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Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008 (2012)

Chapter: Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
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Appendix C

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

Julio Brigham-Grette(Co-chair) is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Brigham-Grette received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado’s Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research. After postdoctoral research at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the University of Alberta, Canada, with the Canadian Geological Survey, she joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in the fall of 1987. Dr. Brigham-Grette has been conducting research in the Arctic for nearly 34 years, including nine field seasons in remote parts of northeast Russia since 1991. Her research interests and experience span a broad spectrum dealing with Arctic paleoclimate records and the Late Cenozoic evolution of the Arctic climate both on land and offshore, especially in the Bering Strait region. She was a member of the Arctic Logistics Task Force for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) 1996-1999 and 2000-2003, and was member of the OPP Office Advisory Council 2002-2004. She chaired the U.S. Scientific Delegation to Svalbard for Shared Norwegian/U.S. Scientific Collaborations and Logistical Platforms in 1999. Brigham-Grette was two-term chair of the International Geosphere/ Biosphere Program’s Science Steering Committee on Past Global Change (PAGES) with an international program office in Bern, Switzerland, and past president of the American Quaternary Association. She served as one of two U.S. representatives to the International Continental Drilling Program. She is currently chair of the American Geophysical Union’s Paleoclimate and Paleoceanography Focus Group and co-chair of the DOSECC Science Planning Committee for scientific drilling.

Robert A. Rindschadler (Co-chair), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (Emeritus) has been an active Antarctic field researcher for the past 30 years. He has led 15 field expeditions to Antarctica and has participated in many other expeditions to glaciers and ice caps around the world. He maintains an active interest in the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, primarily on Earth, investigating how remote sensing can be used to improve our understanding of the role of ice in the Earth’s climate and exploring the forces driving ice sheet change. Applications developed by Dr. Bindschadler include measuring ice velocity and elevation using both visible and radar imagery, monitoring melt of and snowfall on ice sheets by microwave emissions, and detecting changes in ice sheet volume by repeat spaceborne altimetry. He has advised the U.S. Congress and the Vice President on the stability of ice sheets and ice shelves, led the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative for 20 years, served on many scientific commissions and study groups as an expert in glaciology and remote sensing of ice, was instrumental in the planning of the International Polar Year, and is a past president of the International Glaciological Society. Some of the more significant awards he has received are: Goddard Award of Merit (2008), Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2001), Goddard Senior Fellow (2000), Excellence in Federal Career (1989), the Antarctic Service Medal (1984), and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1994). He has published over 140

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×

scientific papers and numerous review articles and has appeared on television and been heard on radio commenting on glaciological impacts of the climate on the world’s ice sheets and glaciers.

Mary R. Albert, Dartmouth College, is professor of engineering at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and she is executive director of the U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office. She was formerly a senior research scientist at the Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Her research includes heat, mass, chemical transfer, and electromagnetic processes in snow and firn, including atmosphere-snow exchange, ice core interpretation, and remote sensing of snow and ice. She has led and participated in many research programs in both Greenland and Antarctica, most recently as chief scientist of the Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica, an IPY project. While serving on the National Academies of Science Polar Research Board from 2003-2006, she was chair of the U.S. National Committee for the IPY and led the writing of the 2004 NRC Report, A Vision for the International Polar Year. Dr. Albert served on the NSF OPP Advisory Committee from 1998 to 2001, and was Chair of that committee from 1999 to 2000. She is currently associate editor of Water Resources Research and serves on the Executive Committee of the American Geophysical Union Cryosphere Focus Group. Dr. Albert earned her Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences in 1991 from the University of California, San Diego.

John Cassano, University of Colorado, is an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a Fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His research focuses on the meteorology and climate of the polar regions. Dr. Cassano is a U.S. delegate to the International Arctic Sciences Committee. Dr. Cassano received his Ph.D in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wyoming in 1998.

Larry D. Hinzman, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, is the director of the International Arctic Research Center and is professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Professor Hinzman’s primary research interests involve permafrost hydrology. He has conducted hydrological and meteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic continuously for over 30 years while frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian and Canadian Arctic. His research efforts have involved characterizing and quantifying hydrological processes and their interdependence with climate and ecosystem dynamics. Dr. Hinzman’s academic degrees were earned from South Dakota State University, Purdue University, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks in chemistry, soil science, agronomy and soil physics. He has served as a member of the U.S. Polar Research Board, the U.S. Representative to the International Permafrost Association and is a member of the Universities Council on Water Resources. He served as co-chair of the U.S. National Science Foundation study on the Arctic Freshwater Initiative and presently serves as chief scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy Arctic Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment. He is an internal advisory committee member for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power and Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. Dr. Hinzman serves on the International Advisory Board of the Korean Polar Research Institute and is strongly committed to facilitating international partnerships to advance our understanding of the Arctic system.

