Limits?
• Assilissat and Techno Suaasat: Greenlandic Film Making
• Arctic Rap—How Cultural Politics Shape National Identity in the Arctic

About:

Patricia Erikson is a cultural anthropologist and Native American Studies scholar whose research pursues the history of arctic exploration, with particular emphasis on the participation of women. For the last ten years she has researched the archival collection of Josephine Peary's papers and photographs to document the role of Robert Peary's wife in late 19th/early 20th century exploration of Northwest Greenland. She employs a feminist geography analysis to look at issues of race, class, and gender in the Arctic. "I believe that the discussion of gender in the Arctic, as well as issues of race, are insufficiently discussed."

After years of archival research on polar exploration history, Erikson traveled to Northwest Greenland to retrace the journey of Robert Peary, enabling work on her manuscript, In the Shadow of the North Pole, the story of the American quest for the North Pole from the perspective of Peary's wife, Josephine.

Erikson is also the author of the non-fiction book "Voices of a Thousand People: The Makah Cultural and Research Center" (U. Nebraska Press), several chapters in edited collections, and articles in academic journals such as American Anthropologist, Cultural Anthropology, and Ethnohistory.

When she's not writing, Erikson consults for museums and public school districts, and seeks the rush of arctic air on Maine's ski slopes.

A few representative lectures include:

• No Place for a Woman: Josephine Peary and American Expeditions to Discover the North Pole
• Homemaking, Snowbabies, and the Search for the North Pole
• Josephine Peary and American Narratives of Arctic Discovery

About:

Having recieved a BS in Geological Science at the University of Illinois in 1981, Steven went on to finish his PhD at the University of Colorado, 1986.Presently he is a professor of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Steven has presented to teacher conferences and workshops and large school groups of both elementary and junior high school students. His lecture titles include 20th climate change: A midwest to Arctic perspective and The Last Big Ice Sheets Megadroughts in North America. Steven is often in the field July through August. His research intrests include paleoclimatology, climate change, Arctic paleoenvironments, Russian/Eurasian Arctic, and extreme climate events. His goal is to provide up-to-date summary of various aspect of climate change science and to convey the excitement and challenges of research. As an educator, he hopes to present new material and insights to excite the next generation of developing scientists.

About:

Craig George has worked as a Wildlife Biologist with the North Slope Department of Wildlife Management in Barrow, Alaska for 25 years. Craig earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the Utah State University in 1976 and completed his Ph.D. in bowhead whale energetics, age estimation and morphology. Beginning in 1982, Craig worked on and later coordinated the bowhead whale ice-based population assessment project on the sea ice near Point Barrow for nearly two decades. He also has conducted many postmortem exams on bowheads harvested by Alaskan Eskimos (since 1980) and published a number of papers on this work ranging from evidence of killer whale predation to structural anatomy to population biology. Craig has attended IWC meetings since 1987 focusing mainly on aboriginal whaling management procedures and assessments and population estimation. He has also participated in Eskimo traditional knowledge studies on the North Slope. Craig has lived in Barrow since 1977 and is married to Cyd Hanns, a wildlife technician. Together they enjoy community and outdoor activities with their two sons Luke and Sam.

About:

Gordon's research interests include arctic and sub-arctic archaeology; the relationships between ancient reindeer, caribou, and bison followers and their herds; scientific applications to past cultures; and the rise of Chinese civilization. Currently, he is heavily involved in new methods of dating and enhancing poorly preserved rock art. Pictograph (pigment-coated) and petroglyph (surface-altered) art is scattered throughout the north, petroglyphs being only roughly dated on lake and sea level changes. Proper dating will allow a better description of culture by comparing art at each of its time levels.

Gordon earned a B.Sc. degree from the University of British Columbia, B.A. from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Calgary. From 1972–76, he was Arctic Archaeologist at the National Museum, from 1977–98 Curator of Arctic Archaeology (Keewatin), and from 1999 on Curator Emeritus. He is a Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America, and has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University for twelve years. He speaks some Russian, French, and Spanish, has three years of training in Mandarin, and is currently in his second year of Arabic. He hopes his training in Chinese, Russian, and Arabic will allow him to explore aspects of the pre-Silk Road in Central Asia. For the past several years he has been applying his rock art dating methods in several countries.

Gordon is interested in speaking to academic audiences, graduate seminars, and the general public. His public speaking experience includes lecturing at many professional meetings, some schools, and guiding tourists in the north. Representative lecture titles include:

• People and Rangifer: An Ancient Bond
• Barrenland Archaeology
• Herd Followers in Ice-Age France and Mesolithic Russia
• Rise of Chinese Civilization
• Solving Palimpsest Problems in Archaeological Site
• Dating and revealing poorly preserved rock art.

About:

Dr. Gradinger specializes in the dynamics of microbial communities in polar seas. His recent work deals with the structuring role of sea ice for biological processes in Arctic waters. His participation in SBI, BEST/BSIERP and the Arctic Ocean Diversity projects focused on the ice-based microbial food web and the coupling of sea ice, pelagic and benthic realms in Arctic waters.

About:

Dr. Christopher Darren James Paci works to improve the capacity of northern indigenous peoples to address environment and natural resource management issues. While mostly working at the community level, Paci has also been involved in raising awareness of various audiences about circumpolar environmental issues, climate change, and contaminants.

Paci started Deep Consulting Inc. to work with the Dene governments on natural resource management issues. He has advised the Chiefs of the Yellowknives Dene as their Executive Assistant and the Center for Indigenous Environment and Resources on their five-year organizational planning process. He has also advised the Arctic Athabaskan Council on sustainable development, governance, and policy issues. His work has included translation of science and the stewardship of indigenous concepts into action (scientific research and public policy).

