Amundsen Day - 13 December 2011

Amundsen Day - 13 December 2011
NASA GISS and Explorers Club - New York, New York

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Amundsen Day
NASA/GISS and the Explorers Club - 13th December 2011

Amundsen Day at the NASA GISS and Explorers Club in NYC will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Amundsen's success in reaching the South Pole on the 14th of December, 1911. This event will be an occasion to revisit and discuss changes that have taken place in the Polar Regions over the past 100 years, with a special focus on the most recent decades of rapid climate change at high latitudes. State-of-the-art research on both Antarctica and the Arctic will be presented by top-notch US and Norwegian scientists.

This will also be an opportunity to highlight the need for international scientific collaboration at high latitudes. We have invited the President of the University of the Arctic, Lars Kullerud, to discuss this topic. One example of such collaboration is the Fulbright Arctic Chair Award, a program for enhanced research collaboration between US and Norway on polar issues. This distinguished chair award is jointly sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Norway Fulbright Foundation. This year's Norwegian Fulbright Arctic Chair is focusing his research on the inter-hemispheric linkages between Antarctica and the Arctic, a subject that Amundsen too was concerned with.

Speakers will adopt a 100-year (or longer) perspective, and draw a narrative from Amundsen's day up to the recent decades of dramatic change, taking into account the significant increase in knowledge about the poles that has been gained over the past few decades.

Amundsen Centenary: Current conditions in Polar Regions in the Perspective of the Past - December 13th: Afternoon session: 2-5pm

Speakers:

Ray Bradley is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences and Director of the Climate System Research Center at University of Massachusetts. His research interests are in climate variability across a wide range of time scales. His recent book titled "Global Warming & Political Intimidation" offer an account of the political war on science.

Edward J. Larsen is a University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He will give and talk titled "Introducing Amundsen Onto the World's Stage: 1911 and 2011." He has recently launched the book "An empire of ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic age of Antarctic science."

Eric Steig is a Professor at Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Director of Quaternary Research Center at University of Washington. He holds a long record of research in Antarctica and is the founding co-director of ISOLAB, a isotope geochemistry facility involving research ranging from climate and atmospheric chemistry to geobiology. He will give a talk entitled: "Antarctic temperature changes over the last 50-100 years."

Paul Mayewski is a Director and Professor at the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. He is a glaciologist and an expert on chemistry in ice cores and he has extensive experiences from numerous expeditions to the Polar Regions. He will give a talk entitle: "The International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) traverses across Antarctica & what they tell us about recent changes in climate and air quality."

John Smol is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Queens University, Canada, and also the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change. He is an expert in Paleolimnology and was the founding editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology. He will give a talk entitled: "The effects of recent climate change on the biodiversity of lakes in polar regions."

Jostein Bakke is a Professor in the Department of earth science and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is currently holding the Fulbright Arctic Chair for the academic year 2011/2012 and is an expert on polar glaciers. He will give a talk entitled: "Glaciers at the rim of the poles as palaeo archives."

Giff Miller is a Professor at Department of Geological Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Director at Center for Geochronology Research at University of Colorado. His research interests are with in palaeoclimate using stratigraphic studies coupled to secure geochronology. He will give a talk entitled: "Unprecedented recent summer warmth in Arctic Canada."

Dominique Raynaud is a Professor and Director at Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE) at Grenoble University, France. He is one of the pioneers in the study of ice cores and the composition of atmospheric gases trapped in tiny bubbles. He will give a talk entitled: "The record of greenhouse gases from polar ice sheets."

William J. D'Andrea is an Assistant Research Professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. He is an expert on lake sediments and associated biological methods used to examine past environmental change. He will give a talk entitled: "Impacts of past temperature changes in the Arctic on native populations."

Kikki Kleiven is an Associate Professor at Department of earth science and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research at the University of Bergen. Her research interests are within paleoceanography at high northern and high southern latitudes. She will give a talk entitled: "Greenland Climate and North Atlantic deep-water variability since 600 A.D."

Gavin Schmidt is a climate modeler at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and is interested in modeling past, present and future climate. He works on developing and improving coupled climate models and, in particular, is interested in how their results can be compared to paleoclimatic proxy data. He is also one of the founders of RealClimate. He will give a talk entitled: "Feedbacks in the climate system and the significance of polar regions for future climate change."

Robin E. Bell is a senior research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. She has been involved in numerous projects in the Antarctica with focus on mapping and exploring the subglacial environment of the Peninsula. She will give a talk entitled: "Current research frontiers & future challenges in Antarctica."

Explorer's Club: 6.30-8.00pm A Celebration of Roald Amundsen's Expedition to the South Pole

Introduction & welcome: Director Fulbright Foundation Norway; Petter Næss and Norwegian Consul, Sissel Breie

Ross MacPhee is Curator and research scientists at the American Museum of Natural History. He is a specialist in evolutionary history of mammals and the biology of causation of extinction. He has written the book, "Race to The End: Amundsen, Scott, and the Attainment of the South Pole were he explores the lasting significance of these two extraordinary men."

Yngve Kristoffersen is a Professor at Department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has been at numerous expeditions during his long career as a scientist exploring tectonic and palaeoceanographic history or the Polar Regions. He will give a talk entitled: "A perspective on polar exploration, past, present and future."

Lars Kullerud is the President of the University of the Arctic, a cooperative network of Universities, colleges and other organizations committed to higher education and research in the North. He will give a talk entitled: "International education in the North."