International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

project management experience as Director of the
TOGA COARE (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere -
Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment)
International Project Office. Carlson remained with IPO
until its final closure on 30 September 2010, providing
inspiration and enthusiasm in particular for the public
profile of IPY throughout his tenure.
Somewhat earlier, in February 2005, Nicola Munro
had been appointed as the IPO administrator and
commenced the job in April. In this position, she
assisted the director in daily operations and provided
administrative support for IPO. Munro remained with
IPO until 31 March 2010, with a short break for an
assignment with the British Antarctic Survey at Halley,
Antarctica between November 2007 and February
2008 during which Kathy Salisbury (BAS) provided
cover. Melissa Deets took over as administrator
between July 2009 and January 2010, and remained
with the Office until it closed in September 2010.
The third full-time position in IPO was that of the
EOC Coordinator. This position was the primary contact
for IPY Education, Outreach and Communication
activities, including managing and maintaining IPY
presence on the web. Rhian Salmon, an Antarctic
atmospheric scientist, served in this position from
April 2006 until March 2009. Karen Edwards, who had
been Coordinator of the Canadian IPY Secretariat,
took over as EOC coordinator in June 2009 when the
Canadian Secretariat closed, and remained with IPO
until December 2009.
The three full-time IPO staff members were
supported by several part-time advisors seconded
from other organizations. Cynan Ellis-Evans, who had
been involved in development of the IPY program
since 2003, continued as a partner and BAS-supported
senior advisor with IPO throughout. Similarly Odd
Rogne, who had been an ex officio member of the Joint
Committee in his role as the Executive Secretary of
IASC until 2006, became a part-time IPO senior advisor,
supported by the Norwegian Research Council, from
when he left the JC until the end of 2009. Also, Camilla
Hansen who was national IPY coordinator for Sweden
was seconded to IPO by the Swedish Research Council
to provide event support between May 2006 and
September 2007. Both Rogne and Hansen worked
mostly from within their home institutions (Fig.1.6-1).
The IPO staff worked closely together, in many
ways more as a family than an office group, providing
mutual support and covering each other’s roles as
necessary.
The original NERC funding for IPO was provided
to cover the period from the beginning of 2005 until
about March 2009. Nevertheless, by mid-2008, with IPY
more than half way through its field period, it became
apparent that to preserve the IPY legacy and to gather
maximum benefit from the program, maintenance
of some of the functions of IPO would be required
for another 18 months (until September 2010). The
major tasks to be completed during this extended
period would include working to ensure access to
and reliable preservation of IPY data, starting with
acquisition of complete IPY metadata; preserving the
education and outreach partnerships and networks
established during IPY with scientific, educational,
media and political organizations; and supporting
assessments and evaluations of the program. In
addition, support would be needed to sustain support
for future researchers and to preserve the mountain of
IPY documents and materials.
Hence, in September 2008, the Joint Committee
sought further funding internationally to continue support
for some IPO functions. Response was slow in coming,
but additional funding of about €530K was eventually
confirmed in June 2009. This funding came 1/3
from the U.K. National Environment Research Council,
1/3 from the U.S National Science Foundation, and 1/3
from essential contributions by Canada, Netherlands,
Norway, Spain, Sweden and the U.S. National Academy
4 . This funding enabled continuation of IPO until
September 2010, albeit at a reduced level of activity.
In St Petersburg, the IPY Eurasian Arctic Sub-
Office was led by Dr Sergey Priamikov, and additional
EASO staff included Elena Berezina (support), Roman
Vlasenkov (data base) and Oleg Golovanov (mapping
and news).
IPO support for the planning,
coordination and implementation of
the IPY 2007–2008
(i) Building the program: early 2005 to February 2007
The November 2004 call for “Expressions of Intent”
for IPY projects saw nearly 900 submissions by 14
January, 2005 and 1232 submissions in total. These
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