Past Events

Organizers at the Arctic Centre announce a call for papers for the Arctic Barents Symposium, entitled "Barents Studies: Past, Present, and Future." The symposium will be held 4-5 November 2014 in Rovaniemi, Finland.

The symposium is organized to celebrate establishment of the new academic journal "Barents Studies: Peoples, Economies, and Politics." The goal of the symposium is to advance collaboration among senior and early-career scholars, to network with new potential contributors to the journal, and to discuss the state of knowledge and research concerning the Barents Region with various stakeholders.

Stakeholders, senior scholars, and PhD students are invited to submit papers for the symposium.

Submission deadline: Monday, 16 June 2014.

For further information about the symposium, the agenda, and submission instructions, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/ArcticBarentsSymposium.

IARPC Collaboration Teams meet on a regular basis to implement the Arctic Research Plan: FY 2013-2017. Most meetings are open to the Arctic research community. Collaboration teams facilitate communication and collaboration between Federal agencies, the academic community, industry, non-governmental organizations, and State, local and tribal groups.

Contact Sara Bowden, bowden [at] arcus.org, if you would like to join this meeting.

The Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) announce a call for abstracts for the 2015 Annual Meeting of the AAG. The meeting will convene 21-25 April 2015 in Chicago, Illinois.

Note: To be included in the following sessions, please register on the AAG website then submit abstract and PIN to the session organizers.

Organizers of the following sessions invite presentations. Other sessions will be considered if there are sufficient submissions. Graduate students and young scholars are encouraged to apply.

Polar Geography Sessions:

1. Current Topics in Human-Environment Interactions. - Issues pertaining to sustainable Arctic environments, cultures and economies amid climate change and globalization. - Observed and anticipated impacts of a warming climate on natural and human systems in high latitude regions.

2. Current Topics in Politics, Resource Geographies, and Extractive Industries. - Recent developments in the political landscape and governance of polar regions. - Examinations of development trends in and between Arctic communities. - Exploring the past, present and future of resource extraction in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions and its role in local and global economies.

3. Current Topics in Antarctic Research. - Dynamics of Antarctic atmospheric and oceanic systems. - Mechanisms and implications of Antarctic ice sheet recession.

For Polar Geography sessions: send abstract and PIN to Scott Stephenson (stephenson [at] uconn.edu).

Cryosphere Sessions:

1. Advances in Cryosphere Research. - Recent developments in remote sensing and modeling methodologies for any aspect of the Cryosphere.

2.High Latitude Environments in a Changing Climate. - Impacts of climate change on high latitude hydrologic, atmospheric, and terrestrial systems, including polar ice sheets

3. Mountain Ice and Snow. - Glacier environmental change and impacts on water resources

For the Cryosphere sessions: send abstract and PIN to Vena Chu (venachu [at] ucla.edu).

Poster Session: R.S. Tarr Illustrated Paper Session

The annual R.S. Tarr Award for Student Research is sponsored by the Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups. The award is for student research on any aspect of polar or cryospheric research and is given to the undergraduate or graduate student presenting the illustrated paper judged best in this special session. The recipient of the R.S. Tarr award will receive a cash prize.

The illustrated paper must be completed and presented by the student. However, the student's advisor can coauthor the paper. Illustrated papers will be judged on their originality and contribution to polar or cryospheric research.

To participate in the R.S. Tarr session: submit an abstract for an illustrated paper through the AAG webiste and send PIN to Vena Chu (venachu [at] ucla.edu).

Abstract submission deadline: 5 November 2014.

For more information, meeting registration, and abstract submission guidelines, please go to the AAG website: http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting.

The Department of Energy is pleased to announce upcoming tribal consultations and stakeholder outreach meetings on the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), Ten Year Plan to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment in the Arctic Region. For additional information on the plan, visit http://www.energy.gov/indianenergy/office-indian-energy-policy-and-prog…. Tribal leaders and stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments on the Ten Year Plan, submitted to IndianEnergy [at] hq.doe.gov, or by fax to (202) 586-1534 by December 12, 2014.

