Past Events

Call for abstracts

“Western Alaska in Transition”
Nome, Alaska • April 2–4, 2024

Since 2008, the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference (WAISC) has brought together rural and urban scientists, educators, students, leaders, and community members to discuss science, research, and issues relevant to Western Alaska.

The 2024 conference will highlight needs to maintain strength, health, and subsistence lifestyles while moving forward during rapid transitions within the environment, ecology, and industries of Western Alaska. A conference priority is the continued sharing of knowledge across cultural boundaries.

We welcome submissions drawn from all disciplines that address questions and issues of concern to Western Alaska communities. Abstracts will be reviewed by the WAISC abstract review committee for relevant content and available space. If you need support submitting an abstract, please contact Claudia Ihl or Gay Sheffield.

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

Climate and weather
Oceans, lakes and rivers
Ecology and wildlife
Resource development
Reindeer herding
Human and community health
Sharing knowledge and communications

Abstracts for oral and poster presentation are invited and should be submitted by February 15, 2024, using the online abstract submission form. Note: Deadline extended to 29 February 2024

Abstracts should be no more than 250 words for oral or poster presentations and include the following information:

Author name, title, email, and institutional affiliation
Presentation title
Research question, methods, data and results

Notification of proposal acceptance will be by March 1.

Building on the scholarship of three cohorts of the Fulbright Arctic Initiative, Fulbright Arctic IV will bring together a network of professionals, practitioners and researchers from the United States, Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden for monthly webinars, thematic group collaboration, three in-person meetings and an individual exchange experience to advance Arctic knowledge systems and policies through an interdisciplinary framework.

The Fulbright Arctic Initiative will provide a platform for scholars from across the Arctic region to engage in collaborative thinking, analysis, problem-solving and multi-disciplinary research in three main thematic areas:
• Climate Change and Arctic Resources
• Arctic Security and Governance
• Mental Health and Well-Being

Selected scholars will participate in an individual Fulbright exchange of a minimum of six weeks up to three months, as well as in-person seminars, monthly webinars and ongoing virtual communication, all supporting the scholars’ collaborative group projects. Awards will begin in September 2024 and run for 18 months, through spring 2026.

Faculty, researchers and practitioners from the eight Arctic Council member states may now apply for this collaborative research program. The application will close on March 1, 2024.

THE NORTH PACIFIC RESEARCH BOARD (NPRB) is seeking nominations to fill a total of five open seats on its Science and Advisory Panels; three on the Science Panel and two on the Advisory Panel.

SCIENCE PANEL QUALIFICATIONS
Desired qualifications for the open seats on the Science Panel include expertise in one or more of the following categories: (1) marine fish and/or marine invertebrate ecology; (2) stock assessment and fisheries management; (3) quantitative ecology; (4) marine mammal ecology and; (5) veterinary science and marine wildlife health.

ADVISORY PANEL QUALIFICATIONS
Both open seats on the Advisory Panel will represent the North Pacific at-large. These seats are intended to provide balanced representation with insights relevant to the regions of the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Arctic.

The deadline for receipt of application materials is Friday, March 1, 2024.

The Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) is a researcher-driven initiative that aims to enhance ongoing ocean monitoring with ship-based measurements, to establish the present states of the Arctic Ocean ecosystem, carbon cycle and associated hydrography. SAS has coordinated a multi-ship survey using an international fleet of icebreakers and research vessels, where more than 25 cruises from 11 different nations collected a set of parameters across the Arctic Ocean in 2020-2022. This comprehensive dataset will allow for unprecedented assessments and provide a unique baseline to track future climate change and its impacts.

This webinar showcases some of the results from SAS cruises. It will be moderated by Øyvind Paasche, the chair of the SAS scientific steering committee, who will also give a brief introduction to the SAS initiative.

