APECS Council 2007-2008
The APECS Council was created in September 2007 at a meeting outside of Stockholm, Sweden. The Council is made up of representatives for various national committees as well as research discipline representatives and representatives from our partner organizations.
Below is a list of the first term of the APECS Council. Our next Council meeting will be held July 6th in St. Petersburg, Russia before the APECS Career Development Workshop and the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference. If you are interested in attending and becoming involved in the Council or our other committees, please contact us at APECSinfo at gmail.com.
Kristina Backstrand
Stockholm University, Sweden
Swedish Youth Steering Committee
I did my master in Physical Geography at Lund University, Sweden during which degree I also spend one year in New Zealand. My master project developed into a PhD and I changed university and I’m not at Stockholm University, still Sweden. I’ve done a lot of fieldwork in subarctic Sweden, in connection with Abisko Scientific Research Station. I plan to finish my PhD in November 2008. I’m also involved in the Swedish YSC working on establishing a Swedish network for early career polar scientists as well as outreach towards schools.
Narelle Baker
Scott Polar Research Institute, U.K.
U.K. Polar Network
APECS Financial Coordinator
APECS Executive Committee
My undergraduate background has varied from human geography, political science and Italian language, to glaciology, atmospheric science, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS), undertaken in both New Zealand and Western Australia. Since graduating I undertook the Gateway Antarctica (NZ) Graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies , which took me to Antarctica, a Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Fellowship, allowing six months research on ice sheet modelling at the University of Bristol, the Geophysical and Environmental Fluid Dynamics Summer School, University of Cambridge, and the Karthaus Glaciers in the Climate System Summer School, Italy. Currently I am undertaking my PhD at Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge.
My broad research interests are: behaviour and history of past and present ice sheets; subglacial processes and the flow of ice; numerical modelling of ice dynamics and hydrological processes; remote sensing of the cryosphere; and the role of the cryosphere in Earth's climate system. My research investigates how the Siple Coast ice streams in West Antarctica respond to possible changes in subglacial water flows. I am developing a numerical model, the HIT flowline model, that couples Hydrology, Ice thermodynamics and Till rheology and am applying the coupled model to the stagnant Kamb Ice Stream (Ice Stream C) to determine why the ice stream became stagnant and whether changing subglacial water flows could restart its flow.
I am Finance Coordinator for the UK Polar Network and an Executive Committee member and the Treasurer of the Association of Early Career Polar Scientists (APECS). Visit my
website.
Armelle Decaulne
CNRS, France
APECS Geosciences Coordinator
I was born in France and started learning Geography at the University in Paris in 1993, and quickly shifted to physical geography, before affirming a preference for geomorphology. After my master degree, where I studied coastal geomorphology in French Brittany beaches, I decided to pursue my researches on slope processes in polar environments. In 1997 I joined the University of Clermont-Ferrand to start a PhD which led me to Northwestern Iceland. Since then, I have not left Iceland, or, more exactly, I am always back to Iceland. My research interest deals with geodynamics, natural hazard and risk, at present-time but also during the Holocene. Since 2006, I am researcher at CNRS, the largest scientific organisation in France, still working on snow avalanche, debris flow, rock fall, landslide impacts in Iceland.
Claudia Halsband-Lenk
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K.
APECS Biological Oceanography Coordinator
I’m a German zooplankton ecologist and started my studies in this field in 1995 at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. Excited about the complex behaviour of little planktonic creatures called copepods, I continued to study their ecology and conducted a comparative study in the Mediterranean and the North Sea, resulting in a bi-national PhD degree, conferred in 2001 by the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI (France) and the University of Oldenburg (Germany). I have studied the ecology of copepods ever since in a number of postdoctoral projects based at the University of Hamburg (Germany), the University of Washington, Seattle (USA), and the University Centre on Svalbard (Norway).
I have lived and worked on Spitsbergen in the high Arctic for two years studying population ecology of arctic plankton. I joined APECS as biology discipline coordinator in early 2007. I am now based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK, from where I will continue my research in the Arctic.
