APECS is happy to nominate Allen Pope to serve as a representative to the Steering Group which will develop a Concept Note for a long-term polar research, observations, and services activity. These ideas were initially generated by a WMO-Roshydromet workshop on the International Polar Decade Initiative that took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 14 and 15 April 2011. The workshop also recommended establishing a consultative process to develop a concept for the new initiative. A dedicated session at the IPY 2012 Conference “From Knowledge to Action” (Montreal, 22-27 April 2012) will discuss the Concept Note, agree whether representatives of major international stakeholders see merit in what is proposed, and recommend whether and how the initiative should be initiated.

Allen is a PhD student studying remote sensing of glaciers at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. He has served on the APECS Executive Committee since early 2010 and was the 2010-2011 APECS President. Allen represented APECS at the WMO-Roshydromet workshop in 2011 and his is excited to continue to represent APECS in the conversation that builds upon the ideas from that workshop.

As an initiative with a long-term perspective, it is gratifying to see that APECS and early career researchers are being included in the planning and development process, and APECS looks forward to this attittude continuing in its formulation, development, and implementation!

Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic: The Response of Life to Change or EBA is an international, multidisciplinary programme that has been approved by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for 2006 - 2013. Meghana Rajanahally is currently one of the co-secretaries of EBA and will be the official APECS representative at upcoming EBA meeting. "I am excited to be an APECS representative at the EBA meetings at the SCAR conference in Portland, where I will be co-convening a session as well. I am someone who likes to be involved in representing and contributing and hope to be more involved in Polar research organizations as I look for a postdoctoral fellowship soon."

Meghana originally comes from Bangalore, India and is currently a final year PhD student in marine biology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand working in Ken Ryan’s sea ice research group, which contributes to the LGP. Her research focuses on the ecophysiology of Antarctic sea ice algae where she studies the effects of light, UV and temperature on their physiology and has been conducted in the Ross Sea region and on laboratory cultures in New Zealand and Australia. Meghana has always been interested in conservation biology and her goal is to be a researcher who can make a significant contribution in this area. She is particularly interested in studying the effect of climate change on the physiology of polar organisms.

Kate Sinclair, a Postdoctoral Researcher with the New Zealand Ice Core Program and former APECS Vice-President, has been asked to serve as an APECS representative on the organizational committee for the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics conference in Melbourne, Australia 28 June - 7 July 2011.

To read more about the conference, check out the official website. You can also read Kate's bio here.

Sian Henley is truly excited about the challenge of representing APECS and UKPN on the Steering Committee of the 11th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences and arranging some great events and opportunities for early career scientists from around the world!

The 11th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences will take place in Edinburgh, 10th-16th July 2011. This event promises to be a fantastic opportunity for all Polar Earth Scientists to exchange information and perspectives, in order to understand the landscape and environmental responses of the Polar Regions to ongoing climate change. The Symposium will be particularly beneficial to early career researchers, with its broad academic programme and interdisciplinary scientific focus, as well as additional evening sessions, multiple networking opportunities, social events and excursions to some of Scotland?s most spectacular locations. Abstract Submission and Registration will open in July 2010, but put the date in your diary now, so you don?t miss out on one of the biggest dates in the polar science calendar of 2011!

For more information, check out the circular here and the conference website. See below for Sian's bio and information about her research.

The Pacific Arctic Group (PAG) is a group of institutes and individuals

having a Pacific perspective on Arctic science. Organized under the
International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the PAG has as its mission to
serve as a Pacific Arctic regional partnership to plan, coordinate, and
collaborate on science activities of mutual interest. The four PAG principle
science themes are climate, contaminants, human dimensions and structure and function of Arctic ecosystems.

You can find more information at http://pag.arcticportal.org/
For questions please contact Jaclyn Clement (jlclemen[at]nps.edu)

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) has asked APECS to nominate young researchers to serve as members of their standing groups and research programmes. We are pleased to have the following great young leaders helping to shape the future of Antarctic Research.

Scientific Standing Groups:

SSC Geosciences - Francisco Fernandoy

APECS Chile; Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany

Born at 7th March 1980 in Valparaiso, Chile. Attended Elementary and High School in Punta Arenas (Southern Chile). Moved in 1998 to Concepción (Chile) to study geology at the University of Concepción, there graduate in 2005. In 2006 worked for a private mining company near the city of Coyhaique (Chile). At the end of 2006 received a DAAD scholarship to initiate a PhD in Germany at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the University of Potsdam, began the studies in April 2007 after a six months language course in the city of Leipzig (Germany).

Between 2002 and 2008 participate in five scientific expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula in subjects like palaeontology, geology and glaciology. The first four expeditions were in frame of an INACH (Chilean Antarctic Institute) project with the aim to study the evolution of the Gondwana break-up, based in paleontological and geological evidences. During these expeditions worked in different points of the South Shetland Islands. During January and February 2008 carried out the first expedition of his PhD program in the Antarctic Peninsula nearby the Chilean “O ́Higgins” station, from this location were retrieved shallow ice cores to study the climate variability in the last years to decades. 

I find the idea of collaboration between young researchers really interesting. As I saw at the SCAR/IASC meeting, APECS will become in the near future a reference point for all young Polar scientists and I would be really glad to contribute to this organization.

