Dear APECS members,
Another busy year has passed in APECS! I would like to take this moment to highlight some of the amazing accomplishments APECS has had during the last term.
We saw our membership grow to include over 4200 members in 75+ countries! In addition, we are continuing to diversify with our increasing number of national committees where we are seeing how our members are reaping the benefits of regionally organized polar activities. Our members participated in several international conferences and meetings where we organized panels, workshops, social events, poster awards, and a variety of new webinars. We are also currently planning more events for the coming year at e.g. the International Glaciological Society meetings, ASSW 2014, AGU 2013, ICASS VIII, SCAR 2014, and many others. We also partnered with the Climate and Cryosphere Project (CliC) to continue our successful Frostbytes initiative developed out of the IPY conference in Montreal, 2012. APECS also initiated new partnerships and renewed its collaborations with all of our partners who have been instrumental to providing opportunities and support to our members.
One of the major changes for APECS this year included a transition in the APECS International Directorate. We have successfully secured funding for the next three years with the fantastic support of the University of Tromso, Norwegian Polar Institute, and the Research Council of Norway! With this new change we would like to welcome our new Director of APECS, Dr. Gerlis Fugmann. We would once again like to wish, Dr. Alexey Pavlov, the APECS Director 2012-2013 the best of luck in his new career and we are happy that he will continue to be part of APECS as a mentor.
All of these highlights can be found in the 2012-2013 APECS Annual Report summarized by the outgoing 2012-2013 APECS Executive Committee.
A special thank you goes to the University of Tromsø, the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Research Council of Norway for hosting and supporting the APECS International Directorate in Tromsø! Our success would not be possible without your support and commitment to APECS.
Thank you to the many talented and dedicated members and mentors who volunteered their time this year to help us achieve continued success in shaping the future of polar research!
Penelope Wagner, APECS 2012-2013 President
-- on behalf of the Executive Committee and Director
