we are working on fixing the formatting of these news announcements, so please be patient :)

Attached is the newsletter as a pdf or you can read the text below.

APECS March 2008 Newsletter

Spring is almost here for some of us, and others are bidding farewell to summer. The landscapes are changing.  March brings with it the Changing Earth IPY Day, be sure to launch a balloon and participate. Please send any items or information for the next newsletter to APECSinfo@gmail.com by the 30th of March to be included in the next Newsletter. This newsletter can also be viewed on the APECS website at http://arcticportal.org/apecs/apecs-news.

1.    Our Deepest Sympathies to our Antarctic Colleagues and their Friends and Families
2.    UK Polar Network, APECS, and the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) in the News!
3.    SCAR Fellowships Available
4.    SCAR/IASC St Petersburg Conference Workshop Update
5.    AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting Update
6.    Education and Outreach Committee Update
7.    APECS Partners with Global Youth Service Day
8.    APECS Executive Meeting in Iceland
9.    APECS participation on the Arctic Frontiers Conference and PhD workshop
10.    University of the Arctic Newsletter Available
11.    National Committee Information
12.    Updates to the Website!
13.    Get Involved!
14.    Submitting information to the APECS Community
15.    IPY and APECS Promotional Materials and Merchandise

1.    Our Deepest Sympathies to our the Friends and Families of our Antarctic Colleagues
APECS extends our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed in the helicopter crash off the German Antarctic Base, Neumayer II. We wish the three injured, all young researchers a full and quick recovery.
For more information see the press release from the Alfred Wegener Institute at http://tinyurl.com/2ajzhl

2.    UK Polar Network, APECS, and the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) in the News!
Young Researchers and our organizations are getting some great press lately!  Check out a wonderful article on the UK Polar Network and their members at http://www.earthzine.org/.  We also have an article in the American Geophysical Union (AGU) weekly publication EOS on the Permafrost Techniques Workshop held in conjunction with PYRN and the Otto-Schmidt Laboratory in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you are an AGU member you can log on and read it on their site, or you can go to the APECS News part of our website and read the pdf.
Keep up the great work on publicizing our efforts to “Shape the Future of Polar Research”. If you have an article that you would like us to feature on our website and in the newsletter, send it to APECSinfo@gmail.com.

3.    SCAR Fellowships Available
SCAR is announcing the launch of its 2008-9 Fellowship Programme, which this year is in two parts:  
(i) the Standard SCAR Fellowship - for postgraduate and/or post-doctoral researchers from within the 34 SCAR Member countries to undertake research at an institute in another SCAR country.
(ii) SCAR/IPF/IAI/UNEP Sixth Continent Initiative Fellowships - for postgraduate and/or post-doctoral researchers from within the 34 SCAR Member countries, or from non-traditional polar countries, to undertake research and development activities in the Antarctic.
The SCAR Fellowship Programme is designed to encourage the active involvement of early career scientists and engineers in Antarctic scientific research, and to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in Antarctic research.
Deadline for submissions is the 15th of May.  Further details: http://www.scar.org/awards/fellowships/

4.    SCAR/IASC St Petersburg Conference July 8 to 11, 2008
APECS is hosting a free one-day professional development workshop prior to the joint SCAR/ IASC conference on the 7th July in St Petersburg. It's an international and multidisciplinary event aimed at early career researchers addressing key issues such as grant proposal writing, research productivity, communication and international collaboration with sessions run by leading polar researchers.
Applications for funding are now closed, but people can still apply to attend the workshop. At this point we have 86 applicants from 20 countries. The selection committee will be meeting in the next two weeks and applicants that will receive funding will be notified by April 18th, before the early bird registration for the conference.

5.    AGU Ocean Sciences APECS Meeting
At last week's Ocean Sciences Meeting in Orlando, FL, a small but exquisite group of APECS members met over lunch and were joined by Christy Reed, freelance writer for Science Careers. In best networking fashion this meeting was all about building connections. We soon discovered how our research in completely different fields is linked not only by being polar but by the interplay of the different disciplines. The beauty of science!
Thanks to the support of Alex Poulain, ASLO student representative (American Society of Limnology and Oceanography), we decided to work on links between ASLO and APECS. This will provide new opportunities for the marine and aquatic communities within APECS.  We plan to have an APECS workshop, meeting or roundtable discussion at the ASLO summer meeting in St. John's, New Foundland in June. If you want to get involved and promote the marine and aquatic side of APECS, contact Angelika Renner (angelika.renner@polarnetwork.org) or Alex Poulain (poulain at mit.edu).

6.    APECS Education and Outreach Committee Update
The APECS Education and Outreach Committee held its first meeting of the year via conference call on the 25th February. This call was attended by 12 people representing and presenting activities from 10 national groups (Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, New Zealand, Alaska, UK, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Belgium) and including two new members to the group: Megan O'Sadnick and Ken Mankoff, both from the US. The main aim of the meeting was to reconnect the national outreach groups and to update each other on our activities, which include school visits, participation in science festivals, a time capsule project capturing the Arctic through the eyes of youth, workshops for young scientists, lab open days, an exhibition linking science and art, a tribal concert, high school student expeditions to the Antarctic, and videos.  We also talked about international projects that the group will be involved with: IPY summer schools, Taking IT Global's climate campaign, IPY days and Global Youth Service Day. The group also discussed getting involved in organising celebrations to mark the end of IPY in 2009. To find out more about the activities mentioned above please read the meeting minutes (http://arcticportal.org/apecs/get-involved/committees/committees/education--outreach) or to join the APECS Education and Outreach Committee, contact Melianie or Rhian.

7.    APECS Partners with Global Youth Service Day
 On April 25-28, 2008, millions of young people in more than 100 countries throughout the world will participate in the 20th annual Global Youth Service Day. As the largest service event in the world, this three-day event will mobilize youth to identify and address the world's most pressing problems, such as climate change, poverty, disease, disaster relief and prevention, violence, and more.
 Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is a year-round effort to expand the impact of the youth service movement. The initiative launches new service organizations, policy changes, and sustainable service programs to create a culture of engaged youth.  Internationally, Youth Service America works with the Global Youth Action Network as a key partner, along with an International Coordinating Committee of more than 40 members and over 100 national coordinating committees, to bring GYSD together.
APECS has become a member of the International Coordinating Committee, a consortium of prestigious international organizations that contribute their extensive international presence, offer experience and connections to broaden GYSD's impact, and evaluate its development as an international event.
This new partnership has provided several exciting opportunities to APECS.  GYSD distributes a weekly briefing worldwide to over 45,000 subscribers highlighting upcoming events, initiatives, opportunities to get involved in programs and news.  If anyone within APECS has an item they wish to have distributed through this media please contact APECS's liason to GYSD, Amber Church (amber@alkhemedia.com).  GYSD provides microgrants ($500 US) to organizations internationally to aid with projects that further the overall goals of the organization.  They have an extensive online resource centre that provides toolkits that many APECS members may find useful.  Examples of toolkits available include fundraising, working with the media, connecting to politicians and advocacy.
GYSD would like to bring polar issues and climate change to the forefront of their program for this coming year.  To further this goal GYSD is hoping that national APECS organizations will take up the challenge of becoming lead organizations or local organizers for this year's GYSD.  Lead organizations will help to coordinate GYSD within their country and report on its success, while local organizers will focus on a local event and report their results to their nation's lead organization.  This is a fantastic opportunity for national APECS organizations to help the world in celebrating youth volunteerism and bring attention to polar issues while recruiting new members for their organizations.
Please visit www.gysd.org to access tools to help you plan your project, find grants to support your planning efforts, and to register your organization as Global Youth Service Day participant.  To apply to be a lead organizations or local organizer go to:  http://www.gysd.net/apply.  For more information on GYSD or its partnership with APECS, please contact Amber Church (amber@alkhemedia.com).