Bettina Kaiser
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
German Youth Steering Committee
Bettina started her tertiary education in Germany, studying Philosophy, English and American literature and cultural history in Berlin. After the first two years of study, she decided to go to Great Britain and pursue a B.A. degree in Philosophy at Leeds University, which she completed after one year majoring in the Philosophy of Science. Subsequently, she completed her Master’s degree at Humboldt University in Berlin over the next two years with a particular focus on nineteenth-century American rhetoric and Philosophy of Science. Whilst working for television in Germany, she decided to develop a doctoral project combining research in nineteenth-century rhetorical culture, argumentation theory and history and philosophy of science. It was then, that she became interested in the history of polar research and nineteenth-century scientific culture. Since 2005, Bettina has undertaken her PhD project at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and is the recipient of the Canterbury doctoral scholarship. Since 2006, Bettina is actively involved in education and outreach for the New Zealand Youth Steering Committee and the German initiative “Polarjugend.”
Arthur Mason
Arizona State University, U.S.A.
APECS Social Sciences Coordinator
I work on the history, politics and culture of arctic natural gas development, and particularly of Alaska and Western Canada. I received my PhD from UC Berkeley in 2004, and am completing my first book, Arctic Moderns and the Import of Expertise for Cornell University Press which is a study of energy market restructuring and the politics of Alaskan-Western Canadian natural gas pipeline development. I am currently working on energy forecasting and how images of the energy future have impacted energy policy and planning since the early 1970s. In this work, I also focus on the activities of experts, a theme that I am developing in various projects on the politics and culture of consultant forecasting. I have held the positions of lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Energy Resources Group and Fulbright Scholar, North American Research Chair at University of Calgary, where I continue to hold a Research Associate position at the Arctic Institute of North America. At Arizona State University I am founder and Director of StudioPolar, Assistant Professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, Co-Chair of the Energy, Society and Policy Initiative, and faculty affiliate with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. I am also the Social Science Coordinator for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). My ethnographic experience includes various politically appointed State of Alaska positions including Associate Director of Energy under Alaska governor Frank Murkowski and Energy Coordinator under Alaska governor Tony Knowles. I am also involved in long-term ethnographic research at various urban and village sites in Alaska and Alberta.
Hugues Lantuit
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
Permafrost Young Researchers Network
APECS Executive Committee
I am a 29 years old big boy from France. Upon completion of my French Baccalauréat, I started a Geography/Geology degree in Paris. I graduated from Université Paris 7 with a maîtrise in Physical geography and moved to Montréal, Canada to get a masters. I stayed three years at McGill University, and graduated with an MSc that had to do with the quantification of coastal erosion on Arctic coasts using remote sensing and photogrammetry. I then got an offer to come to the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam to start a PhD and took it. My research is primarily focused on the impacts of climate change on Arctic coasts. My PhD project involves the use of geospatial tools, including satellite imagery, Geographical Information Systems, and photogrammetry to quantify and characterize the coastal erosion occurring in permafrost regions.
I also take part in some projects in the polar world related to specific science issues (Arctic Coastal Dynamics, SEDIBUD) and to the promotion of young scientists activities (Permafrost Young Researchers Network www.pyrn.org, APECS, WAYS).
Adrian McCallum
Scott Polar Research Institute
UK Polar Network
I’ve recently moved to Cambridge from Australia to commence a PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute. I’m essentially looking to investigate the strength of snow for engineering purposes, and whether we can develop a useful in situ testing method which can give a ready appraisel of the snow’s strength.
I’ve come to the Polar sciences late, after spending almost 20 years in numerous roles across the Australian Defense Forces. Throughout that time I’ve been aiming to ultimately forge a career as a Polar scientist and explorer, but it’s just taken me a while to get there. I’ve led or participated in numerous expeditions to the Himalayas and sub-polar regions over that time, and I’m looking forward to getting out and about to places cold and white throughout the next few years.
I’m very excited about the opportunities that we as young Polar scientists have before us, and I look forward to meeting and dealing with many of you as we become the ‘new-guard’ in this field.
For further info check out my
SPRI webpage.
Edward Moss
Napier University, U.K.
Member at Large
Edward was born on 19th October 1981. With the onset of epilepsy at the age of 11 school life became challenging with constant changes of medication. Leaving school with only average qualifications but a determination to pursue his passion and interest in the environment, he read Human Biology at Oxford Brookes University graduating in 2005. His unique dissertation on lemur recognition is likely to be presented at the ‘International Primatological Congress, Edinburgh 2008’ and these techniques have been considered for use by Prague Zoo. After this he went on to obtain an MSc in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at Napier University, Edinburgh graduating in 2006. His MSc thesis took him to the Swedish mountain tundra where he studied the dietary shifts made by red foxes in a sub-arctic ecosystem during times of low food availability. Since university Edward has worked at a research station in the Canadian Arctic as well as becoming a member of the APECS council during 2007. He also manages to pursue many of his other interests including wildlife photography, music, sport and bioacoustics.
