Meet the World Summit Mentors!

APECS was grateful for several mentors attending the APECS World Summit 2015. You can find out more about them here:

• Gabrielle Alix - Canada

  Data Manager, Canadian Cryospheric Information Network/Polar Data Catalogue

• Renuka Badhe - Netherlands

  European Polar Board

• David Carlson - Switzerland

  Director, World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
  Oceanographer, manager of science projects from the tropics to the poles, life-long student of our planet advocating international cooperation and open data access. !

  Director, World Climate Research Programme (2014-present): facilitate analysis and prediction of Earth system variability and change with relevance, benefit and value to society.

  Co-founder and co-Chief Editor, with H. Pfeiffenberger (Alfred Wegener Institute), of Earth System Science Data (2009-present): international data publication journal.

  Director, International Polar Year (IPY) International Programme Office (2005-2010): Organised, managed, coordinated, represented and supported a very large international interdisciplinary science program.

  Director, Atmospheric Technology Division, NCAR (1994-2003): Led ATD staff in support of research in atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric physics and chemistry, land-atmosphere and ocean-atmosphere interaction, hydrology, oceanography, and ecology around the planet.

  Director, Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) International Project Office (1990-1994): Managed and coordinated large international program involving atmospheric and oceanic scientists.

  Assistant and Associate Professor, College of Oceanography, Oregon State University (1983-1990): Research partnerships in interfacial and marine chemistry, small-scale ocean physics and rheology, oceanic microbiology, chemical ecology, and air-sea interaction.

  Education
  • B.A. (Biology), Augustana College, 1973
  • Ph.D. (Oceanography), University of Maine, 1981
  • Post-Doc. (Naval Research Laboratory), US National Research Council, 1983

• Claire Christian - USA

  Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition

• Neil Gibert - New Zealand

  Constantia Consulting / Antarctic Environments Portal 

  Neil Gilbert has 30 years of experience in environmental research, management, policy and law. His particular expertise lies in management of the natural environment. Neil’s experience has been developed in a Polar context, working on a wide range of Arctic and Antarctic environmental policy and management issues. He has a PhD in near-shore marine ecology and spent two and half years living on a small Antarctic island during which time he designed and implemented his own research program. In the role of Base Commander for a UK research station, Neil spent four years overseeing year-round diving and boating programs, station resupply and operational matters.Neil has worked in policy and management roles for central government in both the UK and New Zealand. He has represented both countries in several multi-national forums, including in leadership roles. For four years Neil was the Chair of the Antarctic Treaty System’s 35-country Committee for Environmental Protection. Neil has convened and chaired numerous national and international workshops, conferences and meetings.Neil has a passion for evidence-based decision making to ensure environmental management actions are relevant and assured of a high chance of success.Neil’s environmental expertise ranges across several disciplines including environmental impact assessments, monitoring, non-native species risk assessments, protected area design and implementation, state of the environment reporting, audit, compliance,and research and analysis.A skilled communicator, Neil has provided numerous talks and presentations and is a regular lecturer at tertiary level.

• Ivo Grigorov - Denmark

  Ivo Grigorov is a Marine Scientist by training, currently research project coordinator at the Danish National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua). His current responsibility is assisting researchers along the project lifecycle, from optimizing proposal for funding, to delivering project output to potential users and optimizing the societal impact of research using the full range of Open Science tools, and Ocean Literacy practices.

  More information:
  LinkedIN: https://dk.linkedin.com/in/ivogrigorov
  Twitter: @OAforClimate

• Øystein Godøy - Norway

  Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway
  Øystein Godøy is a climate and remote sensing (optical sensors) scientist with background in Oceanography and Meteorology that in recent years have been heavily involved in national and international environmental data management. He headed data management and seated the steering group within the EU 6FP project Damocles and EU FP7 project ACCESS, participated in drafting the technical specifications of WMO Information System through the VGISC project, and was heavily involved in data management nationally and internationally during the International Polar Year (IPY). Currently he is work package leader for system design in Research Council of Norway infrastructure projects Norwegian Marine Data Centre (NMDC) and the Norwegian Satellite Earth Observation Database for Marine and Polar Research (NORMAP). He seats the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) Steering Group, chairs the GCW Information and Services Working Group, seats the combined SAON/IASC data committee representing WMO and is seating the Norwegian resource allocation committee for high performance computing and data storage.

• Lyubov Kostova - Bulgaria

  Director of the British Council, Bulgaria
  Lyubov Kostova is the director of British Council Bulgaria. She has been involved in the devising and promotion of events in science communication since 2004 when a scoping report led to the first master class in science communication she organised in Bulgaria for researchers and journalists. This was followed by the first Café Scientifique events in Bulgaria, both live and through video conference presented to remote audiences in up to 3 countries. She managed the British Council project which in 2006 for the first time expanded what was a national competition in the UK – FameLab, created by the Cheltenham Science Festival – to nine countries in South East Europe, and co-produced the international final. Nowadays there are competitions in 30 countries worldwide and more considering joining. FameLab is arguably the fastest growing science event and has even been named “the ISO standard of science communication”. In Bulgaria Lyubov co-created the Sofia Science Festival in 2011, is member of the Mtel Media Masters jury for science and technology journalism, consulted the Beautiful Science programme on Bulgarian National TV, and has been involved in the set-up or organisation of many other science-and-society projects. As communication and marketing expert, she lectures at the London School of PR in Bulgaria, is member of the jury of the BG Site Awards, and others.

• 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.

• David Scott - Canada

  David Scott is the Executive Director of the Canadian Polar Commission. He has had a long career with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), most recently serving as Director, Northern Canada Division. Prior to that, he was acting Director General, Planning and Operations Branch, and led the GSC's Gas Hydrates and Northern Resources Development programs. From 1999-2003, he was based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, as the founding Chief Geologist of the Canada-Nunavut Geoscience Office. Dr. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology (McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada) and a PhD in Geological Sciences (Queen's University, Kingston, Canada) where his thesis research investigated the tectonic origin of two-billion year old oceanic crust in Arctic Quebec. He was a Research Associate in uranium-lead geochronology at the GEOTOP laboratories of the University of Quebec at Montreal. He has published and presented over 80 technical papers.

• Pavel Stoev - Bulgaria

  Dr. Pavel Stoev is Project Manager at Pensoft Publishers Ltd. and Professor of Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, Bulgaria. He graduated from Sofia University in 1998 and completed his PhD in Zoology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2003. Since then he has specialized in taxonomy and ecology of Myriapoda in a number of research institutions in the US, Denmark, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland, Russia, Netherlands, etc. His research interests include systematics and biogeography of cave and soil-dwelling arthropods (centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions), distribution of invasive species, bioinformatics, and data management. As a senior analyst at Pensoft Publishers he has been involved in the development of the Publication and Data management platforms of Pensoft’s open access journals. His research combined taxonomic and ecological knowledge with bioinformatics to develop innovative publishing models and workflows, as well as new methods for visualization of taxonomic traits. Dr. Stoev has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and was co-author or co-editor of 5 books. He is Managing Editor of Biodiversity Data Journal and Subject Editor of ZooKeys. He has been a project leader or work package leader of several conservational and scientific projects, such as Enhancement of the Balkan Bear Conservation Network (1996-1997), First investigation of the Milieu souterrain superficiel (MSS) in Bulgaria (2005-2009), Development of National Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (2009-2011). Currently, P. Stoev is taking part in the FP7 projects STEP, SCALES, BESAFE, VIBRANT, EUBON and IMPRESSIONS.

• 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.

• 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.