The zoom link will be sent after registration at https://skjemaker.app.uib.no/view.php?id=16517518

There will be three solicited talks with room for questions and discussions:

Ashley Arroyo - PhD Candidate at Yale University
Variability and long-term declines in dissolved oxygen in the upper Canada Basin water column

Mariko Hatta - Researcher at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Trace metal measurements in the Arctic Ocean

Mads Reinholdt Jensen - Researcher at Arctic University of Norway (UiT)
Biological monitoring of vertebrates in remote Arctic regions using environmental DNA

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the SAS coordinator at Maria.Bezem [at] uib.no

The 2024 NNA Community Meeting will be jointly hosted by the NNA-CO and George Washington University (GWU) and held at the University Student Center on GWU’s Foggy Bottom campus.

This meeting will provide an opportunity for NNA researchers, NNA project partners, Arctic Indigenous community members, Indigenous organizations, policymakers, and federal agency partners to come together to consider the state of research and research relations within and beyond the NNA Initiative.

The theme, goals, and structure of the meeting will be further defined during spring, summer, and fall 2023 in consultation with the NNA Community.

The NNA-CO will provide regular updates in the lead up to the meeting through our monthly NNA-CO newsletter and on the NNA-CO website.

CliC and the University of Massachusetts Amherst have a spring semester webinar series and we are excited to announce our next featured speaker is Nicholas Holschuh, Assistant Professor of Geology at Amherst College.

Topic: The Competition Between Interior Thinning and Marginal Retreat at Thwaites Glacier.
Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at 9:00 EST

The webinars will be archived online on the CliC website later this semester. Please email the webinar series organizer, Meghan Taylor (info [at] climate-cryosphere.org), with any questions.

Toolik Field Station invites all to join us on Friday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. Alaska time for a virtual town hall. We will give an informative overview regarding summer 2024 operations, including updates to the COVID-19 mitigation plan and our summer truck schedule. Following the overview, we will allow time for questions and comments.

Please send questions about 2024 operations in advance to the Toolik management team at uaf-iab-toolik [at] alaska.edu. Alternatively, you may also submit questions during the town hall.

The meeting will be held by Zoom. Register in advance at bit.ly/toolik-town-hall-2024. A recording will be made available for those who are unable to attend. If you have difficulty registering for or signing onto the Zoom meeting, please contact our Communication and DEI manager, Haley Dunleavy at hdunleavy [at] alaska.edu.

Mark your calendars for this polar community opportunity, especially in the northeast US and Canada to highlight your science and share with others your interests in Arctic science. The Arctic is warming 3-4 times faster than the rest of the planet. Let's collect our research at this workshop to move the message forward.

Organizers especially encourage early career scientists and graduate students to join this community of Arctic scientists.

Proposals for special sessions can be sent to jbg92 [at] umass.edu. Organizers are open to sessions on Antarctic science and archeology of human migration, as well.

Abstracts are being accepted for poster presentations and talks. Abstracts can be uploaded during the registration process.

Abstract deadline is 25 February 2024.

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) announces their upcoming three-part leadership workshop series for polar early-career scientists. The tools introduced in this series will be applicable to polar research environments in both the lab and the field. The three workshops include:

Getting Back to the Basics: 21 February 2024, 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. MT

The Leadership Toolbox: Team-building and Navigating Conflict: 13 March 2024, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. MT

Leadership from Above and Below: Building Safe and Constructive Work Atmospheres: 3 April 2024, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. MT

For more information, go to: https://psecco.org/events

The United States Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (USAPECS) is excited to invite you to our upcoming webinar, “Water in a Frozen Arctic: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives.” It will be held in conjunction with APECS International’s Polar Week events on Thursday, March 14, 2024, from 17:00-18:00 UTC (9am-10am Alaska/1pm-2pm Eastern USA).

Observations have shown that heavy precipitation and other thawing events are increasing around the Arctic, including more frequent rain-on-snow occurrences, and global climate models project that these extremes will only continue to increase in likelihood over the next few decades. This virtual event will feature different perspectives on the changing water cycle around the Arctic with a focus on its causes, impacts, and implications for the region and the globe.