Dirk Notz
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany
APECS/CliC Sea Ice Coordinator
I am leader of the research group "Sea ice in the Earth System" at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany. We are working on the development of a next-generation sea-ice model for climate studies by developing new parameterizations from laboratory and field experiments and through theoretical studies.
Before coming to Max-Planck, I studied Meteorology and spent one year on Svalbard in the high Arctic during that time. There, I fell in love with this amazing landscape and have been back to the Arctic every year since that time for field work. I have been on a number of expeditions both in the North and in Antarctica and just got fascinated by the work on sea ice more and more.
I did my PhD in England, trying to figure out how salt gets out of sea ice. In 2007, together with Karolina Widell from the University of Bergen, I was the main initiator and organizer of the IPY International Sea-Ice Summer School that was held on Svalbard for two weeks in July, with more than 90 participants from 16 countries.
Melianie Raymond
University of Otago, New Zealand
New Zealand Youth Steering Committee
APECS Education and Outreach Committee Co-Chair
Melianie completed her undergraduate studies in Zoology at the Universities of Otago (New Zealand) and Copenhagen (Denmark), during which she became interested in Polar Biology. She is currently studying towards her PhD, focusing on the adaptations that enable Antarctic nematodes to survive intracellular freezing. Her field work has taken her to Cape Hallett supported by a Kelly Tarlton' s and Antarctica New Zealand scholarship, and to Gondwana Station for two seasons as part of Antarctica New Zealand's event K066. She is the chair of the NZ YSC, and involved in coordinating Education and Outreach activities for APECS.
Rhian Salmon
International Polar Year International Programme Office, U.K.
APECS Education and Outreach Committee Co-Chair
Member at Large
After completing a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry, Rhian spent three summers and one winter working in Antarctica with the British Antarctic Survey. Upon return, she was overwhelmed by the beauty of the continent, convinced by the importance of polar research, and disappointed by the huge gulf between scientific knowledge and public awareness of issues of global concern. She now works as Education and Outreach Coordinator for the International Polar Year 2007-8, an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate earth system science in real-time.
Mieke Sterken
University Ghent, Belgium
Belgium Youth Steering Committee
After finishing her Msc. degree in Geography, Mieke studied an additional year focusing on marine and lacustrine sciences at Ghent University, Belgium. After this, she enrolled in a PhD program, working on paleoclimate and environmental reconstructions in South America and Antarctica. These reconstructions are based on the analysis of fossil diatoms & pigments in sediment cores from several lakes. Mieke is being supervised by Prof. Wim Vyverman and Dr. Elie Verleyen from the Lab for Protistology and Aquatic Ecology. Dr. Verleyen is now involved in research on the biogeography of diatoms, and as Mieke is a geographer, she is doing the GIS-analyses with respect to this research.
Liz Thomas
British Antarctic Survey, U.K.
U.K. Polar Network
APECS Career Development Coordinator
Dr Liz Thomas is a climate change scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, investigating the recent warming on the Antarctic Peninsula using evidence obtained from ice cores. She has been fortunate to take part in two field campaigns in the Antarctic; the first as part of an international ice core drilling team that reached bedrock (~1000 m) at Berkner Island (79°S,45°W) in the summer of 2004/05 and the second leading an ice core drilling project in the Antarctic Peninsula (73°S, 70°W) in 2006/07. She has a PhD in Paleoclimatology, investigating past rapid climate change events from Greenland ice cores. She loves all aspects of polar fieldwork and is looking forward to her first trip to the Arctic in July, as chief scientists for a young explorers expedition to Svalbard, with the British Schools Exploration Society.
Tina Tin
Antarctic Southern Ocean Coalition, France
APECS Environmental and Social Responsibilities Committee Chair
Member at Large
Tina conducted her Ph.D. research on the thickness of Antarctic sea ice at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (US) and holds a Masters of Engineering from the University of Cambridge (UK). She participated in two research cruises in the Ross Sea and presented papers at a number of international scientific conferences. Her passion lies in the protection of wilderness areas - in the polar regions and worldwide. When she is not focused on Antarctica, she works with WWF and other environmental organizations to promote climate change science and policy in Europe and elsewhere.
Jill Zamzow
University of Alabama, U.S.A.
