Past Events

Purpose of Meeting: To provide advice and recommendations to the National Science Foundation concerning support for polar research, education, infrastructure and logistics, and related activities.

Please follow the link above for more information and to learn how to register.

Agenda

April 29, 2021:

• Office of Polar Programs Updates
• COVID 19 Impacts
  Meeting with the NSF Director & Chief Operating Officer
• Updates on NSF GEO Activities

April 30, 2021:

• Advisory Committee Liaison Updates
• NSF Response to the Antarctic
• NSF Response to Arctic Sciences Committee of Visitors Report
• Discussion regarding the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion

Organizers invite registration for their upcoming virtual forum, A Call for Bold Regional and Global Actions to Reduce Black Carbon Emissions Impacting the Arctic.

This virtual forum will present:

• Recent advances in knowledge on current and future scenarios,
• Black carbon emissions reduction strategies and identify areas where regional and global collaboration can be enhanced, and
• International discussion on where and to what degree bold actions can be undertaken to curb black carbon emissions impacting the Arctic region and other parts of the world.

Led by a group of expert organizations, the EU-funded Action on Black Carbon in the Arctic is contributing to the development of collective responses that reduce black carbon emissions affecting the Arctic by engaging with a broad group of regional and global stakeholders and countries to identify feasible ways of taking joint actions. This initiative has contributed to increased knowledge and guided the development of a roadmap on enhanced international cooperation for actions that can reduce emissions of black carbon.

Presented by CIPS, the Observatoire de la politique et la sécurité de l’Arctique (OPSA), and the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN).

The Arctic Council is the primary multilateral forum regrouping Arctic states and people and cooperating on social and environmental issues. Iceland is about to pass the chairmanship to Russia for a 2-year mandate. Russia has already announced major investments and possesses ambitious objective to develop its part of the Arctic. The chairmanship is presented as an excellent opportunity to play an active role in the region.

The objective of this conference is to shed light on the strategy and intentions of Russia in relation to its upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Additionally, panelists will analyse what other Arctic states (Canada, Nordic countries, United States) and people (Indigenous groups) have to expect from the Russian chairmanship and what are the policy debates that these states are likely to face in the next two years.

Please follow the link above for more information and to register.

Frozen Pasts 5 was originally scheduled for 15-18 September 2020, but was postponed to 7-10 September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Frozen Pasts 5 will be held 7-10 September 2021 in Chico Hot Springs Resort in Pray, Montana.

These are unsettled times, but we are holding out hope for convening the 5th International Frozen Pasts Conference (FP5) on the human dimensions of glacial and ice patch environments at all latitudes and on all continents.

FP5 represents the continuing tradition of the conferences themed around glacial and ice patch archaeology begun in Bern in 2008. The schedule for the conference is described on the website.

Most events will be held at the Chico Hot Springs Resort (Pray, Montana), starting with a Tuesday evening Icebreaker. Exceptions include afternoon field trips on Wednesday and Thursday. At the end of the Thursday trip, a poster session will be held at the Mammoth Hotel, Wyoming. Poster presenters should bring their posters with them on the Thursday afternoon trip.

Important dates:

30 April 2021 - Abstracts due
30 June 2021 - Registration due

Ice cores provide information about past climate and environmental conditions as well as direct records of the composition of the atmosphere on timescales from decades to hundreds of millennia. With the pioneering work of Hans Oeschger of University of Bern on carbon dioxide in polar ice cores, a long tradition of ice core research in Switzerland began. Less known is that Hans Oeschger also initiated a high-alpine drilling project on Colle Gnifetti in Switzerland in the 1970s. To acknowledge Hans Oeschger’s important contribution to these two ice core fields and to foster the link between the corresponding communities the theme of the conference is Ice Core Science at the Three Poles.

Important Dates:

• January 1, 2021: Submission for abstracts opens, Registration opens
• April 30, 2021: Deadline for abstract submission, Deadline for travel grant application
• June 1, 2021: Abstract confirmation, Travel award confirmation
• July 1, 2021: Early bird registration closes
• September 1, 2021: Online registration closes
• October 10, 2021: Ice Core Young Scientists (ICYS) Workshop
• October 11 - 15, 2021: IPCIS Third Open Science Conference
• October 16, 2021: Post-Conference Excursion

We are pleased to announce that the 77th Eastern Snow Conference will be held as a virtual meeting hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, on 9 June 2021. A revised meeting format will be used in support of the ongoing public health and safety efforts around the world. The single-day virtual meeting will focus on student-led research.

The scientific program is open to session on theoretical, experimental, remote sensing, modeling, and operational studies of snow, ice, and winter hydrology. We anticipate including sessions on a wide variety of snow and ice themes, including in situ observations of snow, remote sensing of snow and ice, and high latitude snow processes. The ESC has only plenary oral presentation sessions, allowing time to discuss the research of each participant. You are invited to submit an abstract for an oral presentation.

