Past Events

Polar Day is the annual public outreach event for the Polar Forum. We strive to engage our community, the general public, faculty, students and staff in a unique event where we highlight the natural, societal, and cultural features of the polar regions. We welcome you to attend both events or a select presentation aligning with your time and interest.

Friday April 16th, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm PDT
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Friday April 30th, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm PDT

Friday April 16th

The Worst Journey In the World Revisited
by Kim Stanley Robinson

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of about twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312. He was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995, and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine. He works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute and the Clarion Writers’ Workshop. His work has been translated into 25 languages, and won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. In 2016 asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” His most recent novel is The Ministry for the Future.

Friday April 30th

11:05am PDT
Conservation With Your Eyes Closed: Using Sound to Understand Our Changing Polar Oceans
by Michelle Fournet, Ph.D

Michelle Fournet is a postdoctoral researcher with the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) and recently completed her doctorate in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University (OSU). She is the director of the Sound Science Research Collective (SoS), a small conservation non-profit. Michelle's research is based in acoustic ecology, which mean using sound to investigate questions of ecological importance. This includes investigating how marine organisms use acoustic space (vocalizations, percussive sounds, variable sound production) as well as investigating the potential impact of noise on marine species, and how sound can be used as an indicator of ecosystem health. Michelle is particularly interested in using bioacoustics as a tool to further conservation and to assess species resilience to a rapidly changing ocean.

11:55am PDT
The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame A Life of Louise Arner Boyd
by Joanna Kafarowski, Ph.D

After inheriting a staggering family fortune in her thirties, California-born Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972) achieved international notoriety as a rugged and audacious polar explorer while maintaining her flamboyant lifestyle as a leading philanthropist and society woman. Yet, despite organizing, financing and directing seven daring Arctic expeditions to Greenland, Franz Josef Land, Jan Mayen Land and Svalbard between 1926 and 1955, she is virtually unknown today.

Joanna Kafarowski is an independent scholar and geographer. She is the author of “The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame” (Dundurn Press, 2017) as well as the upcoming “Antarctic Pioneer A Life of Jackie Ronne.” She received her doctorate in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies focusing on gender and natural resources in the Arctic. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Member of the Society of Woman Geographers Sciences Association.

The 2021 Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society – European Conference for Applied Meteorology and Climatology – will take place from 3 to 10 September 2021 as an online event. As much as we regret to see another year without an in-person come together, the EMS Council took this decision to provide clarity at this stage; at the same time, we are determined to make the best out of it and look at this as an opportunity to explore new approaches to bring people together, and how to go forward with future meetings.

Please read the guidelines on how to submit an abstract carefully. The abstract submission deadline is 16 April 2021.

Please follow the link above for more information.

The EGU General Assembly 2021, traditionally held each spring in Vienna, Austria, will instead take place entirely online due to the continuing risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting restrictions on international travel. While we deeply regret another missed opportunity to meet with colleagues and friends in person next year, we’re committed to graciously accepting circumstances that are beyond our control and continuing the Union’s efforts to minimize the impacts of COVID-19 on Earth, planetary, and space science research.

EGU is therefore excited to announce that we will instead host vEGU21: Gather Online (#vEGU21). This virtual event will be an entirely different experience from last year’s meeting, Sharing Geoscience Online, which we had just five weeks to plan. vEGU21 will provide a much more complete representation of the experience that EGU members enjoy at the annual meeting in Vienna.

vEGU21, which will be accessible from around the globe, will feature the 2020 and 2021 awards ceremonies and lectures, mentoring, networking events, and many more activities in addition to nearly 700 scientific sessions. The current plan is to extend the meeting dates to 19–30 April but to schedule all technical sessions during the last week of April.

With this announcement, EGU and its conference partner, Copernicus Meetings, are opening the meeting’s call for abstracts on 3 November 2020. The extended deadline for abstracts is Wednesday, 20 January at 13:00 CET. The Abstract Processing Charge (APC) will remain the same as in previous years.

Since EGU will be offering a more complete experience in 2021, we will be charging a registration fee, but the cost will be substantially lower than for an in-person annual meeting. In addition, the Roland Schlich travel support scheme will be replaced by a registration fee waiver for participants from lower- and lower-middle income countries. The final details regarding the registration fees will be released by 20 November.

One Health invites registration for their upcoming seminar, Engaging Alaska Natives in Health and Wellbeing Research. This seminar will be presented by Dr. Heather Sauyaq J. Gordon, Iñupiaq member of Nome Eskimo Community.