Paci holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba. He is a member of the University of the Arctic, both as a Roving Faculty member and past member of the Indigenous Issues Standing Committee. Paci is an experienced speaker, having lectured at the University of Northern British Columbia, University of Manitoba, Athabasca University, Carleton University, and Umea University.

Paci is interested in speaking to all audiences and is generally available throughout the year.

Representative lecture titles include:

• Requisites for sustainable healthy northern communities
• There is no wilderness here: connectivity of northern communities to globalizing influences
• Water is more than two hydrogen and one oxygen: northern views on water management
• Knowledge engines: northern and southern comparisons
• Traditional Knowledge and the role of northern communities in environmental impact assessment

About:

Ingo Heidbrink (born 1968) is Professor of Maritime History at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. After having studied social and economic history at the University of Hamburg, he has worked with various maritime museums in Germany and has been head of the department of fisheries and whaling history at the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven up to his move to the US.

He has taught at the University of Bremen, was a co-founder of the Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences, guest lecturer at the Ilisimatusarfik, the University of Greenland, and research fellow at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Sciences, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, and the Loewe Research Focus for Juridical and Extra-Juridical Conflict Resolution.

He is Secretary General of the International Commission of Maritime History and Co-President of the North Atlantic Fisheries History Association. His main research areas are fisheries and whaling history, the history of commercial activities in the Arctic and Antarctic, US-Greenlandic history and the history of international conflicts related to resource exploitation of Arctic and Antarctic regions.

His list of publications include four monographs, more than ten edited books, close to an hundred scholarly papers and contributions to popular history projects, and a comparable number of papers presented at scholarly conferences and meetings on all continents.

About:

Karsten Heuer is a wildlife biologist, park ranger, and author who has spent much of the last decade following some of North America’s most endangered wildlife on foot and skis. He is the author of two bestselling adult books (Walking the Big Wild and Being Caribou), as well as another for children. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including a National Magazine Award (2010), a US National Outdoor Book Award (2006), the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award (2007), and the Banff Mountain Book Festival’s Grand Prize (2006). He is working on his third book, Finding Farley, which explores the world of storytelling as it chronicles the epic five-month trip by canoe and sailboat that he and his wife and two-year-old son undertook to visit and pay tribute to author Farley Mowat.

About:

Orville Huntington is presently the Chair of the Interior Athabascan Tribal College. He also currently is serving as the Interior Villages Representative on the Alaska Federation of Natives Board for the 43 villages in the Doyon area, and makes his home in the Athabascan community of Huslia, a village in the Yukon-Koyukuk region of Alaska.

Orville works exclusively with professors, non-profit organizations, and colleges regarding the issue of "Climate Change Impacts and the Sustainability of Rural Communities." He also uses and continues to develop the Native American Traditional Ecological Knowledge database.
His research interests are the direct and indirect impacts of subsistence use on fish, animals, and plants of northern ecosystems; the evaluation of currently policy and regulations and their affects on the subsistence methods and means of harvesting fish, wildlife, and plants. Orville is also committed to education and outreach projects that help non-Alaskans understand the culture and subsistence lifestyle of his people.

Orville has extensive experience in presenting to the public. He has given keynotes at various ARCUS Arctic Forums and has spoken on panels at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In 2000, he participated in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' program as a presenter at the Marine Science Institute at Port Aransas, Texas. He enjoys the Arctic Visiting Speakers' program because it allows him to, "share and add to what little knowledge is out there on matching Native American Traditional Knowledge with contemporary western science."
He is interested in presenting to school audiences (K-12), academic audiences, graduate seminars, and the general public. Orville is not available during mid-June through mid-July or September due to subsistence activities.

About:

Lee Huskey is a professor of economics at University of Alaska Anchorage. His research focuses on the economies of the north, primarily Alaska. He has examined the role of institutions and geography in regional and community economies and has taken both a historic and comparative approach. An important focus of his work has been the migration of residents within, into, and out of the north and its communities and the complex role of jobs and subsistence as determinants.

Dr. Huskey lectures regularly to students and has also made presentations to professional and community groups both in Alaska and other places throughout the north. He is interested in speaking to academic audiences and the general public. Representative lecture titles include:

• Migration as economic adjustment: The experience of rural Alaska
• Limits to growth: Remote regions, remote institutions
• Technology and growth in remote regions

Dr. Huskey would like to participate in the program because he is interested in building connections and learning more about other arctic regions.

About:

Peter T. Irniq is a former Commissioner of Nunavut, an Inuit cultural teacher and an artist. He has lived most of his life in Nunavut, though he has also lived in the Western Arctic (Northwest Territories), Manitoba and Ontario. Peter is an Inuit Canadian and served as the second Commissioner of Nunavut from April of 2000 to April of 2005. Mr. Irniq currently resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

Mr. Irniq was Assistant Director, from 1997-1998, of the Nunavut, Heritage/Culture, Department of Education, Culture and Employment for the Government of Northwest Territories (NWT) where he was responsible for developing culture and heritage programs and services to meet the needs of the new territory of Nunavut. After, He became Deputy Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth for 1998-99 and was mandated to be the guardian of traditional Inuit culture and language.

In addition Mr. Irniq writes an Inuit perspective column for the News/North.

Throughout his professional life Mr. Irniq has focused on advancing Inuit culture and language. As Commissioner he was a respected spokesperson who worked in the territory, nationally and internationally to connect all people to Nunavut, its culture and its history.

Peter Irniq has also created several Inuksuit, or "likeness of a person." An Inuksuk is a stone figure that acts as a beacon for travelers in Canada's north,symbolizing the strength, leadership, and motivation of the Inuit.

