APECS News

APECS members — here is your chance to join the APECS Council Leadership!

APECS is looking for two additional National Committee Coordinators: 

• 1 Full-term position for the rest of the current  term (until 30 September 2024)
• 1 Temporary position for two months (February and March 2024)

As a NCC, you will provide a link between the NC representatives on the Council, the Executive Committee, and the International Directorate. You will maintain communication with NC representatives and help renew partnership agreements between NCs and APECS. Note that this position requires a degree of commitment (around 1 hour/week), so please consider if you have the time to fulfil this role before applying.

The work of one of APECS’ Project Groups (PGs) was presented at the 17th Annual Earth System and Space Science Poster Conference on December 8 in Boulder, CO (US). Between 2018 and 2021, the “IPCC group review” PG organized six group reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.

On the 2nd of November, the XIV APECS Portugal Workshop was held at the Institute Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, with the theme "Lost in Communication: How to improve the ECRs Communication Skills". This workshop preceded the Portuguese Polar Conference held on the 3rd of November.

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) are looking for an early career scientist to join the leadership teams of the following working groups :

• Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sector (ABS) RWG
• Ross Sea RWG
• Weddell Sea and Dronning Maud Land (WSDML) RWG
• West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc (WAPSA) RWG

APECS, APECS Norway and SIOS teamed up to offer two ECR workshops at the Svalbard Science Conference (SSC) 2023, which was held at Scandic Fornebu in Oslo 31 October to 1 November.

On 7 November 2023, the APECS International Directorate hosted the event Polar Paths: Weaving passion with profession at Storgata Camping in downtown Tromsø. The purpose of the event was to bring together the polar early career community and provide inspiration on how passions can be integrated into polar professions. Additionally, the event provided a gathering space for community members of all disciplines coming from any institution or employer. 100 people from around 20 different institutions attended.

APECS and Arctic PASSION Sharing Circle 

Participant report by Jessica Hall

Eighteen Arctic youth and early career professionals from around the world travelled to Sevettijärvi, Finland, located in Sápmi, to attend the APECS & Arctic PASSION Sharing Circle from 2-6 October, 2023. We were hosted by Toini Sanila and her team at Porotila Toini Sanila reindeer farm, located in Inari between the lakes Sevettijärvi and Kirakkajärvi. Our hosts were invaluable in sharing their knowledge and experiences surrounding the topics we discussed. 

The 5th national conference of APECS Italy took place on November 8-9, 2023, in Venice. The event was made possible by a collaboration with the Italian Institute of Polar Sciences (CNR-ISP) and the Venice Institute of Science, Literature and Arts (Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti). This year, the national conference was formally dedicated to the conquest of Mount Everest as 2023 is the seventieth anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's ascent to the summit (May 29th, 1953).

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR, https://www.scar.org/) are looking for an early career researcher (ECR) to join the Near-Term Variability and Prediction of the Antarctic Climate System (AntClimNow) Antarctic Climate Indicators project group. This project group aims to document and display a range of Antarctic Climate Indicators (ACIs) relevant to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Candidate variables include the Southern Annular Mode / westerly winds, Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent, and Antarctic Peninsula temperatures. The project group is working on defining which of the candidate variables will become the final set of ACIs and how these might be presented. The ACIs will be updated regularly, and an annual “state of the Antarctic climate” document is envisioned.