US-SCAR News

US Antarctic Social Event, Wednesday Oct 27! 2 pm Hawaii, 4 pm Alaska, 5 pm PDT, 6 pm MDT, 7 pm CDT and 8 pm EDT. This is a strictly social gathering - no presentations, lectures or panels, just a chance for people to get together and socialize. We will be meeting on Wonder, a virtual space that allows you to "walk around" and join different conversation groups. Join any time during the hour to catch up with old friends and meet new ones! Please pass on this information - everyone is welcome. Continue Reading

US-SCAR is happy to announce the first installment of our US Antarctic Interview Series. This new 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. Our first two interviews are with Berry Lyons, a professor at The Ohio State University, and Melisa Diaz, a postdoctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP) has awarded $3.8 million to early-career scientists as part of the OPP Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program. This is the first year of funding for the Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program. Continue Reading

Ant-ICON is a SCAR Scientific Research Program. Ant-ICON will answer fundamental science questions (as identified by the SCAR Horizon Scan), relating to the conservation and management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and focus on research to drive and inform international decision-making and policy change. After the success of the first two community engagement sessions, we have decided to host a third session specifically targeted at early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs). During the session we will introduce Ant-ICON and each of the themes, followed by a discussion on how early and mid-career researchers can be involved in Ant-ICON and how Ant-ICON can best support them. Continue Reading

NSF’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) seek proposals for a Facilitator to manage the Polar Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (Polar STEAM) initiative. Proposal deadline: February 25, 2022. Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Research on Learning (DRL), the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) are accepting and reviewing proposals for research and development projects that facilitate access to polar research efforts in undergraduate education, informal science education or formal PreK-12 science or math education. Continue Reading

The deadline for SCAR Visiting Scholar applications has been extended to Thursday 30 September 2021. The SCAR Visiting Scholar Scheme provides individual awards of up to USD $5000. For 2021, in recognition of the current travel restrictions as a result of Covid19, there will be significant flexibility with regard to the timing of completion of the visits, and indeed we welcome applications that are planned to be completed virtually, i.e. without a travel element to the proposal. We would also emphasise that the application process is not onerous with only a one-page proposal to prepare and your CV to add. Continue Reading

The Polar Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine seeks your input for convening a workshop planning committee. This committee will organize a forum to explore how technological innovation can: advance, facilitate, and transform Antarctic research and facilitate improvements to science support logistics; can increase the reach of scientific investigations in Antarctica while reducing the logistics and environmental footprint of these operations; and can facilitate broader, more diverse participation in Antarctic research. The workshop will address specific disciplinary sciences as well as cross-cutting themes such as: autonomous sensors and platforms, communications and connectivity, transportation and logistics, and energy sources and consumption, including low power and battery developments. We invite your suggestions for people to serve on the workshop planning committee. Submissions (including self-nominations) are welcome until September 15th. Continue Reading

As an Associate Professor at Worcester State University and Chair of the Department of Earth Environment & Physics, Dr. Kowalewski served on his University’s Research Advisory Board and was named the inaugural Faculty Fellow for Research (2019-2021). In this role, he increased external proposal submissions and funded projects on campus, and led the restructuring of the university grants office to better serve faculty research endeavors. Dr. Kowalewski comes to NSF committed to increasing diversity in the sciences. As a co-founder and steering member of the Massachusetts Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Regional Network, Dr. Kowalewski's work led to increased STEM recruiting and retention initiatives on Massachusetts State University campuses. He is also a co-founder and board member of the Aisiku STEM Center that provides interdisciplinary research opportunities for underrepresented students. Continue Reading

A week dedicated to the 2nd Southern Ocean Regional Workshop for the UN Ocean Decade and the 4th edition of the Polar Data Forum. Online, 20 - 24 September 2021. Register now. Continue Reading

The Southern Ocean Observing System is turning 10!!!! Join for a celebration of SOOS's achievements over the last decade and plans for the next decade! 1st September, 11:00-13:00 UTC. Register at https://airtable.com/shrll3mWQcGi1e4uc. Continue Reading

The Antarctic Environment Portal is seeking to appoint a new Portal Editor. The Antarctic Environments Portal has been developed to support evidence-based management of Antarctica, by placing the best available science knowledge at the fingertips of Antarctic decision makers. The Portal is an online resource of information on Antarctic environments that supports the work of the Antarctic Treaty System – in particular the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP). The Portal Editor position is part time (1-2 days a week), the work is done remotely so there are no restrictions on location, and the application deadline is September 7. Continue Reading

Are you interested in NSF Office of Polar Program (OPP) news, research, events and media? We have put together a short survey to gather information about our audience, preferred communications channels and what OPP content people are interested in receiving! The survey should only take 5 minutes and will help us provide better, more valuable information to you and others in our science community. The survey can be accessed at https://bit.ly/3fd2nNu. Feel free to distribute this survey to those who might be interested. Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected Dr. Roberta Marinelli to serve as director of the Office of Polar Programs, overseeing Arctic and Antarctic research and operational support for polar facilities. Dr. Marinelli brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this position, having served in OPP as a program director in Antarctic Biology and Medicine (1997-2000) and in Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems (2005-2011). Her deep understanding of NSF’s fundamental role in creating opportunities for the research community and supporting polar science research infrastructure has led to advanced international partnerships to improve Antarctic research capabilities. Continue Reading

The 6th SCAR Workshop for Astronomy & Astrophysics from Antarctica takes place online September 8-10, 2021 from 11am to 3pm GMT. There is no registration fee. For more information, visit the meeting website at https://events.icecube.wisc.edu/event/144/. Continue Reading

The NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) has released its inaugural newsletter. Each quarterly OPP Newsletter will highlight research from around the polar community, share funding opportunities and program updates, and inform the polar community of the latest happenings from around OPP and the National Science Foundation. Stay in the know by subscribing today at https://bit.ly/3gHqVhk. Continue Reading

Reminder - Registration Deadline July 9! US-SCAR is hosting an online meeting on 12-15 July 2021 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

Following the publication of our report on Southern Ocean priorities for the next 10 years, we are pleased to announce that the Southern Ocean Task Force will be hosting a Kick-off meeting for the Southern Ocean UN Decade online on the 9th July 2021. This webinar will gather speakers from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO and members of the Southern Ocean Task Force. The meeting will provide you with an overview of the Southern Ocean contribution to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. You will know at what stage we are in the Southern Ocean process and we will let you know when and how you can get involved. To accommodate both Western and Eastern participants, we will be hosting two sessions. Continue Reading

SCAR is forming an Action Group on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and the call for membership is open to the Antarctic research community, with participation invited from all career stages and disciplines. The EDI Action Group will be tasked with broadly looking at how EDI issues can be effectively dealt with within SCAR and what practical actions are relevant for the organization. To do so effectively will require engagement from across the whole community. Continue Reading

The INStabilities & Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT) is a Scientific Research Programme of SCAR that aims to quantify the Antarctic ice sheet contribution to past and future sea-level change. This type of program has the capacity to organise workshops and other collaborative activities. There is a need to discuss strategies of ice sheet models simulations within INSTANT and we propose a group to do so. It could be an across theme subcommittee of INSTANT but several points, especially data-model and paleo-climate, could be tagged as "Hub discussion" (platform of interactions between themes) because they really involve other communities than ice sheet modellers. This group should be also connected to the expert group ISMASS (Ice sheets mass balance and Sea level). We would like to know who is interested in getting involved in this group. Continue Reading