About:

Anne Jensen is a long-time resident of Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost community in the United States. She has 27 years experience in anthropology in Alaska, including ethnographic research, archaeological surveys and excavation sites throughout Alaska. She serves as Principal Investigator at Pingusugruk, Ukkuqsi, Ipiutaq and Nuvuk on the North Slope.

Jensen is currently General Manager and Senior Scientist for Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) Science LLC, facilitating support and operation contracts for U.S. Department of Energy climate change research in Barrow and Atqasuk, a U.S. Department of Education "Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations" (ECHO) grant project. Jensen has published on resource use and zooarchaeology. Her current research focuses on human adaptation in arctic and subarctic environments; paleoeconomy and paleoenvironments; and traditional knowledge of Iñupiat peoples. She is the principal investigator on, "Learning From the Past: Archaeology of Nuvuk," which is working with local students to excavate a rapidly eroding major Thule cemetery at Point Barrow (c. AD 1000-1500), Alaska, a project which has recently discovered the northernmost Ipiutak (c. AD 300-400) occupation in the world. Jensen has a great deal of experience speaking to all kinds of audiences.

A few representative lectures include:

• Exciting Finds from Nuvuk: Archaeology at the Top of the World
• Traditional Wooden Houses of North Alaska
• What is Archaeology, and How Do We Do It?
• Maintaining Ethical Relationships Between Researchers and Native Communities

"People are fascinated by the Arctic and by archaeology of the Arctic. When people find out what I do, they ask a lot of questions, and talking with groups helps spread the knowledge. It is worth noting that public education also is the best way to diminish looting, increase respect, and protect cultural resources for everyone."

About:

Karim-Aly S. Kassam is an International Professor of Environmental and Indigenous Studies in the Department of Natural Resources and the American Indian Program at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University. His objective is to merge teaching with applied research in the service of communities. His research focuses on the complex connectivity of human and environmental relations, addressing indigenous ways of knowing, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change. It is conducted in partnership with indigenous communities in the Alaskan, Canadian, and Russian Arctic and Sub-Arctic; the Pamir Mountains in Afghanistan and Tajikistan; and the rain forest in the south of India. By investigating the relationship between biological diversity and cultural diversity, Dr. Kassam seeks to expand the foundations of the notion of pluralism.
Dr. Kassam's book, "Biocultural Diversity and Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Human Ecology in the Arctic," was published in 2009.

Dr. Kassam states, "I have been working in the Arctic for over 15 years with northern communities such as the Sami, Inuit, Inupiat, and Dene, and have just published the results of my life's work and, therefore, have something meaningful to contribute." Dr. Kassam is interested in speaking to academic, graduate student, and general public audiences. Dr. Kassam's work in the Arctic has been used by civil society institutions as well as government agencies to develop policy.

Potential lecture titles include:

• Ways of knowing
• Mapping Indigenous Knowledge
• Human Dimensions of Climate Change in the Arctic and Alpine Areas
• Link between Biological and Cultural diversity

Dr. Kassam holds a PhD in Natural Resource Policy and Management from Cornell University, an MSc in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from the London School of Economics, an MPhil in Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Economics from the University of Calgary.

About:

Brendan P. Kelly has been studying marine mammals in the Pacific, Atlantic, Southern, and Arctic Oceans for the past 30 years. His research focuses on the behavioral ecology of marine mammals, especially ice-associated pinnipeds.

Over the past 20 years, Kelly has given many presentations on his research to general audiences including Rotary Clubs, K–12 classrooms, the Audubon Society, numerous universities, the Mountain Film Festival in Colorado, and the Middlebury Breadloaf Writing Program.

Representative lecture titles include:

• Seals' Sense of Snow: Ice Breeding Seals and Climate Change
• Labs on Ice: Seal Sniffing Dogs and Ringed Seal Ecology
• Walruses, Seals, and Climate Change
• Indigenous People and Sea Otters: Synecology in the Present Tense

Kelly is committed to sharing results of his scientific investigations beyond the narrow audiences that read scientific literature.

About:

I strongly believe in the importance of science and environmental education at all school and college levels and among the general public and am committed to participating in such efforts.

Dave Klein retired as Senior Scientist and Professor Emeritus at the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He had been with the Coop Unit and a faculty member in the Biology and Wildlife program at UAF since 1962. He is now Professor Emeritus with the Institute of Arctic Biology, UAF. His research interests are in arctic ecology, plant-animal interactions, adaptations of arctic terrestrial mammals, arctic grazing systems (reindeer and caribou habitat relations, indigenous people relationships), northern development and associated environmental impacts and their mitigation, and winter ecology in the Arctic and Subarctic.

Klein received his bachelor's degree in Zoology/Wildlife from the University of Connecticut in 1951, his M.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Alaska in 1953, and his Ph.D. in Zoology/Ecology from the University of British Columbia in 1963. He has made significant contributions to understanding the ecology, management, and conservation of large mammals and arctic and subarctic ecosystems, working primarily in Alaska, but also Canada, Siberia, Greenland, Svalbard, and Scandinavia. Klein has served on national conservation committees initiated by the National Academy of Sciences, contributed to local conservation councils, advised state and federal agencies and testified before the U.S. Congress on many conservation issues. He has educated numerous graduate students who now are international leaders in the wildlife profession. For his professional contributions in the biological sciences and applied ecology, Professor Klein received the Aldo Leopold Award in 1999 from the Wildlife Society.

Klein is interested in speaking to any type of audience through the Speakers Series. He is less likely to be able to participate during the summer.

His lecture topics include:

• Herbivores and plant responses to herbivory in the High Arctic.
• Winter ecology of vertebrates in the Arctic and Subarctic.
• Impacts of oil development and their minimization in the Arctic.
• Sustainability of caribou and reindeer grazing systems and their associated human cultures and economies.
• Cultural diversity and sustainable use of the environment.

