Inspired by the messages send out by APECS, a small group of APECS decided to organise a meeting in Brussels to celebrate Antarctica Day on December 1st. Our primary goal was to get to know the young polar community in Belgium. Who out there is devoting part of his life to Antarctic research? We started contacting labs and collecting email addresses and I was a bit shocked to find out that physicists working on Antarctica have their office about 200 metres from mine, in the nearby building and I did not even know that. What a shame that we did not know each other. It was about time to change this!
We decided to organise an informal poster session in the morning to give people a chance to present their research. This was preceded by an introduction of the Antarctic Treaty, the legal background by a lawyer specialised in environmental law. After posters, we had lunch so that people could talk to each other and get to know each other. The community was really diverse, both in research topics as in age. There were biologists, physicists, glaciologists, a lawyer and so on. And not only 'young' researchers were present, we were also joined by three 'old' Antarctica expedition members who really wanted to express their enthusiasm that the youth is concerned about this remote place on Earth and is performing all these different types of research. It was fascinating to compare Antarctic expeditions in the twenty-first century to expeditions in the 1960s.
After lunch, we've started brainstorming about ways to promote the Antarctic Treaty Meeting that will be held in Brussels in 2013. Is there a better time to promote Antarctic research? We will not only create a message for the politicians and lawyers participating in this meeting, but also for the greater public. In this respect, it was decided to launch a national node: APECS-Belgium. Several people expressed their enthusiasm to participate in side-events to this meeting and would like to be involved in scientific and outreach activities in Belgium. Slowly but surely, the APECS division in Belgium will organise events and spread polar-related news in Belgium. Our first monthly meeting will be held in January 2012 where we will discuss meetings and workshops that we will organise the next year.
