HARC Online Workshops 2002 | Moderators

Online Workshop Moderators

Humans and Arctic Hydrology -- 15-17 April 2001
Larry D. Hinzman is a Research Professor of Water Resources at the Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Most of his research has involved investigating physical processes in the Arctic and Sub-arctic. His expertise is in field research and modeling of hydrologic and thermal processes. He has spent a great deal of effort studying field situations and then developing numerical models to simulate the important hydrologic and thermal processes and their interactions. Current research projects include developing a physically based, spatially distributed hydrologic and thermal model for arctic regions, developing a model of thermokarst development and subsequent hydrologic changes, studying the movement of groundwater and contaminants in discontinuous permafrost, and evaluating the hydrologic interactions with wildfires.
Larry Hamilton's research concerns environmental sociology, with a particular focus on the Arctic. Since 1996, he has directed National Science Foundation-sponsored projects studying interactions between natural and social systems in fisheries-dependent regions of the North Atlantic Arc (NAArc) -- including Newfoundland/Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. Since 1992, Dr. Hamilton has also collaborated on research studying adolescents and rapid social change in Native villages of rural Alaska. Hamilton's Arctic research has led to participation in international collaborative efforts, including the European Database on Indicator Coastal Communities (INDICCO); the Circumpolar Social Science Ph.D. Network (CASS); and a Canadian project studying Coasts Under Stress. He is a member of the NSF's advisory Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Committee, and of working groups developing new research programs on Humans in the Arctic (HARC), Arctic Hydrology, and the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH).
Humans and the Arctic Nearshore Zone -- 22-24 April 2002
Lee Cooper is a research professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His original research interests in the ecophysiology of seagrasses led him to studies of stable isotope variability in marine plants. Application of stable isotope methodologies expanded into other arctic marine and freshwater topics, followed by the use of natural and fallout radionuclides as tracers of biological, chemical and physical processes. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he coordinates the Bering Strait Environmental Observatory, he has engaged in benthic and water column research over the past decade near St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, and he is also a funded investigator on the Shelf-Basin Interactions project on the outer continental shelf of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. His work on radionuclide distributions in the Arctic led to joint collaborations with Russian scientists, and involvement in the Russian-American Initiative for Shelf-Land Environments (RAISE). Since becoming chair of NSF's RAISE science steering committee in late 2000, he has been helping to coordinate science planning efforts for the related Nearshore Initiative with Ken Dunton of the University of Texas at Austin.
Anne Jensen has twenty-two years experience in anthropology in Alaska, including ethnographic research and archeological investigations at sites throughout Alaska. Her primary research focus has been on the North Slope, especially in Barrow, Wainwright, and Point Hope. Ms. Jensen is presently Senior Scientist for Ukpeagvik Iñupiat Corporation (UIC) of Barrow. Her current projects include: NSF-funded exploratory archaeological investigations at Nuvuk, the northernmost archaeological site on the continent; developing a UIC–sponsored Science Center at the UIC-NARL facility to provide historical and current information on the long-term cooperation between local Barrow residents and scientists, and the results of that partnership; facilitating support and operations contracts for U.S. Department of Energy climate change research in Barrow and Atqasuk; and collaboration in NSF-funded projects on “Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Variability on the Alaskan North Slope Coastal Region“ and “Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic Phase 2: Inuit, Saami and the Indigenous Peoples of Chukotka”; U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS)-funded projects on “Collection of Traditional Knowledge of the Alaskan North Slope” and “Description of Potential Effects of OCS Activities on Bowhead Whale Hunting Subsistence Activities in the Beaufort Sea.”

"In general, indigenous peoples of the Arctic have consistenly recommended that, in order to incorporate TKW [Traditional Knowledge and Wisdom], researchers must actively involve Native residents of the region in planning, implementation, and decisions about the use of data and information, as their wisdom and knowledge is dynamic and alive within them."
-- People and the Arctic: A Prospectus for Research on the Human Dimensions of the Arctic System.