Dr. Eileen E. Hofmann, Old Dominion University, is a professor of iceanography in the Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and a member of the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography, both at Old Dominion University. Dr. Hofmann earned a Ph.D. in Marine Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University. Her research interests are in the areas of understanding physical-biological interactions in marine ecosystems, climate control of diseases of marine shellfish populations, descriptive physical oceanography, and mathematical modeling of marine ecosystems. She has worked in a variety of marine environments, most recently the continental shelf region off the western Antarctic Peninsula. She served on the Ocean Studies Board and on numerous National Research Council committees, including the Committee on Strategic Advice on the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. She is currently the chair of the Integrated Marine Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Research Project, cosponsored by the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×

International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research.

Igor Krupnik, Smithsonian Institute, is curator of Arctic and Northern Ethnology collections at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C. His primary research fields are modern cultures, ecological knowledge, and cultural heritage of the people of the Arctic, primarily in Alaska and Siberia; culture change and contact history; human ecology; history of Arctic science and Arctic indigenous studies; and impact of modern climate change on Arctic residents, their economies, and cultures. Dr. Krupnik served on the U.S. National Planning Committee for IPY in 2003-2004, before being nominated to the main international steering body for IPY, the ICSU-WMO Joint Committee, in 2004. On the Joint Committee (2005-2010), Dr. Krupnik served as one of two social scientists representing the interests of social studies and Arctic residents. He was instrumental in bringing social/human research onto the IPY agenda. Dr. Krupnik’s personal contribution to IPY science program was an international project called SIKU (Sea Ice Knowledge and Use in the North), on which he coordinated activities of several research teams from Canada, the United States, Russia, Greenland, and France that worked in some 30 Arctic communities from the Bering Strait to Greenland. He was the lead editor of the main summary report on IPY activities, “Understanding Earth’s Polar Challenges: International Polar Year 2007-2008,” by the IPY Joint Committee (2011). Dr. Krupnik received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the Institute of Ethnology, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Vera Kingeckuk Metcalf, Marine Mammal Commission, is the director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission (EWC) at Kawerak, Inc. since 2002. She continues to work in promoting local community participation in research that involves a community’s natural and cultural resources. In 2004 and in cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, EWC convened a workshop to discuss and begin integrating research concerns with the Pacific walrus and its environment. As EWC director, Ms. Metcalf also serves as a Special Advisor on Native Affairs–Marine Mammal Commission, the Pacific Walrus Technical Committee, and on the Pacific Walrus Conservation Fund. Ms. Metcalf also represents EWC as an Advisory Panel member on the North Pacific Research Board and on the Indigenous People’s Council on Marine Mammals (consisting of commissions formed to identify and address marine mammal issues of common concerns). She is currently serving on the Inuit Circumpolar Council Alaska and its Executive Committee. Ms. Metcalf is a former commissioner for the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.

Stephanie Pfirman, Barnard College, is Alena Wels Hirschorn ’58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor in Environmental and Applied Sciences and co-chair of the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College, which she joined in 1993. She holds a joint appointment with Columbia University where she is a member of the faculties of the Earth Institute and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and adjunct research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Throughout her career, Pfirman has been involved with researching the Arctic environment, undergraduate education, environmental policy strategies, and public outreach. Current interests include environmental aspects of sea ice in the Arctic, climate change education, and the development of women scientists and interdisciplinary scholars. In 2010, Pfirman was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “for distinguished contributions to scientific studies of the Arctic and effective outreach to policy makers, students, faculty and the general public.” The first chair of NSF’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (ACERE), Dr. Pfirman oversaw analysis of a 10-year outlook for environmental research and education. Dr. Pfirman rejoined the ACERE in 2010, and she also is currently a member of NSF’s Merit Review Process Advisory Committee. She is a past member of the National Academy of Sciences Polar Research Board, which served as the U.S. National Committee for the International Polar Year 2007-2009, past president of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and past chair of NSF’s Office Advisory Committee to the Office of Polar Programs. Dr. Pfirman earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Oceanography and Oceanographic Engineering.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×

Chris Rapley, The Science Museum, is professor of Climate Science at University College London (UCL). He earned an M.Sc. in Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire followed by a Ph.D. at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) at University College London on the origin of the cosmic soft X-ray diffuse background. Following a decade as the founder and head of the Earth Observation group and associate director at UCL’s Mullard Space Science laboratory. Professor Rapely was appointed Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme IGBP, which he ran from 1994 to 1998. He was director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1998 to 2007 during which time he was a vice president then president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the chair of the planning group that developed the International Polar Year 2007-2008. He was director of the Science Museum from 2007 to 2010, during which time the Museum delivered its Centenary programme, including the new gallery “Atmosphere: Exploring Climate Science.” In 2008 he was awarded the Edinburgh Science Medal for “professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity.”