8.    APECS Executive Committee Meeting in Iceland
The APECS Executive Committee met in Akureyri, Iceland March 2 through the 6th. We were joined by Dave Carlson, Halldor Johannsson, members of the IPY Iceland Committee, University of Akureyri, the Town of Akureyri, and other partners. In a few days of intense discussions, we completed the first draft of our organization’s Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure, which will be open for discussion on the website forum until the first week in April. The APECS Council will vote on these important documents in April.  We have also started to forumulate a strageic vision for APECS and in consultation with the advisory committee have discussed the need for organizational stability, an APECS International Directorate Office, and partnerships with other polar organizations for legal and financial management.   We will be sending out a separate email on the details of this meeting shortly.
It was also decided at this meeting that APECS will not have council meeting prior to the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference, but rather have a meeting during the week to increase attendance and recruit new memebers. This meeting will include information about APECS and our activies, and the new structure of the Open Council.  If you are interested in attending this meeting, please contact Jenny Baeseman.
Our deepest gratitude to Halldor Johannsson of the Arctic Portal and Teikn Design for making this meeting possible. We would also like to extend our thanks to the University of Akureyri, the Town of Akureyri, the Northern Research Forum, IPY Iceland Committee, the Icelandic Research Council, and Ragnar Baldursson for your generous hospitatlity and interest in our organization.

9.    APECS participation on the Arctic Frontiers Conference and PhD workshop
The Arctic Frontiers Conference is a new arena for cross-disciplinary discussions between scientists, politicians, organizations and the public with an Arctic perspective. The thematic focus of the conference changes from year to year, with the common feature that is a hot topic for the environment, humans, politics and development in the northernmost regions of the world. The conference is built upon an initial political conference, followed by a scientific conference.     
The 2nd annual Arctic Frontiers conference was hosted by the University of Tromsø in January 2008, organized and financed by stakeholders from the private and public sector. The political conference was dedicated to the associations between Arctic oil and gas activities and environmental challenges, society, socioeconomics and indigenous peoples. In addition, recent findings on the impact of climate changes on glaciers and permafrost were reviewed. The Scientific conference included the presentation of the scientific findings of the “Assessment of Oil and Gas Activities in the Arctic”, coordinated by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program AMAP), a permanent working group of the Arctic Council, which was completed in 2007. This was supplemented by invited oral and poster presentations,
For the 2nd year in a row, a PhD workshop was run parallel with the conference, allowing early career scientists with arctic research perspectives to present their work through poster presentations and to network and learn from senior scientists. One of the goals for the PhD workshop is to build interdisciplinary and multinational connections, creating an inspiring and energetic mixture of natural and social scientists from many countries in the northern hemisphere. The participants followed both parts of the conference, continued by an intensive workshop after the main conference, where students worked in groups with senior mentors on topics related to the conference focus. The student feedback from the two first PhD workshops have been extremely positive and early career scientist should definitively join in on the third one in 2009!
The Arctic Frontiers Conference has shown to be an important site for knowledge transfer and networking. This year, both the President (Kriss Rokkan Iversen) and the Director of APECS (Jenny Baeseman) found their way to Tromsø in January. They used their time well and extended the APECS network in many directions. The word of APECS was spread to polictial bodies, as well as the most important group for APECS - the early career scientists. Several APECS members participated in the PhD workshop and hopefully some new ones were recruited! APECS has been approached to help sponsor the PhD workshop next year. If you are interested in helping, please contact Kriss or Jenny.
The beautiful surroundings of Tromsø and its vibrant social and cultural scene enhanced the quality of the conference. As one APECS member so neatly put it:
“The Arctic Frontier Conference is not just a conference; it is an experience!”

10.    University of the Arctic Newsletter Available
The University of the Arctic (UArctic) is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, and other organizations committed to higher education and research in the North. Members share resources, facilities, and expertise to build post-secondary education programs that are relevant and accessible to northern students. The overall goal is to create a strong, sustainable circumpolar region by empowering northerners and northern communities through education and shared knowledge. They promote education that is circumpolar, interdisciplinary, and diverse in nature, and draw on our combined strengths to address the unique challenges of the region. The University of the Arctic recognizes the integral role of indigenous peoples in northern education, and seeks to engage their perspectives in all of its activities. To read their latest newsletter: http://www.uarctic.org/newsListing.aspx?m=83

11.    National Committee Updates

NEW ZEALAND
Workshop for students and early career polar researchers
Monday 30th June 2008, University of Otago
Career Paths in NZ Polar Research: from student to PI
    As part of the Antarctica New Zealand’s Annual Conference, a morning workshop is being held for students and early career polar researchers to provide an informal venue for this group to network.  The workshop will take the form of a panel discussion, drawing on the experience of Antarctic scientists at various stages in their careers to talk openly about the challenges and rewards of career paths in polar research.  The focus will be on the transition from student to PI and how this process is supported in New Zealand.  This is a great opportunity to make contacts with other students as well as established polar experts, and to share and form new ideas about how to continue our careers in the Polar Regions.
    Registration for the workshop will begin in May as part of the registration process for Antarctica New Zealand’s Annual Conference. All welcome from students to established scientists.  For more information about the workshop, please contact Mélianie Raymond.
In association with APECS, Antarctica New Zealand, and the University of Otago Polar Environments Research Theme.

SWEDEN
The Swedish APECS group will be hosting an Interdisciplinary Science Workshop from 7-9 May, 2008 to be held in the Stockholm archipelago, on Utö. The workshop will be open to early career scientists that are active at Swedish Universities, or Swedish people who are active with research in other countries. The workshop is funded by the Swedish IPY committee and all costs for participants will be covered by our organization. To date, we received 16 applications and happily, able to accept everyone. Together with the organizers, we will be 22 people at the workshop. We will continue working on finalizing the program.
For more information or if you want to get involved, contact Arvid Bring (arvid.bring@natgeo.su.se).

12.    Updates to the Website!
Thanks to the wonderful staff at Teikn Design, we have been able to make a number of updates to our website which make it more functional, dynamic and informative.  There will be more changes in the near future. Please stop by our site and check out the updates!  http://arcticportal.org/apecs
Our website site is hosted through in-kind support from the Arctic Portal, managed by Halldor Johannsson of Iceland. We are very grateful for this support and all the hours of hard work these folks are putting in to help us maintain our on-line community and connections to our members around the world.

13.    Submitting information to the APECS Community
If you have information you would like distributed to the APECS community, please send it to APECSinfo@gmail.com and it will be passed along. Also, feel free to add items to the APECS news section of the website.

14.    Get Involved!
We are always interested in learning where APECS members are going and what they are working on. If you are organizing an event for young researchers or want to get together at an upcoming meeting, let us know and we can help you plan an event. Along these lines, opportunities to represent APECS at various meetings or in other ways are always popping up. If you are going to a specific conference or would like to represent APECS at a meeting, in your country, etc, please email Jenny Baeseman and express your interests.
If you would like to become more involved in any of the APECS international or regional working groups, please visit arcticportal.org/apecs/get-involved or contact the APECS Director, Jenny Baeseman.

15.    IPY and APECS Promotional Materials and Merchandise
So you eat, sleep and breath polar research and by extension, the International Polar Year (IPY) - now you can wear it! APECS, together with the International Polar Year International Program Office, has created an online store for IPY and APECS gear. All profits go towards supporting early career researchers and increasing polar literacy! Show your support for the IPY, young researchers, and polar literacy by visiting: http://www.cafepress.com/ipy. For more information please contact APECS.
We know all of you want to help spread the word about our organization and advertise in your departments, at meetings, on your websites, and wherever. We have provided you with some materials that you can use for those purposes. You will find several large format and smaller format posters, quarter sheet hand-outs and bookmarks that you can print and distribute at http://arcticportal.org/root/home/apecs/resources/apecs-promotional-materials.

Contact Information
Dr. Jenny Baeseman
Director - Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS)
ARCUS Program Development Coordinator
International Arctic Research Center
University of Alaska - Fairbanks
930 Koyukuk Drive, PO Box 757340
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7340
Office: 907-474-1963
jbaeseman@gmail.com
skype: jbaeseman