SSC Life Sciences - Dr José Xavier

Researcher at BAS, UK, and the Institute of Marine Research, Portugal

José Xavier is a young polar marine biologist highly active in Antarctic research since 1997, at the British Antarctic Survey, University of Cambridge (UK) and at the Institute of Marine Research (Portugal). José played a key role in establishing an International Polar Year (IPY) Portuguese Polar Research Programme, co-organized the Portuguese education and outreach programme LATITUDE60! and got involved in the political discussions for Portugal to sign the Antarctic Treaty. José has been essential in the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) as a member of the first and second executive committees, being involved in numerous scientific and outreach APECS/IPY projects at an international level. He is highly involved in a number of international research programmes (e.g. ICED-IPY, CAML-IPY, PROPOLAR-PT) and working groups (e.g. E & O IPY, SCAR-CBET). José is the leading author of the book "Portugal's strategy for the International Polar Year" and more recently, the research book "Cephalopod beak guide for the Southern Ocean", published by the British Antarctic Survey during the IPY.

SSC Physical Sciences - Dr Ryan Fogt

Assistant Professor at Ohio University, USA

Dr. Ryan Fogt is a climatologist  / meteorology whose particular research focus is on the climate of Antarctica.  He completed his undergraduate education at Creighton University in Omaha, NE, before heading to The Ohio State University to complete his Master's and Ph.D.  His graduate advisor was Dr. David Bromwich.  During his graduate education, Dr. Fogt travelled to Antarctica three times, each visit to work with the forecasters on ice to improve the forecasting model used to support all operations of the USAP.  While on ice, he also helped other meteorology projects and installed and upgraded several automatic weather stations on the Ross Ice Shelf.  After graduate education, Dr. Fogt spent two years as a postdoctoral research at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, CO.  Currently, he is an assistant professor (tenure track) at Ohio University, where he directs the Scalia Laboratory for Atmospheric Analysis and oversees the meteorology program.

Scientific Research Programmes:

Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) - Diana Magens

PhD student at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany

Diana Magens is a doctoral student in the field of marine geosciences - paleoclimatology, based at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany. Fascinated by everything related to ice and snow since her year as an exchange student in Iceland, her PhD work takes place under the framework of the international Antarctic Geological Drilling Program ANDRILL whose aim it is to gain further insight into the past behavior of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. She participated in two drilling campaigns in austral summers 2006/07 and 2007/08 where two long sediment cores have been obtained from beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf and the sea ice, respectively, near Ross Island. Her PhD project deals with the analysis of the physical properties record of the first sediment core, addressing questions on regional environmental changes and (post-)depositional history of the sediments. Having fallen in love with the continent, Diana would love to go back to Antarctica any time.

Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS) - Dr. Liz Thomas

British Antartic Survey Researcher, UK

Liz Thomas is a climate change scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, investigating the recent warming on the Antarctic Peninsula using evidence obtained from ice cores. She has been fortunate to take part in two field campaigns in the Antarctic; the first as part of an international ice core drilling team that reached bedrock (~1000 m) at Berkner Island (79°S,45°W) in the summer of 2004/05 and the second leading an ice core drilling project in the Antarctic Peninsula (73°S, 70°W) in 2006/07. She has a PhD in Paleoclimatology, investigating past rapid climate change events from Greenland ice cores. She loves all aspects of polar fieldwork and is looking forward to her first trip to the Arctic in July, as chief scientists for a young explorers expedition to Svalbard, with the British Schools Exploration Society.

Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA) - Dr Louise Newman

Interhemispheric Conjugacy Effects in Solar-Terrestrial and Aeronomy Research (ICESTAR) - Lucilla Alfonsi

Postdoctoral researcher at Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy

Lucilla Alfonsi is a PhD Geophysics from University of Bologna (Italy). She is researcher at INGV Upper Atmosphere Physics group. Since 2002 she is working on investigationsof ionospheric irregularities by in situ satellite measurements and by GNSS signals. She is coauthor of the ionospheric irregularities model WAM. She is involved in the PNRA (the Italian National Antarctic Programme) project ?Upper Atmosphere Monitoring and Space Weather?, as well in the ISACCO (Ionospheric Scintillation Arctic and Antarctic Coordinated Campaigns Observations) project. She is the contact person for UAMPY (Upper Atmosphere Monitoring for the Polar Year) Consortium in the frame of ICESTAR/IHY core project. She participates also to the works of the SCAR Action Group: “GPS for Weather and Space Weather Forecast”, an interdisciplinary team that includes scientists belonging to the SCAR Geosciences and Physical Sciences SSG. She is currently Group Leader of the Polarnet Project “Polar Patches Influence on HF Radio Communications”

Liz Thomas, Researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, and Francisco Fernandoy, PhD Student at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, have been selected to serve on the Scientific Organizing Committee for the XXXI SCAR and Open Science Conference, which will be held 30 July - 11 August 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Liz has served on the APECS Executive Committee and organized several of our events. Francisco is currently on the APECS Executive Committee and helping to engage more young South American scientists to participate in APECS activities. For more information on this conferece visit the SCAR Webpage.

Learn more about Liz and Francisco.