APECS News

Dear APECS Members,

As your new Executive Committee, we’d like to start by thanking everyone for the trust you’ve placed in us to lead APECS this year. We’re excited to take on this role and support the APECS community over the next 12 months. Most importantly, we want to thank you - our members - because it’s your involvement that keeps APECS thriving as a global hub for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in polar, alpine, and cryosphere regions.

Have you heard stories of students studying in the Arctic and want to find out how you can get there too or have you just started working in polar research for a PhD or Postdoc and are curious to experience it in person? In the upcoming “Let’s talk…!” online seminar APECS Germany wants to share their experiences and give you ideas for your trip abroad. A group of panelists will talk about studying or doing research in other countries that are known for polar research and studying at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). While UNIS is an amazing place to study, there are some more places, where you can study in the Arctic, that they want to introduce to you. Furthermore, there are opportunities for PhD students and Postdocs which will be discussed as well. 

As every year, APECS Italy has once again organised its National Conference, held on the 3rd and 4th of October 2024, in a hybrid format—both in person at Palazzo Gradari (Pesaro, Italy) and online. This year, the conference was dedicated to the Antarctic Treaty, marking the 65th anniversary of its formal establishment. The event opened with a presentation by Professor P. Vigni from the University of Siena, who highlighted the significance of this pivotal international agreement.

Picture by Sofia Cerri

POLARIN is an EU-funded initiative that brings together an international network of polar research infrastructures. It aims to address the scientific challenges of polar regions by providing integrated access to a wide array of high-level research infrastructures, including research stations in the Arctic and Antarctic, research vessels, icebreakers, observatories, and data repositories.

POLARIN provides free of charge Transnational Access (TA) to research infrastructures. Transnational access can be either in-person, remote, or a combination of both. A list of participating polar research infrastructures, eligibility criteria, and complete guidelines for the application process can be found on the POLARIN website. The deadline for submission of proposals is 28 November 2024.

An informational webinar was held on 21 October 2024, and a recording will be made available on the POLARIN website.

APECS is very pleased to announce our 2024 APECS International Mentorship Award recipient – Prof. Dr. Jody Deming!

Prof. Dr. Jody Deming (University of Washington) was nominated by Georges Kanaan and supported by Dr. Josephine Rapp and Dr. Zac Cooper on behalf of Deming’s mentees. They highlight Deming’s role as a mentor and the profound impact she has had on their careers and that of other emerging polar researchers. Deming’s mentorship goes from undergraduate students to post-doctoral researchers. Mentoring an international community of early career researchers, the nomination and support letters mentioned that Deming provides not only direct scientific advice but places an emphasis on fieldwork and networking opportunities. Furthermore, Georges Kanaan (the nominator) highlights the personal relationships that Deming established with her mentees, through being always available to her students, making them feel welcomed to the group and that Deming, as mentioned in the nomination letter, “Always puts the human first and in doing so fosters a welcoming community where one is invited to be themselves [...] Is always available to listen and offer advice both as a friend and a colleague […] Jody believes that being content allows one to more enjoy their work and thus be a better scientist”.

Prof. Dr. Jody Deming with the APECS International Mentorship Award 2024 (right) and nominator Georges Kanaan (left).

APECSSA (APECS South Africa) Lecture Series, #2

Title: Securing Your Financial Stability from the Start 

Speaker: Peter Eggeling AIB(SA), PPRE

APECS Netherlands, APECS Germany, APECS Italy, APECS Luxembourg, and the UK Polar Network have started a polar-inspired Book Club! Read "Migrations" by Charlotte McConaghy and meet in September (19th September, 16.00/4pm CEST) to discuss the book. You can read about the book on Goodreads: https://lnkd.in/dycqd9Ja

We’re pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for our members to publish a ‘Tools of the Trade’ article in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment—the top-ranked geoscience journal.

‘Tools of the Trade’ are short-form articles (~300 words) that focus on what early career researchers (ECRs) know very well—your tools and methods. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment developed this article type as a way to get ECRs (primarily graduate students) on the publication ladder, and at the same time, develop writing skills by receiving constructive feedback and edits on the draft text. We’re therefore very excited to forge this APECS-NREE partnership given our overlapping goals.

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), Mountain Research Initiative (MRI), PAst Global ChangES Early-Career Network (PAGES-ECN), Permafrost Young Research Network (PYRN), and Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community successfully organized the group review of the Second Order Draft (SOD) of Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC 6^th Assessment Report (AR6) by early career scientists. A recently published article shows that these group reviews were a success in terms of the experience of ECRs and their contribution to the IPCC review process. The authors argue that including a diverse group of ECR reviewers can help produce more balanced scientific reports since they bring new perspectives: