Organizing Team

Meet the team that organized the first APECS World Summit. APECS Bulgaria was the local host of our workshop (in alphabetical order).

• Sira Engelbertz - New Zealand

  Sira is a PhD candidate in Antarctic Studies with focus on social sciences at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She is also founding member of APECS Oceania, the joint New Zealand and Australian branch of APECS, and has been involved in various APECS events.

• Gerlis Fugmann - Norway

  Gerlis is the current Executive Director of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists based at the UiT – The Arctic University of Norway in Norway. Her research focused on projects in the Canadian Arctic and Sub-Arctic as well as Northern Scandinavia, addressing questions of comparative economic development, entrepreneurship, tourism, resource development and Northern engagement and participation in innovation and the knowledge economy.

• Silvia Lourenco - Portugal

  more info to come soon

• Peter Pulsifer - United States

  Peter Pulsifer is a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University of Colorado at Boulder. He focuses on theory, methods and tools that inform and support "interoperability” with a particular focus on polar data. He is an active member of the polar data management community including chairing the IASC Data Standing Committee, SAON Committee on Data and Information Services, and since 2005 representing Canada on the Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management.

• Iglika Trifonova - Bulgaria

  Iglika is the chair of APECS Bulgaria, the local host organization for the workshop

• Anton Van de Putte - Belgium

  Anton Van de Putte (RBINS, Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences) is the project officer for the Antarctic Biodiversity portal (www.biodiversity.aq), which provides free and open access to Antarctic occurrence data. He’s goal is to make Antarctica data free, save and openly available so this unique ecosystem can be better understood and managed.

• Tristy Vick-Majors - United States

  Tristy is a PhD candidate in Microbial Ecology at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA and also a member of the APECS Executive Committee. Her research focuses on microbial processes in Antarctic aquatic environments including subglacial lakes, surface lakes, and the ocean.

• Jose Xavier - Portugal / United Kingdom

  Jose is a Antarctic scientist at the British Antarctic Survey (UK) and University of Coimbra (PT), working on penguins, seals and albatross ecology and conservation since 1997. With 8 expeditions on the Polar regions, he has contributed to the establishment of his national polar program, coordinated national, international research and educational projects. Member of the interim executive committee of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS; 2007-2008). He is the youngest scientist to win the prestigious Marta T. Muse award for excellence in Antarctic science and policy.