The event will include short presentations from four leading early career polar researchers that are actively working to expand our understanding of the many far-reaching societal and physical impacts of an increasingly wetter and warmer Arctic.

Meet our presenters:

Dr. Sophie Elixhauser, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna and Austrian Polar Research Institute, Austria

Jorrit van der Schot, University of Graz and Austrian Polar Research Institute, Austria

Dr. Michelle McCrystall, Research Fellow University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Kristin Poinar, University at Buffalo, Department of Geology and RENEW Institute, NY USA

Here is the registration link and event information (Zoom):
https://iarpc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvf-uqrjkvGtErcpoUJQYkBQktkkFA…

The Community and Citizen Science in the Far North 2024 Conference is set for 17-18 April 2024.

The 2024 conference builds on the efforts from the first conference in 2021 and a subsequent webinar. The focus will be continuing to share, network, and discuss the various aspects of conducting community and citizen science research in the Arctic.

The organizers are currently accepting presentation abstracts for the conference. The abstract submission deadline is Friday, 8 March 2024, 5:00 p.m. Alaska Standard Time.

APPLICATION DUE DATE EXTENDED - Friday, 15 March 2024

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) Conference Travel Grant Program is now open for applications. Travel awards to attend and present polar-related work at a conference are open to polar early career scientists and educators. In this Spring 2024 funding cycle, PSECCO will be distributing $5,000 of awards. Applicants may request a reasonable amount of funding to support their travel to/from a conference, up to a value of $900 per person, with awards aimed at those with demonstrated financial need. An additional $100 is available for awardees who organize a PSECCO social event at the conference.

The application deadline is 15 March 2024 at 11:59pm MT. PSECCO will open another round of conference travel funding in the fall of 2024.

Join NSF's Arctic Sciences Section, in the Office of Polar Programs, for a community office hour on 15 March 2024 from 1:00–2:00 p.m. EST. In this office hour staff will provide updates on expectations for the upcoming Arctic field season, new opportunities, new policies and requirements, and other updates. There will be time set aside to ask questions.

Registration is required: https://nsf.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/vJItduGprDIiGiIU0PKeuOhJOiX9qC…

To better understand zooplankton in a changing world, ICES and PICES are holding the 7th International Zooplankton Production Symposium as a forum to discuss the latest zooplankton research. The ICES/PICES Zooplankton Production Symposium will bring together the top zooplankton researchers globally, showcasing recent advances. Understanding the current and evolving role of zooplankton will require new insights provided by:

• Assessing the impact on zooplankton of climate change, fishing, and pollution such as microplastics
• State-of-the-art sampling techniques such as DNA, imaging, and bioacoustics
• Biochemical methods applied to unravelling complex trophic ecology
• The application of cutting-edge approaches in zooplankton modelling, including size and trait-based biogeochemical and ecosystem models
• Revealing the role of microzooplankton in biogeochemical cycling and food webs
• Exploring the structure and functioning of macrozooplankton communities and their impact on carbon sequestration and trophic ecology
• Examining zooplankton in fisheries science, including dynamics of fish larvae, the impact of zooplankton on fish larval mortality and growth, and the commercial harvest of zooplankton
• Elucidating the vital role of zooplankton in polar environments
• Understanding the role of gelatinous filter feeders and jellyfish in carbon sequestration and trophic ecology
• The use of zooplankton as ecosystem indicators in a changing ocean

The symposium will be held over five days in the historic waterfront district of Hobart, Australia. This event will be held in-person and provide the first opportunity since 2016 for zooplankton researchers to meet, build networks, and hear the latest science. Organizers are monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and will adapt plans as needed.

Scientific workshops and sessions will include invited and contributed papers. Contributed papers will be selected for oral or poster presentations.

The abstract submission deadline is 30 September 2023.