An abstract of ~300 words should be submitted by 30 April 2021 to the program chair, Dr. Krystopher Chutko.

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
plus
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.

Unfortunately the Polar Microbes Symposium has been postponed once again due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and rescheduled for May 9-12, 2022. We hope that you and your families stay safe during this uncertain time and we look forward seeing you next year!

The 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses will take place at Tvärminne Zoological Station, 120km southwest of Helsinki, Finland.

This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on ‘omics’ techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but exciting research using additional methods is encouraged as well.

Organizers: Dr. Eeva Eronen-Rasimus (University of Helsinki) and Dr. Eric Collins (University of Manitoba & University of Alaska Fairbanks).

Deadline for Abstract Submission: March 14, 2022.

Registration Deadline: April 10, 2022.

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.

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.

In partnership with HQ USCG Director of Maritime Transportation Systems and Senior Arctic Policy Advisor, are creating a tabletop exercise organized to address policy, plans and initiatives to support HQ USCG and the Coast Guard Enterprise in addressing the 2019 USCG Arctic Strategic Outlook (ArcSO) task to “Advance and Modernize the Arctic Marine Transportation System.”

Due to COVID19, ADAC has been forced to reschedule this exercise 5 times, seeking to make this an in-person event. Since COVID immunizations are now underway, ADAC and USCG are hopeful this fifth scheduling will finally result in being able to proceed with the event.

Arctic Maritime Horizons Exercise will provide an orienting and deliberative plenary forum to prepare participants followed by a 3-move exercise to challenge assumptions, gain insights and organize follow-on items of consideration to guide USCG Arctic and Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook implementation tasks.

This virtual gathering will focus on the the state of NNA research field-season planning and community-based activities to discuss common concerns, coordination, and approaches for organizing, sharing and disseminating NNA field-season plans with Arctic communities, Indigenous and Tribal organizations, and other interested organizations and partners.

This conference will discuss Iceland's chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2019-2021, the Greenland and Iceland in the New Arctic Report published in January 2021 by the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, investment opportunities between and within Iceland and Greenland as it relates to Canada and the United States. The conference will as well address Doing Business in the Arctic, status and outlook organized by the Arctic Economic Council.

This conference will also provide the opportunity for attendees to network virtually and meet new connections doing business in the Arctic.

The conference is organized by the Icelandic American Chamber of Commerce in New York in partnership with the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute, Greenland Representation in Washington DC, Embassy of Iceland in Washington DC, Embassy of Iceland in Ottawa, Consulate of Iceland in New York, Consulate of Iceland in Nuuk, and the Arctic Economic Council.

Contact: polarecc at polarnetwork.org

Abstract deadline: Friday 19th March 2021.

We invite Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to present their Polar research in a friendly environment. We also invite anyone, of any academic or professional background, who is curious or passionate about Polar research to attend.

This conference has been organised with the support of the UK Polar Network. This two-day online conference will highlight the work of ECRs within Polar Science from a range of disciplines and institutions. This is the first UK Polar ECR conference and is tailored towards this community. The conference will focus on the high-quality science produced by ECRs and the contemporary issues Polar ECRs are facing. The scientific talks will be divided in to five streams which will run parallel throughout the conference:

• Ecosystems
• Oceanography
• Geology and Glaciology
• Atmosphere and Climate
• Social Sciences

In addition to scientific talks and posters, there will be a strong emphasis on careers & employability, as well as discussing the future of UK Polar science. This will include:

• Employability workshops for careers both in and out of academia.
• A session dedicated to improving collaboration with Indigenous communities.
• A panel discussing the future of UK polar science with specific emphasis on the impacts of Brexit, COVID-19 and the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

Submissions:

The form for submitting an abstract for a talk or a poster is available on the link below, this will simultaneously register you for the conference. We ask that those submitting an abstract fall within the category of ECR (Post-graduate students, PhD students and Post-doctoral researchers). Abstracts must be < 200 words and the submission deadline is Friday 19th March 2021.

Abstract submission & registration form: https://forms.gle/mZd2bZupmWQ1PLen6

Attendance:

This conference is an opportunity for ECRs to hone their skills in a friendly environment however we also welcome anyone, of any academic or professional background, interested in Polar science to attend the conference.

Conference registration form (for attendees only): https://forms.gle/9Tvt4yVAJEC1BZjr5

International Glaciological Society Global Seminar:

Speaking:

• (Emma) Mickey MacKie, Stanford Radio Glaciology, "Simulating Subglacial Greenland with Geostatistics"
• Emma Pearce, University of Leeds, "Full Waveform Inversion for Glaciological Seismic Data; Improving the Seismic Characterisation of Glacier Firn"
• Nico Stoll, Alfred Wegener institute Bremerhaven, "Impurities and Deformation in the EGRIP Ice Core"

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.