The regular Fall Meeting of the PRB will take place November 6-7, 2014 at the National Academies Keck Center, Room 208, in Washington, DC. The agenda will be posted in the coming weeks.

The Department of Energy is pleased to announce upcoming tribal consultations and stakeholder outreach meetings on the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), Ten Year Plan to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment in the Arctic Region. For additional information on the plan, visit http://www.energy.gov/indianenergy/office-indian-energy-policy-and-prog…. Tribal leaders and stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments on the Ten Year Plan, submitted to IndianEnergy [at] hq.doe.gov, or by fax to (202) 586-1534 by December 12, 2014.

For more information, please visit the website.

The Department of Energy is pleased to announce upcoming tribal consultations and stakeholder outreach meetings on the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), Ten Year Plan to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment in the Arctic Region. For additional information on the plan, visit http://www.energy.gov/indianenergy/office-indian-energy-policy-and-prog…. Tribal leaders and stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments on the Ten Year Plan, submitted to IndianEnergy [at] hq.doe.gov, or by fax to (202) 586-1534 by December 12, 2014.

The Department of Energy is pleased to announce upcoming tribal consultations and stakeholder outreach meetings on the National Strategy for the Arctic Region (NSAR), Ten Year Plan to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment in the Arctic Region. For additional information on the plan, visit http://www.energy.gov/indianenergy/office-indian-energy-policy-and-prog…. Tribal leaders and stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments on the Ten Year Plan, submitted to IndianEnergy [at] hq.doe.gov, or by fax to (202) 586-1534 by December 12, 2014.

For more information, please visit the website.

IARPC Collaboration Teams meet on a regular basis to implement the Arctic Research Plan: FY 2013-2017. Most meetings are open to the Arctic research community. Collaboration teams facilitate communication and collaboration between Federal agencies, the academic community, industry, non-governmental organizations, and State, local and tribal groups.

Contact Sara Bowden, bowden [at] arcus.org, if you would like to join this meeting.

The University Complutense of Madrid is pleased to announce the celebration of the first Spanish Congress on the Arctic region. The Symposium aims at creating an interdisciplinary space of discussion and debate among different Arctic scientists, policy makers and stakeholders. Including academics and representatives of both Arctic and non- Arctic research Institutes, the congress will give a general overview of the most relevant issues related with the North Pole region and derived from climate change. It must be noticed, considering that Spain is developing its first Polar Strategy, that this is the first Spanish Symposium on Arctic issues from the perspective of Human and Social Sciences, particularly, International Law and Political Science. The Congress not only intends to be a forum for scientific discussion, but also a way to make known among students of the main challenges present in the Arctic.

In order to participate to the Symposium, prior registration is required. You can register by writing your Name, Institution and Identification number at the ASK session of the blog. A certificate of assistance will be issued at the end of the Congress

Participation Fees:

• UCM students: 10€
• Students or participants from any other Institution: 20€

For any information or questions, please use the ASK session of the blog or write to:

Marzia Scopelliti: marzia.scopelliti [at] gmail.com
Zhaklin Yaneva: yaneva_jaki [at] abv.bg

The 2nd Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences is to be held in conjunction with SC14, Sunday, 16 November 2014, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Progress in scientific research is dependent on the quality and accessibility of software at all levels and it is critical to address challenges related to the development, deployment, and maintenance of reusable software as well as education around software practices. These challenges can be technological, policy based, organizational, and educational, and are of interest to developers (the software community), users (science disciplines), and researchers studying the conduct of science (science of team science, science of organizations, science of science and innovation policy, and social science communities).

The WSSSPE1 workshop (http://wssspe.researchcomputing.org.uk/WSSSPE1) engaged the broad scientific community to identify challenges and best practices in areas of interest for sustainable scientific software. At WSSSPE2, we invite the community to propose and discuss specific mechanisms to move towards an imagined future practice of software development and usage in science and engineering. The workshop will include multiple mechanisms for participation, encourage team building around solutions, and identify risky solutions with potentially transformative outcomes. Participation by early career students and postdoctoral researchers is strongly encouraged.