About:

Moki Kokoris is a freelance graphic artist/designer/illustrator, as well as a teacher of graphic design, piano, and polar ecology in Ridgefield, CT. Kokoris holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cooper Union and is also a graduate of the Ukrainian Music Institute. She is the United Nations Representative for the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations (WFUWO), a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the Department of Public Information of the UN, having been appointed to the Planning Committee for the Conference on Climate Change.

Kokoris was the first woman of Ukrainian descent to reach the North Pole (April 18, 2003) and is a lifetime member of the American Polar Society. She is also an active member of Polar Bears International and has recently launched a new outreach in-classroom educational program named 90-north which includes a collaborative exchange with the United States Polar Rock Repository at the Byrd Polar Research Center. Moki's research interests and presentation materials center on general studies of the polar regions, with a concentration on the Arctic, including its flora, fauna, indigenous peoples, climate change issues, as well as the importance of conservation of these areas. She also worked as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).

Moki has made numerous visits to various schools and Scout groups in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Her lectures are typically tailored to match current classroom curriculum and have included talks on polar history and exploration, geography, ecology, zoology, paleontology, as well as indigenous anthropology.

Representative lectures titles include:

• The Polar Bear and Its Habitat
• North Pole Expedition and Life of the Explorer on the Big Ice
• Polar Research and Science
• Lifestyles of the Inuit and the Saami

Moki's presentation topics are predominantly geared towards grades 3-5. She also prefers to cover a maximum 3-hour (one way) driving distance in the New England area due to the large amount of accompanying equipment, polar gear, and hands-on artifacts that are an integral part of her presentations. Please note though that interested parties should call to discuss the above in case options are available.

Moki is excited about being an Arctic Visiting Speaker and is looking forward to broadening her affiliations and scope of environmental education thereby promoting additional methods of reaching students who would otherwise not have access to such subjects and experiences.

About:

Dr. Laursen's research in mycology (study of fungi-mushrooms and toadstools) focuses on fungal genomics, phylogeography, systematics, taxonomy, and ecology. Experiences have included 38 years of extensive field and laboratory studies in arctic, subarctic and subantarctic environs. Alaskan work has focused on ecological and systematic problems demonstrated by the higher fungi in five of six AK provinces (Southeast, South Central, Western Arctic, Interior, and Northern Arctic and alpine zones). Research investigations have emphasized ecological studies on subantarctic, boreal, alpine, maritime, taiga, subarctic, and Arctic tundra fungi. A broad ecological base has been gained from extensive fieldwork performed. Not only fungi, but also associated lichens, lichenicolous fungi, slime molds, bryophytes and higher plant assemblages and their adaptive mechanisms within tundra (cold-dominated) habitats have been emphasized in research conducted. Studies in fungal systematics and in determining roles played within tundra plant communities continue.

Examples of presentations include:

* Mushrooms Demystified: Roles and associations of fungi in Arctic Environments
* Cycles in the Forest: Mammals, Mycophagy, and Mycorrhizae
* High Latitude Fungal Associations of SE Alaska's Cold Temperate Rain Forest: Tongass Truffles and Other Goodies
* Studies of Alaskan Cellular Slime Molds
* Phylogeography of basidiolichen-forming Lichenomphalia Redhead species of Arctic, subarctic, and sub-Antarctic regions

About:

Dr. Lewis is a research associate with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, where he is a principal investigator on an NSF grant exploring the Strengths, Roles, and Needs of Alaska Native grandparents. Dr. Lewis was an Assistant Professor with the UAF Alaska Native Studies Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he taught the Cultural Knowledge of Native Elders, mentoring students and is still assisting with the new Indigenous Studies doctoral program, as well as continuing his community health in Bristol Bay, and statewide. He has been involved with numerous professional conferences and organizations where he has presented his dissertation research and continues to engage in community health research with Indigenous elders. Dr. Lewis received his doctoral degree in Cross-Cultural Community Psychology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), where he did his research with Alaska Native elders in Bristol Bay (SW) Alaska to establish an Alaska Native definition of successful aging. He was also actively involved with the Alaska Native Social Workers Association at UAF and served as the Vice President for the National Association of Social Workers, Alaska Chapter. His research interests include rural community health, circumpolar health issues, Indigenous gerontology, and cross-cultural health care. Dr. Lewis is interested in, "Sharing my passion and research interests in the circumpolar north. This opportunity would also provide an opportunity to engage in dialogue and discussion on these topics and learn from the participants and students."

Representative lecture titles include:

• Successful aging through the eyes of Alaska Natives. What it means to be an Elder in rural Alaska
• What has your community done for you? The role of rural communities in healthy aging
• Indigenous sustainability and community involvement. How to effectively partner Universities and tribal communities to promote research collaborations

About:

Dr. Philip Loring is a human ecologist with research interests in food systems, food security, and environmental change. His research is interdisciplinary in nature, integrating methods and perspectives from ecology, anthropology, geography, ethnobiology, and environmental history. His current focus is on coastal and marine living resources in Alaska, including such topics as community vulnerability and adaptation, Yukon River Salmon management, and marine invasive species.

Loring has given invited talks and plenaries at numerous national and international academic conferences. He has also been recruited to speak on a variety of science topics to a diverse set of audiences, including K-12 children, policy-makers, incoming graduate students, and the general public.

Loring is interested in addressing all types of audiences and is available at all times of the year. Representative lecture titles include:

Are We Asking Too Much of the Yukon River?
Local Knowledge, Cross-Cultural Collaboration and the New Science
The Future of Alaska Food Systems
Sustainability and Small-Scale Societies

"I think this speaker series is a great contribution and I am happy to contribute where/when possible. Communicating openly in diverse venues on these important issues is an essential part of my job as a scientist."

About:

Aviâja Egede Lynge received her MSc in Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University, Scotland in 2002. Her fields of interests were post-colonialism, culture, development of indigenous societies, and rural areas. Her professional experience includes working for the Greenland Home Rule Government as a Secretary to the Minister of Industry, Agriculture, and Labor; and private sector work with research, courses, integration of Danish and Greenlandic children in the public schools, and development of a Greenlandic empowerment concept. She is currently based at the Institute of Learning Processes, with the University of Greenland. Aviâja works with the Greenlandic school reform, an organization whose mission is 'education for all,' as a study leader for higher education programs for school teachers. She also teaches educational anthropology.

Aviâja has served on the board of several organizations, including: Greenland Tourism–The National Tourism Board of Greenland; Inuit Youth International–a grass roots organization that works to strengthen cultural and spiritual development by promoting higher self-worth among Inuit youth; SAMIK–a cooperative operation between Greenland and Iceland for the development of tourism and cultural ties; and Katuaq–Greenland Cultural Centre.

She has traveled most of the world, and her greatest interests are how to better educate native peoples, cross-cultural understanding between peoples, post-colonialism, and indigenous peoples' affairs. Her interests also cover the influence of colonialism on Greenlandic identity and self-determination, and how to motivate Greenlanders to study where they came from so they can better understand who they are today.
Aviâja has a great deal of experience as a public speaker. She has given lectures to various groups, including academics, teachers, communities, international audiences, politicians, and young people.

Representative lecture titles include:

• Statement on Education
• Best Colony in the World - Rethinking Nordic Colonialism
• Mental Decolonization in Greenland
• Colonial Influence on Ethnic Identity in Greenland - Seen in Relation to Education
• Equality on Whose Terms? - A Story about Coming to Realize the Misleading Notions of Colonial History
• Healing Postcolonial Traumas of Nordic Indigenous Women

About:

Dr. Robert McGhee received B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Archaeology from the University of Calgary in 1968. He currently holds the position of Curator of Arctic Archaeology with the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Arctic Institute of North America, and past-president of the Canadian Archaeological Association. In 2000, he was awarded the Massey Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Canada's highest award for excellence in the geographical sciences.

McGhee's research has focused on the archaeology of Arctic Canada and related regions. He has undertaken fieldwork from Labrador to the Mackenzie Delta and northwards to the High Arctic islands, as well as in Svalbard and Chukotka. In recent years he has excavated the remains of Sir Martin Frobisher's 16 th century Northwest Passage expeditions; worked at a 2,000 year old Eskimo village on the Siberian coast of Bering Strait; worked with the High Arctic Inuit community of Resolute Bay in reconstructing an 800 year old village; and crewed for a portion of the Atlantic crossing by the reproduction Viking ship Gaia.

His work has addressed problems such as the first people of the New World Arctic; the origins of Inuit culture; reactions of prehistoric populations to episodes of climatic and environmental change; the art and symbolism of prehistoric arctic peoples; and the relations between aboriginal peoples and early European visitors to Arctic Canada. The latter topic has led to studies on the nature of mediaeval Norse exploration and enterprise in the New World, and on the general character of early European contacts with New World peoples.

This research has been reported in over 100 books and articles, including both academic publications and those designed for a general audience. Among the latter are Ancient People of the Arctic (UBC Press 1994);The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999); and The Last Imaginary Place: a Human History of the Arctic World (Oxford University Press, 2005).

McGhee is experienced in presenting illustrated lectures on several subjects, including:

• The History and Culture of the Inuit
• Inuit Art in Historical Perspective
• Climate and History in Arctic North America
• Early Europeans and Inuit in Arctic North America
• Martin Frobisher and the English Search for the Northwest Passage
• The Last Imaginary Place: Arctic Perceptions and Realitie

About:

Walt Meier is a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), part of the University of Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on studying the changing sea ice cover using satellite sensors and investigation of impacts of the declining Arctic sea ice on climate and people. In addition to his research activities, Walt is the science lead for sea ice data archived at NSIDC and has also been involved with several outreach and educational activities. From 2001 to 2003 he was an adjunct assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, teaching remote sensing and polar science courses. From 1999 to 2001 he was a visiting scientist at the U.S. National Ice Center in Suitland, Maryland. He has a B.S. from the University of Michigan (1991), a M.S. (1992) and Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences (1998) from the University of Colorado.

Walt is an experienced presenter having lectured at various middle and high schools, educational conferences, science centers, policy institutes and public venues.

Some representative lecture titles include:

• Arctic sea ice: On the fast track of climate change
• Observations and impacts of changes in Arctic climate
• Using satellite data to explore Arctic climate change

About:

Samuel Mukasa is a professor in the Geological Sciences Department at the University of Michigan. He has earned B.Sc. degrees in geology and chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, a M.Sc. in geology at Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York. Mukasa belongs to several professional organizations including the American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Geochemical Society, and the Geological Society of America. Mukasa's research interests are in mantle evolution and volcanism in the Bering Sea region.

He has experience lecturing to university audiences and school children. Because of his academic schedule, summer lectures are ideal, however, with ample notice arrangements can be made during the winter months.

Representative lecture titles include:

• Origins and Timing of Volcanism in the Bering Sea Region
• Source Characteristics of Volcanism in the Philippine Island Arcs
• Tectonic Evolution of the Paleo-Pacific Margin of Gondwana
• What We Have Learned About Mafic Magma Differentiation From Studying Layered Mafic Intrusions Such as the Dufek in Antarctica

Mukasa would like to participate in the AVS program "to communicate to Alaskans what I have learned about volcanism in their back yard."