Lisa Speer, Natural Resources Defense Council, is the director of the International Oceans Program at NRDC, an environmental organization dedicated to protecting natural resources and public health with offices in the United States and China. Her work currently focuses on conservation and management of the Arctic marine environment, and marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, an area known as the “high seas.” Ms. Speer conducts advocacy in a variety of international forums to promote integrated, ecosystem-based management of human activities on the high seas and in the Arctic, with a particular focus on marine fisheries. She received her Master’s degree from Yale University and her Bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College. Ms. Speer has served as a member of the NRC Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and on ad hoc NRC study committees.

Thomas N. Taylor, University of Kansas, is Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. He is also senior curator of the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, and courtesy professor for the Department of Geology. He also serves as director of the State of Kansas NSF EPSCoR Program. He earned his Ph.D. in botany and geology from the University of Illinois in 1964. Dr. Taylor is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the National Science Foundation Education and Human Resources Advisory Committee, as chair of the Strategic Planning and Assessment Committee for National Institutes of Health BRIN KU Medical Center, on Senator Pat Roberts’ Advisory Committee in Science, Technology, and on the Future Kansas Implementation Advisory Committee, the National Science Foundation GPRA Performance Assessment Advisory Committee, the National Science Foundation MPSAC/EHRAC Committee to Review Undergraduate Education in Math and the Physical Sciences, Bioinformatics Core Advisory Committee. He serves on multiple NSF EPSCoR Advisory Boards and committees. He served on the Polar Research Board for the NRC. In addition he served as faculty advisor to the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents and on the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable for the State of Ohio.

Wilford F. Weeks, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, is professor emeritus of geophysics at the University of Alaska. His primary area of interest is in the properties and geophysical behavior of the sea ice covers of the world’s oceans. Specific areas he has investigated include interrelations between growth conditions and the structure, composition, and mechanical and electromagnetic properties of sea ice; formation and statistical characteristics of pressure ridges; ice-induced gouging of the sea floor, bearing capacity and forces exerted by moving ice; and application of varied remote sensing techniques to sea ice problems and general problems relating to atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions. Dr. Weeks is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has also had considerable experience concerning the geophysics and engineering of snow and ice masses in general, including the structure of lake and river ice, winter heat loss from rivers, avalanche forecasting, properties of alpine snow, and temperature distributions and snow property variations in central Greenland. Dr. Weeks received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×
Page 131
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×
Page 132
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×
Page 133
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2012. Lessons and Legacies of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13321.
×
Page 134
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International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY) was an intense, coordinated field campaign of observations, research, and analysis. It was the largest, most comprehensive campaign ever mounted to explore Earth's polar domains. Legacies and Lessons of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 summarizes how IPY engaged the public to communicate the relevance of polar research to the entire planet, strengthened connections with the Indigenous people of the Arctic, and established new observational networks.

Legacies and Lessons of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 also addresses the objectives articulated for IPY in the 2004 National Research Council report, A Vision for International Polar Year (NRC, 2004). These objectives include: suggestions for scientific communities and agencies to use the IPY to initiate a sustained effort aimed at assessing large-scale environmental change and variability in the polar regions, the need to explore new scientific frontiers from the molecular to the planetary scale, investment in critical infrastructure and technology to guarantee that IPY 2007-2008 leaves enduring benefits for the nation and for the residents of northern regions, as well as increase public understanding of the importance of polar regions in the global system.

Legacies and Lessons of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 explains how activities at both poles led to scientific discoveries that provided a step change in scientific understanding and helped translate scientific knowledge into policy-relevant information. At a time when the polar regions are undergoing a transformation from an icy wilderness to a new zone for human affairs, these insights could not be more timely or more relevant. From outreach activities that engaged the general public to projects that brought researchers from multiple disciplines and several nations together, the legacies of IPY extend far beyond the scientific results achieved, and valuable lessons learned from the process will guide future endeavors of similar magnitude.

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