Dr. Heather Sauyaq Jean Gordon was born and raised in Homer, Alaska. She is Iñupiaq and an enrolled tribal member of the Nome Eskimo Community. Gordon has a B.A. in Race and Ethnic Studies from the University of Redlands in California, a M.S. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies with an emphasis in Indigneous Sustainability from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For her dissertation, Self-determination, Sustainability, and Wellbeing in the Alaska Native Community of Ninilchik, Gordon conducted ethnographic futures research interviews to explore how individual, community, and tribal self-determining actions lead to community sustainability and wellbeing. She not only wrote a dissertation but produced a 20-year roadmap for the community outlining the results of the research for community development. Heather is an Iñupiaq member of Nome Eskimo Community in Northwest Alaska, and employed at the Administration for Native Americans as a Management and Program Analyst in the Division of Program Evaluation and Planning.

The NSF Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Sciences (ANT) and Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics (AIL) Sections of the OPP will be hosting this virtual Office Hours to share information with the academic community regarding evolving plans for upcoming seasons, funding opportunities, and to share information about the USAP Sexual Assault / Harassment Prevention & Response (SAHPR) Program.

Alaska is expected to experience major changes in extreme weather during the twenty-first century, invalidating old estimates of the likelihood of flood-inducing rain events. Thus, the State Department of Transportation funded a project — carried out by the Scenarios Network of Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP) at UAF’s International Arctic Research Center (IARC), with assistance from Neptune, inc. — aimed at updating precipitation data based on the latest climate change projections. Join this webinar to learn about a new online statewide tool designed for engineers, but accessible and interesting to everyone.

Please follow the link above to register.

The U.S. Arctic Research Commission, with co-sponsorship by the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, announce the upcoming conference, Arctic Sustainable Energy Research Conference: Research and community needs in the context of a global energy transition. This conference will be held virtually.

This free, three-day virtual conference will focus on sustainable energy and energy efficiency research and feature guest speakers and panelists from Alaska and around the world.

Objectives of the conference include:

• Provide a forum to share the latest information on sustainable energy research in remote, cold climate communities
• Determine sustainable energy research gaps in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions
• Investigate links between renewable energy research and climate and energy equity
• Discuss changes in policy needed to meet climate goals and community needs

Sessions Include:

• Climate, Energy, and Community Needs
• Buildings and Infrastructure: Energy Efficiency, Distributed Energy Resources
• Sustainable Energy: Technologies, Integration

For more information, including the agenda, and to register, please visit the link above.

Dartmouth's Institute of Arctic Studies (IAS) presents the webinar Winners and Losers from Rapid Arctic Change.

Change in the Arctic is happening very quickly, driven by both climate change and international interest in the region as it becomes more accessible. Fran will talk about what’s changing, and how those changes are altering ecosystems and impacting people in the Arctic and beyond.

Frances Ulmer is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center. She has served in a variety of capacities, including: Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, state legislator, mayor of Juneau, Alaska, professor, lawyer, research director, special advisor to the State Department on the Arctic and Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. She has undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Wisconsin, and has been a visiting professor at Stanford, and at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. She has lectured internationally on Arctic issues from Antarctica to the North Pole.

International Glaciological Society Global Seminar:

Speaking: Lauren Simkins, University of Virginia, "Landform Evidence of Persistent Subglacial Plumbing Near Grounding Lines".

Please register in advance for the seminars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the seminar.

The seminar will also be available afterwards on the Friends of the International Glaciological Society Facebook page so that you can watch it there if technology fails or you can't make it.

For the 7th time, the Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference will be held at the Department of Geography, Masaryk University, in Brno, Czechia, on the 3 and 4 May 2021.

We are aware of the current COVID-19 situation complicating the international travels, therefore the entire conference will be virtually streamed for those who cannot attend in person. We encourage you thus to register and prepare your contributions!

Whether you are an undergraduate/PhD student or early-career researcher (less than 5 years after the PhD defence) working in the fields of geosciences or biosciences in the Polar and alpine environments, you are most welcome to attend our conference.

Deadline for registration and abstract submission: 22 April 2021.