About:

Joseph D. Ortiz is a Professor in the Department of Geology at Kent State University. His primary academic interests are in paleoclimatology and paleoceanography. He uses a variety of research methods to approach problems in his field from a process-oriented perspective. These methods include: physical properties measurements of earth materials, marine micropaleontology, carbon and oxygen stable isotope geochemistry, and statistics. He received his Ph.D. in Oceanography in 1995 from the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, and a B.S. with Honors in Aquatic Biology from Brown University in 1988. Before coming to Kent State University, he was an Associate Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. He has participated in numerous oceanographic research cruises in the Chukchi Sea, Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, North Pacific, eastern equatorial Pacific, North Atlantic, and South Atlantic, and has presented invited scientific lectures at institutions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His findings have been published in a number of scientific journals, including Science, Paleoceanography, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Geochimica et cosmochimica Act, and the Journal of Global and Planetary Change.

About:

*I am interested in collaboration with institutions interested in implementing new computer methods for research and including such methods in training courses and research.*

Alexander Papusha is Professor in the Applied Mathematics Department at Murmansk State University, where he has been since 1987. He received his Master's Degree in Mechanics from Kiev State University in 1974 and his Ph.D. in Math and Physics from the Institute of Mechanics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev in 1977.

His research interests include computer simulations and processing of geophysical observations in northern Russia with novel analyses based on Mathematica 3.0 computer techniques; processing of the data field theory of non-linear dynamical systems; chaos & dynamics models in non-linear mechanical systems; investigations of the new kind of dissipative structure in geophysics with computer modeling. He is a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He is interested in addressing any type of audience through the Visiting Speakers Series. He is least available to participate from September to December.

His lecture topics include:

* *Mathematica* as a tool for processing geodissipative structures data.
* Mathematical problems of geodissipative structure: obtaining, processing and interpretation .
* *Mathematica* implementation in the non-linear theory of elasticity: curve line orthonormal basis

About:

Dr. John Pomery joined the Center of Glaciology in January 2000. He previously served for 10 years as a Research Scientist and Project Leader with the National Hydrology Research Institute of Environment Canada and an Adjunct Professor with the Division of Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan, both in Saskatoon, Canada. Current research interests involve blizzards, snow hydrology, snow ecology, snow chemistry, arctic hydrology and climate change. John's research emphasis is to improve the understanding and description of the principals underlying mass, energy, and chemical exchange between the atmosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere with high latitude and altitude catchments.

Before returning to Canada, John was a Research Hydrologist with the Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station in Laramie, Wyoming, USA. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Hon.) in Geography in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering in 1988, both from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. In 1998, he was a Guest Scientist at the Shinjo Branch of Snow and Ice Studies, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention in Japan. In 1988-89 he was a NATO Science Fellow at the School for Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England.
John's accomplishments include awards for scientific research from NATO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Eastern Snow Conference, and Environment Canada. Besides numerous papers, he has also authored a book with Professor D.M. Gray, Snowcover Accumulation, Relocation, and Management, and has both edited and contributed to the books, Wolf Creek Research Basin: Hydrology, Ecology, Environment and Snow Ecology.

He is interested in the Speakers' program to meet other arctic researchers and to educate different groups about snow. He has previous experience conducting lectures to general university audiences (Canada, UK, Sweden, and Japan) as well as TV interviews.

He is interested in talking to school audiences (K-12), academic audiences, graduate seminars and the general public.

His lecture topics include:

• Arctic snow cover
• Effects of Northern land use change on water supply
• Physics of snow ecology

Due to fieldwork and teaching, he is generally not available April –May or October-November.

About:

Life-long Alaskan Michelle Ridgway has engaged in marine ecological research and exploration in Alaskan Arctic and Subarctic waters for over 20 years. From coastal kelp forests to deep-sea habitats, Michelle has examined the role of physical and biogenic features in supporting the diversity and abundance of species in Alaskan seas. Recently focused on the unique role of submarine canyons, Michelle is studying continental margin geomorphology, biogeochemistry, and attempting to quantify chemosynthetically- derived carbon sources feeding into northern foodwebs. Diver, submarine pilot and ROV operator, Michelle continues to probe the depths of Alaskan marine waters using cutting edge technology to examine facets of some of the most productive ocean ecosystems in the world.

Michelle has experience lecturing to a broad range of audiences including school students, graduate students, and the general public. Michelle's accomplishments include: keynote speaker at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium in January 2007; UAS Egan Lecture Series Speaker October 2008; New England Aquarium Lecture Series in September 2008; and Invited Bering Sea Days Speaker in April 2008 for the communities of St. Paul and St. George. Because of summer fieldwork, Michelle is generally more available to participate in the Arctic Visiting Speakers' program during the autumn and winter.

About:

Dr. David A. Robinson is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He also serves as New Jersey’s State Climatologist. He received a BS in geology (1977) from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA and earned a doctorate in earth sciences (1984) from Columbia University. He was an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (1984-1988) prior to heading to Rutgers (1988-present). He became State Climatologist in 1991, leading an office that tends to the weather/climate data, research and outreach needs of a vast array of stakeholders, including maintaining an operational weather network of 60 stations.

Dr. Robinson’s research interests are in applied climate, especially related to New Jersey, and in climate dynamics and change, particularly focused on global snow cover. His research has been funded via 70 grants from NSF, NOAA, NASA, USDA and various NJ state agencies. He has published 108 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has presented at more than 250 conferences and invited lectures. His efforts include managing a database of satellite-derived snow extent over Northern Hemisphere continents. The digitized snow maps extend back to the late 1960s and are used in national and international climate assessments.

Robinson is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and sits on lead climate advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He has chaired two National Research Council panels and the American Meteorological Society’s Polar Meteorology and Oceanography Committee, and is a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists. Dr. Robinson is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and has received a NOAA Environmental Hero award, as well as the Lifetime Achievement award of the Association of American Geographer’s Climate Specialty Group. Dr. Robinson teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in climatology, physical geography and remote sensing.

