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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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514<br />

IPY 20 07–20 08<br />

students through integrated education and<br />

research and interdisciplinary programs; 4) early<br />

career scientists, university faculty via professional<br />

development; and 5) communities/general public<br />

via continuing education/adult education either<br />

through formal or informal ways conducted by cluster<br />

members.<br />

Likewise, UArctic’s collaborative higher education<br />

and outreach programs hosted in member institutions<br />

in Arctic countries were many and varied, providing<br />

rich learning opportunities for northerners and the<br />

greater global community: 1) the Circumpolar Studies<br />

Program used academic and indigenous knowledge<br />

as well as multi-method delivery in teaching about<br />

the North via courses held around the world in the<br />

classroom, in the field and online; 2) the UArctic Field<br />

School program composed of short, thematic, fieldbased<br />

courses, provided experiential learning in<br />

northern locations; 3) the GoNorth program provided<br />

the opportunity for non-Arctic residents to go north to<br />

the Arctic to learn about the Arctic; 4) the north2north<br />

program was a multilateral exchange program that<br />

facilitates student mobility in circum-arctic higher<br />

education; 5) the Northern Research Forum (www.<br />

nrf.is) promoted and enabled open discussion among<br />

policymakers, business people and other interest<br />

groups, the international community, and the research<br />

community; 6) the Open Learning program addressed<br />

the need for short-term skills training needed by<br />

northern residents; and 7) the Graduate Networks<br />

facilitated the education of young researchers through<br />

sharing experience and knowledge to promote<br />

regional cooperation and identity, build an academic<br />

community and develop opportunities for education<br />

and communication with policy-makers.<br />

UArctic’s education programs together with the<br />

other IPY Higher Education and Outreach cluster<br />

projects had global linkages and reach, creating a<br />

unique network for higher education and outreach<br />

during the IPY and beyond.<br />

University of Alaska IPY Postdocs Program<br />

and the Young Researcher Network<br />

Jenn Wagaman<br />

As a contribution to the fourth IPY, the University<br />

of Alaska (UA) sponsored eleven postdoctoral<br />

researchers. Each of the scholars spent two years at<br />

a UA campus researching and contributing to the<br />

global goals of IPY. They were partnered with top UA<br />

scientists and, during their tenure, made important<br />

advancements in their fields. UA IPY scholars produced<br />

numerous publications, made international contacts<br />

through their research and accessed the Arctic from<br />

their doorsteps. Nearly half of the scholars have gone<br />

on to tenure-track faculty positions, while others<br />

continue their research or are serving communities<br />

through their research interests.<br />

The UA also provided seed money to begin the<br />

University’s first Young Researcher Network. Through<br />

this project, graduate students from a variety of<br />

disciplines conducted outreach in the Fairbanks and<br />

outlying communities, including elementary school<br />

science projects, community lecture series and handson<br />

science at several community events.<br />

<strong>International</strong> Collaboration and Coordination<br />

of Early Career Activities<br />

To meet the IPY’s goal of including the next<br />

generation of polar researchers and the world’s youth,<br />

an early-IPY grassroots effort by young scientists led<br />

by Amber Church and Tyler Kuhn from Canada, was<br />

formed under the name of the IPY Youth Steering<br />

Committee (YSC), IPY Project no. 168 in 2005. The<br />

YSC largely aimed to involve school children and<br />

young adults in polar literacy projects and strengthen<br />

the communication between students and young<br />

researchers. Under the YSC umbrella, national<br />

committees were established and, in some cases,<br />

gained support from senior colleagues and national<br />

science programmes, which were exemplified by the<br />

creation of the U.K. <strong>Polar</strong> Network (UKPN) in 2007. The<br />

YSC’s scope, however, was limited in time since its<br />

main focus was to create activities during IPY.<br />

Progressively, a need for a broader, more<br />

encompassing international effort specifically geared<br />

towards early career scientists arose; discussions on<br />

IPY education and outreach internet forums, similar<br />

initiatives in other scientific realms and encounters<br />

between like-minded people highlighted the<br />

awareness of this need. It also became clear that, these<br />

efforts should not only focus on science and career<br />

development, but serve and remain driven by early<br />

career researchers.<br />

To address these needs, Hugues Lantuit (Germany),

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