US-SCAR News

Reminder! The 2nd US Antarctic Science Meeting is next week on June 20-23, 2023. The meeting is being held as an online virtual meeting. There is no registration fee. The meeting will take place for two hours each day (3 pm EDT, 2 pm CDT, 1 pm MDT, 12 pm PDT, 11 am AKDT, 9 am HST). Continue reading for the Zoom registration link, a link to the meeting program book with schedule and abstracts, and the meeting schedule. Continue Reading

The NSF Office of Polar Programs has released two announcements affecting the U.S. Antarctic Program, the Dear Colleague Letter: 2023 Update on Science Support and Infrastructure in Antarctica and Updated COVID-19 Management Plan for the U.S. Antarctic Program 2023-24 Season. Continue Reading

Happy World Oceans Day! The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) announced today that SCAR will be a new Decade Collaborative Centre for the Southern Ocean Region (DCC-SOR) for the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). Continue Reading

Reminder - US-SCAR is hosting an online meeting on 20-23 June 2023 for US scientists who are conducting research in, from or about Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Scientists interested in getting involved in Antarctic research through US programs are also welcome and encouraged to attend. This conference is open to all US scientists and anyone interested in US Antarctic research. There is no registration fee. The abstract deadline May 24. Continue Reading

The NSF Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences Section, is seeking a qualified candidate for a Physical Science Administrator (Program Director) for the Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (AOAS) Program. Interested candidates should learn more about the position and apply by May 30, 2023, on the USAJOBS website. Continue Reading

US-SCAR is happy to announce the next installment of our US Antarctic Interview Series. This feature of our website provides the opportunity for us to highlight a pair of people involved in the US Antarctic Program - someone with an established career along with an early career collaborator. The newest interviews are with Dan Costa (University of California Santa Cruz) and Luis Huckstadt (University of Exeter, UK). The interviews were conducted and written by US-SCAR fellow, Lynn Kaluzienski (University of Alaska Southeast), and we would also like to acknowledge our webmaster, Joe Souney (University of New Hampshire), for making the interviews available on line. Continue Reading

The United States Antarctic Program Data Center (USAP-DC) will hold a webinar on 9 May at 12 noon EDT to provide an introduction to the data center and an overview of services offered. The session will provide an introduction on how to access and contribute data to USAP-DC, create project pages, as well as review of data management plan requirements, and tools to support the lifecycle of data management. USAP-DC provides service to support US researchers in fulfilling data management obligation and all are welcome. The session will be particularly targeted at new investigators and early career researchers to learn about the services offered at the data center. Continue Reading

To further scientific and technological cooperation between the United States and the European Community, the National Science Foundation and the European Research Council signed an Implementing Arrangement on October 29, 2019, to enable U.S.-based scientists and engineers with active NSF awards, particularly those early in their careers, to pursue research collaboration with European colleagues supported through EU-funded European Research Council (ERC) grants. This letter invites current NSF grantees to submit supplemental funding requests for research visits to any identified, appropriate ERC-funded European research group. NSF particularly encourages requests from NSF grantees who are early in their careers or who are still actively building their careers. Further, the letter gives instructions on how to submit supplemental funding requests and other relevant policies and requirements. Continue Reading

April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. In recognition of this critical topic, NSF has launched the new NSF Antarctic Helpline, which provides immediate crisis intervention and emotional support to survivors of sexual assault or sexual harassment via phone, text, or online chat. April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. In recognition of this critical topic, NSF has launched the new NSF Antarctic Helpline, which provides immediate crisis intervention and emotional support to survivors of sexual assault or sexual harassment via phone, text, or online chat. Continue Reading

Join the National Science Foundation for the Spring 2023 NSF Virtual Grants Conference June 5, 2023 2:00 PM ET - June 8, 2023 4:00 PM ET. Registration will open on Wednesday, May 10 at 12PM ET. Just like the in-person grants conferences, the NSF Virtual Grants Conference is a must, especially for new faculty, researchers and administrators. The NSF Grants Conference is designed to give new faculty, researchers, and administrators key insights into a wide range of current issues at NSF. NSF staff will provide up-to-date information about policies and procedures, specific funding opportunities and answer attendee questions. Continue Reading

US-SCAR is hosting an online meeting on 20-23 June 2023 for US scientists who are conducting research in, from or about Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Scientists interested in getting involved in Antarctic research through US programs are also welcome and encouraged to attend. This conference is open to all US scientists and anyone interested in US Antarctic research. There is no registration fee. Continue Reading

Dear Ross Sea research community, Thanks again to all of you who were able to attend our planning meeting and to those of you who were there in spirit. We have a variety of updates and resources to share with you below, including moving forward on Working Groups. Continue Reading

