Having been involved in APECS & IPY education and outreach activities in New Zealand, I am delighted to embrace this challenge and thank you for the trust and confidence that has been extended to me.

I will do my utmost to continue on the path laid out by the previous president, Kriss Rokkan Iversen, ExCom and APECS Director, who have passionately and skilfully made APECS into a widely recognised and consistently growing association.

Working together with a fabulous ExCom (Matt Strzelecki, Francisco Fernandoy, Liz Thomas, Benjamin Beall) and an terrific and experienced director (Jen Baeseman) should make any president's job easy.  
Our main priorities are to:

• strengthen the communication between the ExCom and APECS members through regular conference calls, a better website and more face-to-face interaction,
• improve the networking among researchers through vitalising the Research Activities Committee,
• increase public awareness of polar research  through supporting education and outreach activities, and
• mainstreaming environmental and social responsibility in our work as polar researchers.

As a way to keep all of our members better informed of what we are working on and to discuss ways for people to gain valuable experience, we are hosting monthly conference calls that any member can join. A schedule of these calls can be found here.

I look forward to speaking with you all in these upcoming calls.

Best wishes,

Daniela

For more information about Daniela and the 2008-2009 Executive Committee, click here.