Invited Talk during IPY session
Liz Thomas was invited to give an APECS talk as part of the IPY session during MOCA-09, chaired by Karen Haywood and Ian Allison. The talk was well attended and provided an overview of how APECS was founded, our goals and achievements to date, including education and outreach, research activities and career development, and information on future events. The presentation was concluded with a movie from the recent APECS field school.
APECS at IACS and plenary
The International Association of Cryospheric Science (IACS) invited APECS vice-president Liz Thomas to join their bureau meeting in Montreal last week, as part of the MOCA-09 conference. IACS is the newest association of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and is a sister organization to long established associations such as those for Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) and Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO). Both the first IACS president, Georg Kaser, and the new president, Ian Allison, have been extremely supportive of APECS activities and we thank them for their encouragement and look forward to working with them in the future.
The meeting began with a welcome address from Ian Allison, IACS president, followed by Tom Beers (president of IUGG), who acknowledged the work of APECS and highlighted our involvement in the YES congress. Ian provided an update on IACS activities and goals including the need to link with biological associations and confirming that IACS intend to allocate funding to support young and early career researchers in IACS activities.
Representatives for sister associations and collaborators provided updates including IAPSO, IAHS, World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI), International permafrost association (IPA), International Glaciological Society (IGS), Climate and Cryoshere (CliC), International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and APECS.
APECS was very well received in this meeting, and were praised for our enthusiasm and achievements. Volker Rachold (IASC Executive Secretary) described us as the most important outcome of IPY!
The full meeting minutes will be available on the IACS website shortly however here are some areas of interest to APECS members:
- IGS publication “Annals of glaciology” has always been peer reviewed but previously only for papers presented at conferences. This has now changed (so that it can be ICI ranked) and is now a thematic journal. IGS invited contributions of IPY papers and
- suggestions for future journal themes.
- IACS is developing proposed sessions for next IUGG assembly in Melbourne 2010 and will be requesting suggestions soon (needs to be ready for IUGG meeting in October)
- Glacier mass balance terminology has been complied by Graham Cogley and the draft is now open for public discussion and comment until 10th September (available via IACS website).
There was also an open meeting during the conference where several members requested IACS focus on educational activities, such as cryospheric courses for undergraduates and summer schools. They all agreed that they should be working with APECS, either through new initiatives or ongoing activities within APECS such as the field schools.