Full title: “Together Towards a Sustainable Arctic”: An Earth Day Dialogue with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and chair of the Arctic Council, H.E. Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson

The future of the Arctic is critical not only for its four-million inhabitants and the unique ecosystems found in this northernmost region of Earth. A sustainable Arctic is key for global stability. Physical changes in the Arctic have globally significant climatic, environmental and geopolitical implications, and successful collaboration through the Arctic Council has kept the Arctic peaceful and stable since its establishment twenty-five years ago.

Join the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center for an engaging Earth Day dialogue with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, about Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council and what’s next.

As Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council comes to a close, we will look back on the progress made in the past two years during the Icelandic Chairmanship to advance Arctic sustainability and science collaboration, and we will look forward to what’s next for the Arctic Council as we continue to see the region transform due to a rapidly changing climate.

The Antarctic Sciences (ANT) and Arctic Sciences (ARC) sections of the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) invite you to two upcoming webinars on the OPP Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (OPP-PRF, NSF 21-575: https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21575/nsf21575.htm).

• Thursday, April 22, 2021 from 4:00pm – 5:00pm EDT and
• Thursday, May 6, 2021 from 1:00pm – 2:00pm EDT.

Please join Arctic Social Sciences Program Director, Erica Hill, and Antarctic Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Program Director, Dave Sutherland, at these informal webinars to learn about the basics of the OPP-PRF and have any questions you bring addressed.

Registration is required to attend.

In this SAS-webinar, Early Career Scientists (ECS) will present snapshots of their research in the Arctic. Short and concise presentations covering ongoing or planned studies of changes in physical oceanography, marine ecosystems as well as carbon cycle and ocean acidification.

Contribution from the participants in the SAS-Oden expedition July-September 2021:

• Lennart Gerke (PhD-student, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research GEOMAR, Germany): Ventilation Timescales, Anthropogenic Carbon and Variability in the Arctic Ocean – Ventilation and anthropogenic carbon storage in the Arctic Ocean provided by transient tracer data.
• Yannis Arck (PhD-student, Heidelberg University, Germany): Ventilation Timescales, Anthropogenic Carbon and Variability in the Arctic Ocean – A combination of stable noble gas isotopes with Ar39 and C14 applied on arctic ocean ventilation and sea ice formation.
• Claudia Morys (Postdoc, Stockholm University, Sweden): Driving factors for regional variation in benthic species communities in the Central Arctic Ocean.
• Flor Vermassen (Postdoc, Stockholm University, Sweden): Arctic invasions of sub-polar planktonic foraminifers in the past and present – The hunt for Turborotalita.
• Christien Laber (Postdoc, Linnaeus University, Sweden) Grazing and viral lysis of picophytoplankton in the Central Arctic Ocean.
• Ashish Verma (Postdoc, Umeå University, Sweden): Maintenance respiration and morphological adaptations of prokaryotes in the Central Arctic Ocean.
• Lisa Winberg von Friesen (PhD-student, University of Copenhagen, Denmark): An overlooked source of nitrogen? Diazotrophy in the Central Arctic Ocean.
• Birthe Zäncker (Postdoc, The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, UK): Production and export of phytoplankton-derived organic matter in the changing Arctic Ocean – Role of parasites, saprotrophs and mineral ballasting.
• Eun Yae Son (PhD-student, Graduate school of frontier science, The University of Tokyo, Japan): Turbulent mixing in the western Arctic from the Mirai cruises (tentative).

Register to receive link to the streaming. The link to the streaming will be sent out two days before the event, and two hours before the event.

China & the Arctic: A View to 2050 is a two-day symposium to take place at the University of Hong Kong and online. We would like to invite you to attend online (or in-person, if you happen to be in Hong Kong).

Please visit our website (at the link above) for more information regarding the events, which will include a panel on Hong Kong's Arctic Connections on Thursday 22 April (1630-1745 HKT), followed by a full day of science sessions on Friday 23 April (0930 - 1730 HKT) featuring presentations on both the natural and social sciences from researchers largely based in Mainland China and Hong Kong. This event is also part of the UArctic Thematic Network on the Arctic in Asia, Asia in the Arctic.

Feel free to share the details of the symposium with your colleagues and networks.

The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) invites registration for the next Arctic Research Seminar featuring Emily Choy, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University and Environment and Climate Change Canada. Emily’s presentation, titled Marine Predators as Sentinels of Environmental Change in Arctic Ecosystems, will be held via Zoom.

Registration is required for this event. Instructions for accessing the webinar will be sent to registrants prior to the event.