We invite short (4-page) actionable papers that will lead to improvements for sustainable software science. These papers could be a call to action, or could provide position or experience reports on sustainable software activities. The papers will be used by the organizing committee to design sessions that will be highly interactive and targeted towards facilitating action. Submitted papers should be archived by a third-party service that provides DOIs. We encourage submitters to license their papers under a Creative Commons license that encourages sharing and remixing, as we will combine ideas (with attribution) into the outcomes of the workshop.

The organizers will invite one or more submitters of provocative papers to start the workshop by presenting highlights of their papers in a keynote presentation to initiate active discussion that will continue throughout the day.

Areas of interest for WSSSPE2, include, but are not limited to:

• defining software sustainability in the context of science and engineering software
• how to evaluate software sustainability
• improving the development process that leads to new software
• methods to develop sustainable software from the outset
• effective approaches to reusable software created as a by-product of research
• impact of computer science research on the development of scientific software
• recommendations for the support and maintenance of existing software
• software engineering best practices
• governance, business, and sustainability models
• the role of community software repositories, their operation and sustainability
• reproducibility, transparency needs that may be unique to science
• successful open source software implementations
• incentives for using and contributing to open source software
• transitioning users into contributing developers
• building large and engaged user communities
• developing strong advocates
• measurement of usage and impact
• encouraging industry¹s role in sustainability
• engagement of industry with volunteer communities
• incentives for industry
• incentives for community to contribute to industry-driven projects
• recommending policy changes
• software credit, attribution, incentive, and reward
• issues related to multiple organizations and multiple countries, such as intellectual property, licensing, etc.
• mechanisms and venues for publishing software, and the role of publishers
• improving education and training
• best practices for providing graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in domain communities with sufficient training in software development
• novel uses of sustainable software in education (K-20)
• case studies from students on issues around software development in the undergraduate or graduate curricula
• careers and profession
• successful examples of career paths for developers
• institutional changes to support sustainable software such as promotion and tenure metrics, job categories, etc.

Submissions:

Submissions of up to four pages should be formatted to be easily readable and submitted to an open access repository that provides unique identifiers (e.g., DOIs) that can be cited, for example http://arXiv.org or http://figshare.com.

Once you have received an identifier for your self-published paper from a repository, submit it to WSSSPE2 by creating a new submission at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wssspe2, and entering:

• Author information for all authors
• Title
• Abstract (with the identifier as the first line of the abstract, for example, http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.791606 or http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.7414 or alternative)
• At least three keywords
• Tick the abstract only box Do not submit the paper itself through EasyChair; the identifier in the abstract that points to the paper is sufficient.

Deadline for Submission:

14 July 2014 (any time of day, no extensions)

Travel Support

Funds are available to support participation in WSSSPE2 by 1) US-based students, early-career researchers, and members of underrepresented groups; and 2) participants who would not otherwise attend the SC14 conference. Priority will be given to those who have submitted papers and can make a compelling case for how their participation will strengthen the overall workshop and/or positively impact their future research or educational activities.

Submissions for travel support will be accepted from September 1st to September 15th 2014 following instructions posted on the workshop web site.

Financial support to enable this has been generously provided by
1) the National Science Foundation and
2) the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Important Dates:

• July 14, 2014 Paper submission deadline
• September 1, 2014 Author notification
• September 15, 2014 Funding request submission deadline
• September 22, 2014 Funding decision notification
• November 16, 2014 WSSSPE2 Workshop2

The NOAA Marine Debris Program provides funding to catalyze the implementation of locally-driven, community-based marine debris prevention, assessment, and removal projects that will benefit coastal habitat, waterways, and NOAA trust resources. Funding for this purpose comes through the NOAA Marine Debris Program as appropriations to the Office of Response and Restoration, National Ocean Service. The funding is, in part, administered through a grant competition with the NOAA Restoration Center’s Community-based Restoration Program. Projects awarded through this grant competition have strong on-the-ground habitat restoration components involving the removal of marine debris, including derelict fishing gear. Projects also provide benefits to coastal communities, and create long-term ecological habitat improvements for NOAA trust resources. Through this solicitation NOAA id entifies marine debris removal projects, strengthens the development and implementation of habitat restoration through community-based marine debris removal, and fosters awareness of the effects of marine debris to further the conservation of living marine resource habitats, as well as contribute to the understanding of debris types and impacts. Successful proposals through this solicitation will be funded through cooperative agreements. Funding of up to $2,000,000 is expected to be available for Community-based Marine Debris Removal Project Grants in FY2015. Typical awards will range from $50,000 to $150,000.