NSF-sponsored Workshop: Detecting adaptive evolutionary events in genomes of polar species at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, St. Augustine, Florida. This workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation through awards #1935635 and #1935672. A two-day workshop will be held at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience (University of Florida) in 2023 (July 24 & 25). Participants should plan to arrive on the afternoon of July 23rd and depart in the morning or afternoon on July 26th. The workshop organizers, Dr. Scott Santagata and Dr. Joseph Ryan, will lead participants through a series of computational exercises having the following goals: Construct orthologous gene assignments (OrthoFinder), prune paralogous genes (PhyloPYPruner), align orthologous gene (MAFFT), and multi-gene phylogenetic relationships (IQ-TREE); Establish collaborative research groups to test for genes under positive selection from diverse organisms and habitats (e.g., polar, terrestrial, marine, tropical) using genomic and transcriptomic datasets; Evaluate current analytical methods for determining positive selection (e.g., PAML, HyPHy) and their statistical significance. Participants are encouraged to work with their own NGS-based datasets, but sample datasets will also be provided and analyzed using a bioinformatics platform. Applicants with transcriptomic datasets that span ecological boundaries (e.g. high vs. low latitudinal habitats, marine vs. freshwater habitats, deep vs. shallow water habitats, etc.) will be given priority. However, anyone who is interested in learning these techniques is encouraged to apply. Continue Reading

Join a "dream team" of invertebrate taxonomists and evolutionary biologists searching for new species around Eastern Antarctica. They'll give you a quick tour of their deep-sea research ship, answer your questions about their work, and more on March 6 at 1 pm ET. The audience for this event is grades 4 to 12, but all are welcome! Continue Reading

In June 2021, NSF sponsored the Crevasse Risk Management and Safety Workshop. In continuing the conversations of this workshop, the NSF Office of Polar Programs is hosting a four-part webinar series on using technology to increase the ability to detect crevasses, an essential need while doing fieldwork in rapidly changing, ice-laden landscapes. There is no need to register in advance. Simply follow the link listed below. Continue Reading

The Office of Polar Programs (OPP) is pleased to announce two new staff members. Dr. William Ambrose has been selected as a Permanent Federal Program Director in the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) in the Antarctic Sciences Section and will serve as the Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems Program Director. Ms. Gina Selig is OPP’s new 2023 Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. Continue Reading

Please consider nominating scientists for the AGU Cryo Awards! All packets are due April 12th! The AGU Cryosphere Canvassing Committee is striving to receive a wide diversity of nominations for the Early Career, Nye Lecture, and AGU Fellows awards. Nearly anyone can lead a nomination and if you don't have time to lead one, consider filling out our suggestion box and we can try to help. Note that the Nye Lecture now accepts nominations for science teams! Lastly, contributions in education, outreach, science communication, and mentorship are valued as much as "typical" science contributions (grants, papers, etc.), and Cryosphere doesn't just mean glaciologists (e.g., soil scientists, biologists, geochemists, oceanographers, glacial geologists, etc. are appreciated)! Please share widely within your networks and check out the resources, including evaluation criteria, below. There is interest in creating informal nomination groups to work on nominations as a community. If you are forming these groups and would like us to help spread the word, please let us know! Continue Reading

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO)* Conference Travel Grant Program is now open for applications. Travel awards to attend and present polar-related work at a conference are open to polar early career scientists and educators. In this Spring 2023 funding cycle, PSECCO will be distributing $5,000 of awards. Applicants may request a reasonable amount of funding to support their travel to/from a conference, up to a value of $900 per person, with awards aimed at those with demonstrated financial need. An additional $100 is available for awardees who organize a PSECCO social event at the conference. The application deadline is March 15, 2023 at 11.59pm MT. PSECCO will open another round of conference travel funding in fall 2023. Continue Reading

NSF Polar Programs is providing funding through US-SCAR to support travel of US scientists to three Antarctic meetings this summer. Applicants must be affiliated with a US institution, and preference will be given to early career researchers. There is a separate travel grant application for each meeting. If you apply for more than one meeting, you will be asked to prioritize your choices. Deadline for all travel grant applications is 1 March 2023. (Decisions are expected by 31 March.) The three Antarctic meetings are: (1) IV Ross Sea Conference (3-7 July 2023, Naples, Italy), (2) XIII SCAR Biology Symposium (31 July -4 August 2023, Christchurch, NZ), and (3) 2023 SOOS Symposium: Southern Ocean in a Changing World (14-18th August 2023, Hobart, Australia). Continue Reading

The United States delegation to the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) has a part time paid internship position available for a PhD student who is currently involved in Antarctic research at a US institution. This position is funded by a grant from the NSF Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Sciences awarded to the University of San Francisco. A part time intern is sought to assist with various aspects of the operations and outreach efforts of US-SCAR. The US-SCAR internship will be through a contract with the University of San Francisco. Hours will be flexible and variable, averaging 5-8 hours per week. Compensation is at the hourly rate of $25, there are no fringe benefits. Work will be coordinated remotely with the US delegate to SCAR, Deneb Karentz (Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, University of San Francisco). A minimum commitment of one year is desired. Travel and registration costs for the intern will be fully supported for any SCAR-related meetings (e.g., Open Science Conferences, Biology or Earth Science Symposia, meetings of the US-SCAR team) that are held in person during the internship period. Application deadline is March 21, 2023. Continue Reading