About:

I teach in an isolated, Native village with 40 residents in the Alaska bush where roads, stores, and emergency facilities do not exist. I have taught my students to dream big and then find a way to make that dream happen. As we finish the year under the shadow of a possible school closure, we are making our dream come true by visiting our Nation's capital. Even in very remote, very small places there is a way to make every dream come true.

About:

Donat Savoie explores the recent changes for the Inuit of Canada, and the social, cultural, linguistics and economic impacts. He is also interested in the governance systems that have been changed dramatically with the signing of several land claims agreements. Dr. Savoie states, "I strongly believe it is very important to convey to various audiences my knowledge and experience in Inuit, Arctic, and Circumpolar Affairs, to which I dedicated 42 years. Given the present issues related to climate change and its impact on Aboriginal Peoples, including the Inuit, the development of new and innovative Aboriginal governance systems in arctic countries, and the interest of several countries in the resources of the North, are all reasons that show clearly the importance of discussing these issues publicly, and informing different audiences of the present and future challenges." Dr. Savoie is available to speak to academic, graduate, school, and general public audiences. A few lecture titles include:

• Innovative Governance in Canada's Arctic: Inuit Self-Determination Efforts Today
• Nunavik Inuit Governance Issues and Political Future
• Self-government in the Canadian North: Creation of the Nunavik Regional Government: Innovative Project and Challenges

Dr. Savoie was born in Montréal, Canada, and obtained a Master's Degree in Anthropology from the Université de Montréal. He joined the Public Service of Canada in 1969, namely with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (DINAC), where he held several senior positions related to Inuit, Arctic, and Circumpolar Affairs. He retired in 2006. Amongst his senior assignments, Dr. Savoie was appointed Director of Scientific and Circumpolar Affairs within DINAC, and Chief Federal Negotiator for the Nunavik Inuit self-government negotiations. He acted as Senior Advisor Northern Policy (1990-1992) to Mary Simon, President, Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

Dr. Savoie is the recipient of the following awards: 7-time recipient of the DINAC Outstanding Achievement Award; Award of Excellence of the Public Service of Canada for his contribution to the creation of the Nunavut Territory; Tribute of the Government of the Northwest Territories for his contribution to the Canadian North; Weaver-Tremblay Award from the Canadian Anthropology Society; Elected Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America of the University of Calgary; Elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of Canada. Dr Savoie has also received special recognitions and commemorations from Inuit of Canada organizations such as the Makivik Corporation (which represents the Inuit of Nunavik), the Avataq Cultural Institute, and the Inuit community of Kangiqsualujjuaq.

On June 3, 2010, he was made Chevalier (Knight) of the National Order of Quebec, the highest order given by the Government of Quebec, by the Premier of Québec, Jean Charest, at a ceremony held in the Quebec Parliament in Quebec City, Canada, for his exceptional contribution to the Canadian North, and especially to Nunavik and to the Inuit of the region.

About:

Todd Sformo was a graduate student at University of Alaska Fairbanks in the labs of Drs. Brian Barnes (UAF) and Jack Duman (University of Notre Dame). Todd's research examined high latitude insect physiology, specifically freeze tolerance and freeze avoidance. Currently, Todd is a wildlife biologist for the Department of Wildlife Management, North Slope Borough, in Barrow, Alaska, working on a variety of subjects including polar bear thermoregulation, fish research, and oil on biological surfaces.

About:

Aaron Spitzer is the foremost expert on contemporary events in Canada's North, and is a leading authority on Northern history, politics, travel, adventure, journalism and modern culture.

Based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Aaron is the longtime editor of Up Here, the magazine of Canada's North, which in 2010 was named the best magazine in Canada. He's also a lecturer and expedition crew member with the leading Arctic cruise company, Adventure Canada.

Aaron has co-authored several Lonely Planet guidebooks about Alaska and Northern Canada, has produced the only daily television news shows serving Northern Canada, has run Nunavut's newspaper of record, has edited the leading newspaper in Bush Alaska, and has co-edited the world's southernmost newspaper, the Antarctic Sun.

Aaron has also worked as a kayaking, canoeing and rafting guide in Alaska and Northern Canada, and has conducted numerous independent expeditions. He's devoted his life not just to knowing the North, but to living in and actively exploring it.

Aaron is an expert in presenting the complexities of the North in a compelling, comprehensible way. His lecture topics include:

• So, where exactly is the Arctic?: Defining the Far North
• The Arctic heats up: Contemporary issues in the Far North
• The entire history of the Franklin expedition (in just over half an hour)
• All of it about Nunavut
• How the Arctic was won and run: Governance in the Far North

About:

Ken Tape is a research scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks studying climate warming and landscape changes in the Arctic. Those landscape changes include the expansion of shrubs and the effect on herbivores, fluctuations in the erosion regime, heterogeneity of vegetation change, and the implications of these changes to the broader arctic system.

Ken often uses repeat photography to document expanding shrubs, migrating tree-line, shrinking glaciers, and deteriorating permafrost in the Arctic. He has written for technical and popular journals, including a recent book for the general public called "The Changing Arctic Landscape" (University of Alaska Press), which features a variety of repeat photography from Arctic Alaska. The book content was developed into a special exhibit that debuted at the University of Alaska Museum of the North May 15, 2010 to Jan 15, 2011, and is now commencing a national tour managed by the Burke Museum in Seattle (http://www.burkemuseum.org/booknow/changing_arctic).

Ken enjoys science that is readily interpretable, and the Arctic Visiting Speaker Program is a great opportunity to synthesize and share the remarkable photographic evidence documenting terrestrial changes in the Arctic. The repeated photographs used to assess change have been published widely, and Ken is happy to share the photographs with science and non-science people alike. Repeated photographs can be interpreted by anyone, thus removing the complicated layer of interpretation that is associated with most measurements of terrestrial change.