Proposals are due by November 17, 2014.

This is the last of three in-person meetings over the course of the year which were focused on implementation and final recommendations. Final recommendations will be reviewed and the report finalized.

All meetings are webcast live at www.AKL.tv. For more information, contact Nikoosh Carlo, Executive Director at nikoosh.carlo [at] akleg.gov.

Jackie Grebmeier (UMCES) and Sue Moore (NOAA/Fisheries) will present a webinar for the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) on "A Tale of Two Synthesis Efforts: The PacMARS and SOAR Programs".

Over the past 2-3 years, the PacMARS and SOAR programs have focused the efforts of a suite of researchers, Arctic residents and resource managers on providing a synthesis of existing information regarding the state of the Pacific Arctic marine ecosystem. While the two programs have similar goals, the approach taken by each can be likened to the ‘tortoise/SOAR and hare/PacMARS’ story.

The Synthesis of Arctic Research (SOAR/5 year program), supported by the BOEM, Alaska Region, was initiated in 2011 with the overarching goal to increase scientific understanding of the relationships among oceanographic conditions, benthic organisms, lower trophic prey species (forage fish and zooplankton), seabirds, and marine mammal distribution and behavior in the Pacific Arctic – with results of this effort the publication of peer-reviewed papers as a ‘special issue’ of a science journal coupled to outreach communications to local residents, resource managers and the public (http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/soar/).

The Pacific Marine Arctic Synthesis (PacMARS/2 year program), supported by the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), was initiated in 2012, with the overall goal to provide guidance for scientific research needs in the region, as well as to serve stakeholder needs for understanding this important ecosystem and its vulnerabilities – with results of this effort the publication of a final report listing all relevant data sources and the establishment of a data portal to provide efficient access to these data for scientists, resource managers and the public (http://pacmars.cbl.umces.edu/).

Jackie Grebmeier (UMCES) and Sue Moore (NOAA/Fisheries) will provide a joint presentation on the PacMARS and SOAR programs, including the intent from the outset that the two synthesis efforts be complimentary.

Pre-registration for webinars is strongly encouraged. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer. For instructions on participating through your home office or at a satellite viewing location with others in your community, please see our webinar information page (https://accap.uaf.edu/?q=webinars).

The theme for this year's Symposium will be Worldwide Chokepoints and Maritime Risks. "Chokepoint" is a common military strategy term that refers to any enclosed space, corridor, or area where large numbers of personnel and/or resources are forced to pass through, with no reasonable alternate routes. Within the maritime environment, geographical features such as a strait or canal are considered chokepoints. The event is hosted by the Homeland Security Center of the University of Southern California.

The Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) is celebrating their 10th anniversary. The celebration will include: drinks and hors d'oeurves, short films from the AOOS Film Contest and guest speakers, and highlights from 10 years of ocean monitoring in Alaska.

When: Wednesday, November 19, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Where: Anchorage Museum, 625 C Street, Anchorage, AK
Questions: Email Darcy Dugan at dugan [at] aoos.org.

We would like to inform you about the 6th EUMETSAT Ocean and Sea Ice SAF Users Workshop will be held in Toulouse, France, on 19th and 20th November 2014. The objectives of the Workshop are to provide a forum for users to present and discuss experiences and requirements on satellite based products and services, and to present and discuss the provision of products and services by the OSI SAF.

This is a great opportunity for users to meet OSI SAF teams and discuss about our current and future products.