Seminar Abstract

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid change, and long-lived top predators are considered sentinels of the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. Beaufort Sea beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) and thick-billed murres (Uria lomvia) in northern Hudson Bay have experienced long-term shifts in prey species and declines in inferred growth rates, believed to be the result of environmental changes. In partnership with Inuvialuit communities, we examined inter-annual variation and environmental factors affecting prey, body condition, and physiology of Beaufort Sea beluga whales. The estimated proportional contributions of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) to beluga diet decreased from 2011 to 2014, coinciding with an increase in capelin (Mallotus villosus). Belugas consumed the highest proportions of capelin and the lowest proportions of cod in 2014. Body condition of whales was positively correlated with myoglobin, hemoglobin concentrations, and % hematocrit, resulting in lower total body oxygen stores in whales with lower body condition. The relationship between body condition and oxygen storage capacity may represent a positive feedback mechanism, in which environmental changes resulting in decreased body condition impair foraging ability. To examine the impacts of climate-induced prey shifts on the energetics of seabirds, heart rate was examined as a proxy for O² consumption in murres and black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), and were calibrated with GPS-accelerometers to classify behaviours and activity rate. Finally, we examined the effects of Arctic warming on murre physiology. In response to increasing temperatures, murres exhibited limited heat tolerance and low ability to dissipate heat, with one of the lowest evaporative cooling efficiencies recorded in birds. These results highlight the various impacts of climate change on marine predators and their broader implications on Arctic ecosystems.

Organizers invite registration for a book reading of Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic by Gary N. Wilson. This event will be held via Zoom.

Gary Wilson is a professor of political science of the University of Northern British Columbia and associate director of the Western Association for Canadian Studies. During this event, he will read from and discuss Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic (2020) co-authored with Christopher Alcantara and Thierry Rodon. From the book cover, "The Canadian federal system was never designed to recognize Indigenous governance, and it has resisted change. But Indigenous communities have successfully negotiated the creation of self-governing regions. Most of these are situated within existing units of the Canadian federation, creating forms of nested federalism. This governance model is transforming Canada as it reformulates the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. Nested Federalism ... traces the journey toward self-governance in three northern regions."

This event is sponsored by the Western Association for Canadian Studies; University of Northern British Columbia; the Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies; and Boise State University.

Full title of talk: Fisheries and Other Human Activities – Inclusive Processes, Expertise and Evidence Provided in the North East Atlantic, and Adjacent Seas

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is an intergovernmental marine science organization, meeting societal needs for impartial evidence on the state and sustainable use of our seas and oceans.

​​​Our goal is to advance and share scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and the services they provide and to use this knowledge to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability goals.
We are a network of nearly 6000 scientists from over 700 marine institutes in our 20 member countries and beyond. Over 2500 scientists participate in our activities annually.

Through strategic partnerships our work in the Atlantic Ocean also extends into the Arctic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the North Pacific Ocean.

For more information, please follow the link above.

International Glaciological Society Global Seminar:

Speaking: Jan Lenaerts, University of Colorado Boulder, "Scratching the Ice Sheet Surface: Surface Processes from Observations and Numerical Models"

Please register in advance for the seminars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the seminar.

The seminar will also be available afterwards on the Friends of the International Glaciological Society Facebook page so that you can watch it there if technology fails or you can't make it.

Since being initiated in 2016, Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM) meetings and their associated activities have provided a key, high-level coordinating platform for global research in the Arctic. We are now approaching the 3rd Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM3), due to be held in May 2021, co-organised by Iceland and Japan. The last year has also been quite influential with many high level developments within in European polar research community, like the development of the new EU Arctic policy, the release of the European Polar Research Program, EU-PolarNet 2 and the EU Polar Cluster, the ESA Polar Cluster, amongst many others. This webinar thus aims to explore a European perspective on the ASM process, including to underline developments since ASM2 and contributions to ASM3. The webinar will further explore how existing structures and entities for coordination of polar research in Europe help to facilitate the activities working towards the aims of ASM, nurturing a strong and cohesive European community for Arctic research.

Speakers from a range of European entities working to coordinate different aspects of Arctic science and research will discuss how these initiatives align with ASM objectives in the context of the four ASM3 Themes: Observe, Understand, Respond, and Strengthen.

A recording of the webinar, and a report will be made available afterwards.

Join a virtual panel of experts to discuss and share timely information regarding COVID-19 related protocols, guidance, and restrictions at local and regional levels across the Arctic. The panel discussion will be followed by break-out groups organized by region to discuss regional contexts, resources, and evolving situations.