The public rollout of a new set of 30-year normals for the United States will take place on May 2021. This presentation will provide background on methodologies used to generate the normals and updates to the largely similar methods used in the 2010 normals processing. Changes in the 1991-2020 normals from 1981-2010 will be discussed. Normals products will be described. Finally, questions will be answered.

Please follow the link above to register.

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.

Organized in cooperation with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

The Arctic Circle Japan Forum will be organized in association with the Third Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting (ASM3), which will be co-hosted by the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

ASM3 follows the Second Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting, which was hosted by the Governments of Finland and Germany, and the European Union in 2018, and the White House Arctic Science Ministerial, hosted in Washington, D.C. in 2016.

The Arctic Circle is collaborating with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

Governments, universities, companies, research institutions, organizations, associations and other partners are invited to submit proposals for Sessions to the Arctic Circle Secretariat.

The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS), the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Collaborations, and University of California, Irvine invite registration for a virtual Arctic Research Funders Meet and Greet networking event. This event will convene virtually.


The Arctic Research Funders Meet and Greet will provide an informal opportunity for Arctic researchers to connect with multiple agency program officers to gain insight into each organization’s Arctic research interests. The event has been planned using a “speed networking” format that will allow representatives from each funding organization to meet with small groups of up to 10 people for approximately 10-15 minutes at a time. Researchers will be invited to move between breakout rooms hosted by agency staff in a round-robin small group format.

Small group conversations will explore the Arctic research interests of each funding organization, how proposals are evaluated for funding consideration, or provide an opportunity to address a handful of specific questions that would be appropriate for group discussion.


Representatives from the following Arctic research funding agencies have already confirmed their attendance:

• U.S. National Science Foundation
• NOAA's Arctic Research Program
• NASA's Cryosphere Program
• U.S. Department of Energy
• U.S. Arctic Research Commission
• North Pacific Research Board

There is no cost to participate and attendees do not need to be a member of either ARCUS or IARPC to attend. We do encourage you to register early, however, as attendance may be capped to ensure small group sizes.

For questions, please contact Brit Myers
 at brit [at] arcus.org


This webinar is the second of two webinars exploring topics related to community-driven research carried out under the University of Ottawa-led Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices research project.

This virtual, interactive session focuses on the ‘lessons learned’ from the project from the perspectives of the academic research community, community partners, and youth community researchers, with potential lessons for industry and government representatives who are interested in collaborating with Northern communities.

The Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices research project involved 14 communities across Arctic Canada, including 59 Inuit and Northern youth as community researchers, and resulted in a series of locally-informed community-specific maps to inform Arctic waters users about the significant socio-cultural, archaeological and ecological areas, and local travel routes, for integration into the Low Impact Shipping Corridors.

Dr. Natalie Carter of the University of Ottawa, the project Community Research Lead, will present on the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned. Shirley Tagalik, of the Arviat Aqqiumavvik Society will discuss the unexpected outcomes from the research project for her community relevant to safety issues with shipping and travel, ice monitoring and mapping, and infrastructure location. Natasha Simonee, a community researcher and partner in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet, Nunavut) will share insights from her involvement with the project including suggestions for communicating and working with community partners. Dr. Amber Silver, Assistant Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity of the University at Albany, New York and Coast and Ocean Risk Communication Community of Practice Co-Lead, will moderate the session.

The purpose of the discussion is to gain a diversity of views from current and retired military officers who have unique insights on the emerging defense and security environment across the Trans-Atlantic Arctic region.

How serious and in what ways is the rising Great Power Competition affecting the stability of Trans-Atlantic Arctic Security? Importantly, amongst the priorities affecting each NATO/NATO Partner's respective national security interests in the Arctic region, how does Arctic defense and security stack against other competing factors, such as commercial developments and associated rising maritime traffic in the high latitudes or the safety of trans-Atlantic shipping as a result of warming/increased melting of the Greenland Ice sheet?

Join the Wilson Center's Polar Institute and the Arctic Domain Awareness Center for a discussion about these questions and trans-Atlantic security in the Arctic.

Speakers

Maj General (ret) Mats Engman
Distinguished Military Fellow, Institute for Security and Development Policy

Rear Admiral (ret.) Lars Saunes
Professor and Distinguished International Fellow, International Programs, U.S. Naval War College

Captain(n) J.F. French, MSM, CD
Deputy Commander Joint Task Force North

Col. Petteri Seppälä
Defense Attaché, Embassy of Finland, Washington D.C

Col. David G. Hanson
Commander of the 821st Air Base Group, Thule Air Base

Moderators

Michael Sfraga
Director, Polar Institute // Director, Global Risk and Resilience Program

Randy Kee
Global Fellow; Major General, USAF (Retired); Executive Director, Arctic Domain Awareness Center, University of Alaska Anchorage