In Autumn 2023, an APECS & Arctic PASSION Sharing Circle gathered a group of early career professionals and Arctic youth in the homelands of the Sami, in Northern Finland. What have we learned from this event? Did we achieve our goal to foster dialogue and open new perspectives on Arctic intercultural collaborations and co-management? How can this experience be used for future educational efforts? Join us and our 4 panelists to discuss learnings from the Sharing Circle!

Learning from the Sharing Circle: Reflections on an Arctic PASSION Event - 18 March 2024, 4:00 p.m. GMT
Register here: https://arcticpassion.eu/blog/LearningFromSharingCircle

Panelists and participants of the Sharing Circle:
Elise Brown-Dussault (Canada)
Jessica Hall (Norway)
Pavel Tkach (Finland)
Harmony Wayner (USA)

Moderation: Lisa Grosfeld and Josefine Lenz (APECS, AWI)

IARPC is updating the implementation plan for the 2022-2026 Arctic Research Plan and is asking the community to help us celebrate our successes and accomplishments, highlight where we need to shift our attention, and suggest where new research deliverables may be needed. IARPC will host this event for an informational webinar about the accomplishments of the current implementation plan and how to share your thoughts about what should be included in the next one.

The College of Rural and Community Development and the International Arctic Research Center are co-hosting a virtual seminar series called A Place for Knowledge Exchange. These monthly conversations will cover collaborative approaches to research, education, and real-life community-based practices in rural Alaska.The series will take place on the third Thursday of each month, starting in January 2024, at Noon via Zoom.

The series will take place on the third Thursday of each month, starting in January 2024, at Noon via Zoom.

March 21, 2024 topic: Uplifting Indigenous Knowledge through the Tamamta Program

Speakers:

Sonia Natalie Ibarra
Tamamta co-Program Coordinator
Postdoctoral Fellow

Craig Chythlook
Tamamta Research Fellow
IARC Indigenous Liaison

IASC is excited to announce that Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2024, including the Arctic Observing Summit, will be held in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The United Kingdom has been an IASC member country since 1991, and this will be the second time that the UK will host the ASSW, with the first one being in 2000, in Cambridge.

The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) was initiated by IASC in 1999 to provide opportunities for coordination, cooperation and collaboration between various scientific organizations involved in Arctic research and to economize on travel and time. Over the years, the summit evolved into the most important annual gathering of the Arctic research organizations. The summit is organized by an International Coordination Group and any organization engaged in supporting and facilitating Arctic research may participate.

Important Dates

• 1 September 2023: Deadline to submit Statements and Session Proposals
• 30 September 2023: Deadline for Call for Business and Community Meetings
• Autumn 2023 - Registration opens

Join the UAF Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy for this month's NWS Climate Outlook Briefing. Rick Thoman will review recent and current climate conditions around Alaska, discuss forecasting tools, and finish up with the Climate Prediction Center’s forecast for April 2024 and the early spring season. Learn what’s happened and what may be in store with Alaska’s seasonal climate.

Register here for the online event: https://uaf-accap.org/event/mar2024-nws-climate-outlook/

The Arctic Data Center invites applications to participate in their upcoming in-person workshop, Scalable and Computationally Reproducible Approaches to Arctic Research. This workshop will take place 25-29 March 2024 in Santa Barbara, California.

This workshop at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) will provide researchers with an introduction to advanced topics in computationally reproducible research in Python, including software and techniques for working with very large datasets. This includes working in cloud computing environments, docker containers, and parallel processing using tools like parsl and dask. The workshop will also cover concrete methods for documenting and uploading data to the Arctic Data Center, advanced approaches to tracking data provenance, responsible research and data management practices including data sovereignty and the CARE principles, and ethical concerns with data-intensive modeling and analysis.

Support to travel and/or lodging may be available.

Application deadline: 22 December 2023

Apply here

For questions, contact:
Angie Garcia
Email: agarcia [at] nceas.ucsb.edu