About:

For more than twenty years, Dr. Wheelersburg has researched indigenous arctic populations in Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. Primarily, he has engaged in ethnohistorical research on land and resource use related to reindeer herding Saami groups as they came under the influence/control of majority societies in this region. He has recently helped local research groups document traditional knowledge about pre-Revolutionary settlement patterns and land/resource use in the western Kola Peninsula.

As part of his master's and doctorate studies in Anthropology and Circumpolar Studies at Brown University, Dr. Wheelersburg has conducted field research virtually every year in the Scandinavian Arctic for the past twenty years. With two Fulbright Fellowships to Sweden, grants from the American Scandinavian Foundation, the Arctic Institute of North America, and several grants from the Arctic Social Science Program at NSF, along with service in Iceland for a decade as a Reserve Army officer on the NATO staff assigned to the Icelandic Civil Defense Office, he has studied among and built relationships with both formal education/research institutions as well as informal/indigenous research organizations and individuals in several arctic countries.

His work has reached a broad audience of scholars as well as the arctic community. He has published articles in journals including Arctic, Arctic Anthropology, and Northern Reviews (in press) and published chapters in Readings in Saami Culture, Language, and History (University of Umea, Sweden).

Dr. Wheelersburg has presented lectures to the general public as part of local and regional library programs and at programs through his school. These programs have focused primarily on native and indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Scandinavia.

Dr. Wheelersburg is interested in speaking to all audiences and representative lecture titles include:

• Pre-industrial Saami land use in the Imandra Lake watershed, Kola Peninsula
• Saami portrayals in popular media, especially National Geographic magazine—A case of ethnic stereotyping?
• Swedish compliance with European community requirements for indigenous resource use rights—A Saami perspective
• Working with and developing local and indigenous research organizations in the Arctic

Dr. Wheelersburg hopes that the Arctic Visiting Speakers Program will allow him to visit and present his work in public and educational settings outside of his research area.

About:

Charles Wohlforth is a life-long Alaska resident and prize-winning author of numerous books about Alaska. His work includes writing about science and the environment, politics and history, travel, and as-told-to biography. A popular lecturer, he has spoken all over the United States and overseas. Wohlforth lives with his wife, Barbara, and their four children. They reside in Anchorage during the winter, where they are avid cross-country skiers, and in summer on a remote Kachemak Bay shore reachable only by boat.

Wohlforth, 47, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1986 before returning to Alaska to work six years as a newspaper reporter, including covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill for the Anchorage Daily News. He became a full-time freelance writer in 1993, publishing articles in The New Republic, Outside, Discover and other periodicals, and writing ten books. He also served two 3-year terms on the Anchorage Assembly.

In 2004, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published Wohlforth’s widely acclaimed non-fiction account of climate change in the Arctic as experienced by the Eskimos and the scientists studying it, titled The Whale and the Supercomputer. The book won The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology, among numerous other national and regional citations for science, culture, and journalism. In 2010, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press published The Fate of Nature: Rediscovering Our Ability to Rescue the Earth, which examines the role of culture in addressing global environmental problems. The book uses Alaska as a microcosm to examine the human capacity for co-operation in the commons of the ocean and Arctic.

Wohlforth is an experienced public speaker. He has presented slide lectures on his books more than 100 times in settings such as the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, the Peabody Museum at Yale University, and the University of Alaska Rural Development Program conference in Barrow, Alaska. He has been the keynote speaker at numerous conferences, including the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting, the ARCUS Annual Meeting, and the University of Alaska Book Festival. He also has presented to many K-12 school groups. He has been interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and many other national broadcasts. His public lectures have drawn audiences of more than 150.

About:

Dr. Yang is currently an associate research professor at the Water and Environmental Research Center, Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. (water resources and hydro-meteorology) in China and has international research/work experience. He was a research associate at the Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; a visiting scientist at the University of California; and a post-doc research fellow at both the Meteorological Service of Canada and McMaster University. He also worked as a research scientist at the Institute for Global Change.

Dr. Yang's primary research interests are in cold region hydrology, specifically, climate and climate change/variation in the arctic and high latitude regions; large arctic river hydro-climatologies and changes; applications of remote sensing data/products in the high latitude regions; and data analysis systems including accuracy assessment and adjustment/correction, statistical analysis, and numerical modeling of cold region hydrology.

He has published over 50 research articles and has extensive lecture experience having given over 30 talks at national and international conferences/workshops. He is interested in talking with academic audiences, graduate students and the general public.

Potential lecture topics include:

• Hydrologic response of major Siberian rivers to climate change and
  variation
• Development of bias-corrected high latitude precipitation database and
  climatology
• Streamflow response to seasonal snowcover extent changes in large
  Siberian watersheds
• Representativeness of arctic weather station data for computation of
  snowmelt in a small area

Dr. Yang has previously participated in the Arctic Visiting Speakers Series as a host and enjoyed his experiences.

About:

John Ziker is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Boise State University. His research interests include the indigenous peoples of Siberia, social organization and change, economic anthropology, and human behavioral ecology. He most recently was a term assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. During the spring 1999 and spring 2000 semesters, Ziker taught anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Ziker earned a B.A. in anthropology in 1988 at Arizona State University. He completed language programs at Moscow Energy Institute and Norwich University and received a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1998 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His dissertation research, “Kinship, Exchange, and Ethnicity among the Dolgan and Nganasan of Northern Siberia”, analyzed the changes in the mixed economy of a community of Siberian hunter-gatherers after the dissolution of state socialism. In 2001-2003, Ziker was a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, as a member of the Siberia Project Group, focusing his research on hunting practices and property relations among the Dolgan and Nganasan peoples.