APECS is excited to announce that another leadership term has begun! APECS' sixth Executive Committee (ExCom) is now in place and ready to continue to shape the polar world. Russell Fielding (USA), Frigga Kruse (Netherlands), Jean- Sébastien Moore (Canada), Iglika Trifinova (Bulgaria) and Christie Wood (USA/Russia) have been elected to form the ExCom, the main leadership body of APECS. Jennifer Provencher (Canada), Penny Wagner (USA/Norway) and Yulia Zaika (Russia) will serve as ex-officios and support the new ExCom over the coming year. And of course, Gerlis Fugmann, the newly appointed APECS Director will continue to support and foster the group from the directorate office in Tromsø, Norway.
With a new term, comes a new president, and this year Christie Wood will be taking on this role. Christie is a graduate student in the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University in the United States and works with Karen Frey in the Polar Science Research Lab. Her research focuses on understanding the impacts of sea ice decline in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas on the dynamics of dissolved organic matter, which plays an important role in the marine ecosystem as both a carbon source for the microbial food web and as an inhibitor of light. Her work is carried out through a combination of field measurements (as part of NASA's ICESCAPE mission), lab experiments, and satellite remote sensing observations. For the coming year Christie will be based out of Moscow, Russia and looks forward to helping develop APECS programs with the ExCom and Council.
This year the APECS Council is made up of 32 very enthusiastic members from 13 countries: Cristian Aldea (Chile), Elaine Alves dos Santos (Brazil), Sarah Bartholow (USA), Vincent Carrier (Canada/Norway), Eleanore Darlington (UK), Archana Dayal (India), Pedro Echevesta (Spain), Francyne Elias-Piera (Spain/Brazil), Ellyn Enderlin (USA), Laura Fleming-Sharp (USA/Canada), Ruth Hindshaw (UK), Patricia Johnston (Canada), Alia Khan (USA), Minkyoung Kim (Korea), Michael Laiho (Finland), Maja Lisowska (Poland), Silvia Lourenco (Portugal), Sanna Majaneva (Finland/Norway), Heather Mariash (Canada/Finland), Adam Naito (USA), Karolina Paquin (Norway), Hugo Romero (Chile/UK), Kristen Shake (USA), Sarah Strey (USA), Astrid Surmatz (Netherlands), Zuzanna Swirad (UK), Ines Tavernier (Belgium), Alexander Trindade Niewendam (Portugal), Tristy Vick-Majors (USA) and Bianca Zhang (Iceland). Additionally, Allen Pope (USA) and Mariette Wheeler (South Africa) also remain on the council in ex-officio roles.
We once again thank the many APECS leaders that have come before us and have helped guide and foster many of those serving today! We look forward to another year with the projects that are currently underway, and continue to look for more ways that we can serve and help early career polar researchers around the world.
