Polar and Alpine Community News

Permafrost scientists and engineers!

Are you interested in learning more about each other’s disciplines? Then follow up and rewatch our PYRN Short course on Youtube. This 5 week course was filled with lecture content followed by questions from the audience, and during the last week, all of our panelists joined together to have an interactive discussion on how permafrost scientists and engineers can work together, and identify a strong path forward.

The Antarctic Tourism Action Group (Ant-TAG) was approved at the SC-HASS Business Meeting in November 2021. Ant-TAG provides an umbrella under which researchers and practitioners can make new connections, become aware of other existing projects, and pool existing expertise in order to make the most accurate and up-to-date recommendations relating to the practice of tourism in the region.

The group is planning a number of activities organised into six sub-groups and invites input from the SCAR community.

SCAR, the Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) and the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) marked Antarctica Day (1 December) by announcing the recipients of this year's Antarctic Fellowships.

The American Quaternary Association (AmQua) has just released its call for award nominations, including new early- and mid-career awards. Please share this information with your networks and consider applying and submitting nominations. AmQua seeks a broad and diverse pool of nominees. For more information, reach out to the Awards Committee Chair, or Colin Long (AmQua Secretary, to whom applications should be submitted). Deadline March 1. For details see the AmQua website.

Understanding the causes and consequences of current Arctic change is an urgent and immense task for humankind. The AGORA initiative represents a common ground to bring together Arctic scientists, indigenous researchers, and community stakeholders together as a collective to discuss the core problems faced by the Arctic in the 21st Century. This workshop will focus on how these issues may be better understood by providing a firm historical context that extends beyond our currently limited instrumental monitoring.

The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) Collaborations invites participation in their Mentorship Program for the 2022 session. The IARPC Collaborations Mentorship Program will run from February through October 2022, with an optional break in August.

The Program will kick off at a 90-minute launch meeting on 4 February 2022 at 9:00 a.m. AKST/1:00 p.m. EST. After that, mentorship groups will meet at least monthly. There will be two additional all-cohort webinars in May and October 2022.

In the frame of ARICE’s Science-Industry cooperation, we are happy to announce the first ARICE call within the “ships and platforms of opportunity” programme.

“Le Commandant Charcot” is a polar expedition ship state-of-the-art icebreaker (PC2 Class) owned and operated by the company PONANT (France). The vessel is equipped with scientific laboratories and facilities and offers to host up to four scientists to participate in their regular cruises to perform scientific projects.

Training opportunity, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) INStabilities & Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT) Programme: GLAcial Sedimentation School (GLASS): Interpreting past climate using Antarctic and Greenland sediment cores

Dates: 23–27 May 2022
Location: Oregon State University Marine and Geology Repository (OSU-MGR), Corvallis, OR, USA
Website: https://osu-mgr.org/glacial_sedimentation_school_2022
Deadline to apply: 7 January 2022 

We are excited to share the SCAR Open Science Conference 2022 Pre-Conference Circular with you.

The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India, takes pride and pleasure in hosting the SCAR Open Science Conference 2022. The theme of the conference is "Antarctica in a Changing World." The conference will be held online.