For those of you not familiar with the OSI SAF products, you can have a look here:

• http://www.osi-saf.org/ (main portal, all products)
• http://osisaf.met.no/ (high latitude portal)

Since 2002, the OSI SAF produces, controls quality and distributes, in near real-time, operational ocean observation products, with the necessary users support activities. The OSI SAF provides also some long term data records through reprocessing activities.

Permanent Research and Development activities allow to enhance the algorithms and products, and to take into account new satellites. The OSI SAF organizes regular User Workshops to stimulate the discussion between users and OSI SAF partners, and to collect input and guidance for future evolutions of its products and services.

For more information about the workshop, please visit the workshop link above.

Indigenous people in Canada (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) experience significant health disparities on every major health indicator, including lower life expectancies and higher infant mortality rates while Indigenous peoples continue to be under-serviced for health care, and do not have the same access to healthcare providers as other Canadians.

To address some of these needs, we have created the Indigenous Health Conference which is an interdisciplinary event that will take place November 20th and 21st 2014 in Toronto. The Conference Committee primarily consists of members who are Indigenous healthcare providers and/or individuals with extensive experience working with Indigenous populations.

This conference would be of interest to healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, community health representatives, rehab, etc.), but also to policy makers, and public health specialists. The conference objectives are to facilitate the translation and dissemination of knowledge and improve cultural sensitivity about Indigenous health in Canada. In addition the Job Fair would help match providers with working opportunities with Indigenous peoples, both rural and urban.

It is believed that through examining the evidence and creating dialogue with Indigenous peoples, experts in the field and healthcare providers, we can help create better educated, more culturally competent health care providers for Indigenous peoples. In turn, this will improve the health care service, improve the understanding of healthcare needs, help formulate community-based research questions and improve advocacy for Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Conference objectives include:

• Discuss health disparities & burden of disease among Indigenous peoples in Canada, highlighting certain conditions with a high burden of disease.
• Start a dialogue about potential long term solutions towards health equity.
• Challenge stereotypes and misperceptions about Indigenous peoples in Canada.
• Discuss cultural competencies and safety in working with First Nations, Inuit and Métis populations.
• Job Fair to facilitate matching healthcare providers with working opportunities with Indigenous populations.

This workshop aims to bring concerned and/or interested individuals together to hear the latest research, policy implications, community perspectives, and potential impacts along Alaska’s coast and oceans. We know that Alaska is experiencing a rapid and severe onset of OA relative to many other coastal regions. Studies also show that Alaskan coastal communities have varying degrees of vulnerability to OA, ranging from moderate to severe, with the most vulnerable located in regions where fisheries are primary economic drivers of local economies. Partners across the state have taken great strides to implement the current monitoring system in place, but state funding is set to expire in 2015. Now is the pivotal time to engage with a growing number of Alaskans interested in how we can make informed decisions about OA. We hope that you will be able to join us.

On 3 December, AOOS will host a conversation with stakeholders at their downtown office. One topic for discussion will be defining stakeholder needs for OA monitoring and research across the state. This session is by invitation only, but we realize that we may not have everyone on the invite list that should be there!

This workshop is jointly sponsored and organized by the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS), ACCAP, Alaska Sea Grant, the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, and UAF's Ocean Acidification Research Center.

If you are interested in attending please contact Ellen at tyler [at] aoos.org. For more information, please visit the workshop website link above.

Dèlia Arnold Arias will present "Emergency response activities and modeling at ZAMG," 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2. The talk will be held in the Globe Room in the Elvey Building, 903 Koyukuk Drive at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Arias is an academic consultant with the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, known as ZAMG.

She will give examples of how the ZAMG would respond to airborne radioactive transmissions or volcanic ash using timely weather information and atmospheric dispersion calculations. In addition, the backtracking response systems ZAMG provides as Regional Specialized Meteorological Center will be discussed.

For more information, contact: Dèlia Arnold Arias at Delia.arnold arias [at] zamg.ac.at or Gerhard.wotawa [at] zamg.ac.at

On the web: www.zamg.ac.at or https://www.facebook.com/zamg.at