Member at Large
I am a postdoctoral fellow, funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. My current project is a study of top-down and bottom-up effects on amphipod distributions in Antarctic near-shore waters. I will, in particular, be focusing on fish predation and the chemical and structural characteristics of algae, and how they affect amphipod host-alga choice. I’ll be SCUBA diving to collect animals and algae, and performing a series of laboratory experiments in aquaria. I leave for Palmer Station in Feb 2008!
My doctoral work investigated the ultraviolet defenses employed by coral reef and temperate tidepool fishes (i.e., “fish slime sunscreen”). I have previously worked on ultraviolet vision and communication in fishes, cleaning symbioses between marine turtles and coral reef fishes, and I also did a stint working for the State of Hawaii coordinating research efforts within the Papahānaumokuākea (Northwest Hawaiian Islands) Marine National Monument.
Kriss Rokkan Iversen
University of Tromso, Norway
APECS Executive Committee - President
Growing up in the Lofoten Islands, at 68 degress north, I got infected with a polar passion early. Through my studies at different Norwegian universities, I finnished my Norwegian Masters in marine system ecology in 2003, where I focused on the effect of small-scale turbulence on bacteria and phytoplankton. For the two next years, I worked as a scientific assistant in different projects in the Norwegian Arctic, gaining field experience and understanding for polar research. In 2005, I received a university scholarship for my PhD project; investigation of the microbial loop in the ice-covered Arctic waters of Svalbard. The role of the microbial loop in the biological carbon pump and thus the overall carbon flux is yet not understood. Hopefully implementation of data from me and Lena Seuthe’s work will enhance the dissolution of the Barents Sea Ecosystem Model.
Alongside my scientific interests, I am extremely interested in science policy making and outreach; truly believing that science needs to be a part of a community’s everyday agenda. At the time being, I am an elected member of the University board of the University of Tromsø and President of APECS. Through APECS I have been given the opportunity to first-hand experience international science politics and policy making. Together with APECS’ excellent international, multidisciplinary network and competance in science, education and outreach, APECS really makes a difference for me professionally. This genuine APECS combination is of great importance for me – both at present as well as in the future.
Jose Xavier
Center for Marine Sciences, Portugal
Portugese Youth Steering Committee
APECS Executive Committee
Dr. José Xavier is a young Marine Biologist, doctorate of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and now a Post-doctoral fellow of the Centre of Marine Sciences (Univ. Algarve, Portugal), British Antarctic Survey and CEBC-CNRS, France. Jose has numerous publications in ecology and conservation of marine organisms in the Antarctic and Atlantic Oceans. His studies focus on marine food web dynamics in relation to climate change, working mostly with predators on the top of the food chain (albatrosses, penguins, seals, sharks,...). He is the national contact in 3 core science projects within IPY, principal investigator in one another science project and coordinator of one educational project, LATITUDE60!. Member of various international orgainzations including being member of the Portuguese committee for IPY, the Philosophical Cambridge Society, the Cephalopod International Advisory Council, and APECS Executive Committee.
James Cheshire
University of Southampton, U.K.
U.K. Polar Network
Jason Box
The Ohio State University, U.S.A.
APECS/CliC Ice Sheet Coordinator
Arid Bring
Stockholm University, Sweden
Swedish Youth Steering Committee
Amber Church
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Member at Large
Xiao Cunde
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences in Lanzhou, China
APECS/CliC Science Representative
Jason Davis
The Ohio State University, U.S.A.
Member at Large
Jason worked at McMurdo Station, Antarctica as a Dining room Attendant through the austral summer of 2000-2001. During his time there he hosted a weekly radio show, produced/ directed Much Ado About Nothing, and fostered an interest in the continent. He now is working on his dissertation and occasionally hangs out at the Byrd Polar Research Center where he does outreach activities. His current research focuses on how the commercially useful results of biological research (bioprospecting) in Antarctica are being governed and the implications for property-territory relations.
Peter DiFiore
Princeton University, U.S.A.
APECS Chemical Oceanography Coordinator
APECS Chief Information Officer
Hauke Flores
University of Groningen, Netherlands
Netherlands Youth Steering Committee
Tyler Kuhn
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Member at Large
Alexandre Trindade Nieuwendam
Centro de Estudos Geograficos, Portugal
Portugese Youth Steering Committe
Daniel Pringle
University of Alaska, U.S.A.
Alaska Young Researchers Network
APECS Executive Committee
Kazuyuki Saito
Nagoya University, Japan and University of Alaska, U.S.A.
APECS/CliC Science Representative
Caroline Souffreau
University Ghent, Belgium
Belgium Youth Steering Committee
APECS-Information.pdf
