Speakers

Elena Adasheva-Klein is a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at Yale University. Her doctoral research explores human-environment relations and urban infrastructure in the Russian Arctic. Elena’s interests also include Arctic science diplomacy and governance. Her work is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Councils for International Education. Elena is committed to fostering intercultural communication and promoting collaborations between international actors in the Arctic.

Eda Ayaydin is a teaching fellow at the International Politics department of the University of London Institute in Paris as of 2022. Previously, she worked as an assistant professor at Bordeaux Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po Bordeaux) for 3 years. Ayaydin also teaches “Arctic Governance” and “Arctic Geopolitics” courses in the Arctic Studies Master Program at the University of Paris-Saclay. Her research addresses the topics of sovereignty issues, Norwegian- Russian relations and Arctic geopolitics.

Dr. Renuka Badhe currently serves as the Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board, and is based in the Netherlands. Her background is in economics and public policy, and she holds a PhD on southern ocean phytoplankton physiology. Renuka has worked with a range international organisations on various aspects of polar science, policy and/or strategy development. Her current responsibilities include serving as a Chair of EU-PolarNet project’s External Expert Advisory Board, and service on many national and international committees. She is particularly interested in promoting polar research to a wide audience using a variety of traditional and non-traditional communication tools, and projects looking at the interface between governance, science, and policy in the polar regions.

Professor Antje Boetius is a polar and deep-sea researcher and director of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. As professor of geomicrobiology and head of the Joint Research Group for deep-sea ecology and technology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, she is involved in the MARUM cluster of excellence at the University of Bremen. Boetius has participated in almost 50 expeditions on international research vessels. Her research focuses on the effects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean and the biodiversity of the deep sea. She is the recipient of the DFG's Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz and Communicator Prizes, the German Environmental Award 2018 and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2019. As member of the "Leopoldina National Academy", she is heavily involved in science communication and dialogue with society. Photo credit: AWI-Kerstin Rolfes.

Camilla Brekke is Director og the Norwegian Polar Institute

Dr Cassandra Brooks is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. An interdisciplinary scholar, she works across marine science, environmental policy, and science communication largely focused on Antarctic conservation. This includes research on life history and connectivity of Antarctic toothfish and silverfish. Cassandra is also an accomplished science communicator, and was a core member of The Last Ocean, a grand-scale media project focused on protecting the Ross Sea, Antarctica. To pursue expertise in the policy realm, Cassandra completed a PhD at Stanford University, studying Antarctic marine protection. She is currently science faculty for the Homeward Bound Project, a ground-breaking women’s leadership initiative in Antarctica. Since 2012, Cassandra has participated in meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), and currently does so with the SCAR delegation as the Deputy Chief Officer of SCAR’s Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System.

Henry Burgess is the Head of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Arctic Office. He leads on national and international representation; developing new funding and cooperation opportunities; and promoting the strength and potential of the UK Arctic research community. Prior to joining the Office in 2016 Henry was the Deputy Head of the Polar Regions Department in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Dr Jilda Caccavo is a marine biologist specialized in the study of Antarctic fish and Southern Ocean ecosystems. Ever since she transitioned from biomedical research in neurobiology during her undergraduate and first graduate studies, Jilda’s goal has been and continues to be to apply her research to conservation.

Jefferson Cardia Simões is a professor of glaciology and polar geography at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and adjunct professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. He is the general coordinator of the Brazilian National Institute for Cryospheric Sciences. He is a graduate of UFRGS in Geology and received a PhD in glaciology from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He is also a full member of the Brazilian Academy of Science and presently serves as a vice president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) of the International Science Council.

Professor Jérôme Chappellaz is a Director of Research at the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) and the director of the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV). His research focus on the evolution of the atmospheric composition of greenhouse gases using the interstitial firn air and ice cores has played an essential role in the scientific conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. Jérôme has participated in eleven expeditions to Antarctica and five to the Arctic. He has held numerous managerial responsibilities in scientific research at national and international level and his work has been recognised though numerous honours including prestigious funding from the European Research Council, the CNRS silver medal and the Niels Bohr medal of honor from Denmark. As director of IPEV, he is responsible for coordinating and organizing logistical support for French science in the Arctic, Antarctica, and the sub-Antarctic islands. He is a member of the French delegation to the Consultative Meetings of the Antarctic Treaty as well as of the European Polar Council (EPB) and of European projects centered on the polar regions. He is also France's representative to COMNAP (Council of National Antarctic Program Managers).

Dr. Archana Dayal is a woman scientist from India who has a PhD in polar science (Geography) from the University of Sheffield, UK, funded by the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship. For her research on the biogeochemistry and microbiology of snow and glacial ice, she has undertaken research expeditions to the High Arctic, and Antarctica. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Aberystwyth University (Wales, UK) working on methane release from Arctic glaciers. She has the distinction of being the first Indian woman to serve as the President of the UK Polar Network. She is passionate about academic teaching, research, and science communication through mass media outlets, encouraging young minds to develop a keen interest in polar research. She has published articles on her research work in high-impact international journals.   Her significant experience in polar research and deep commitment to education and outreach are invaluable assets to the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation's community, where she was announced as an inaugural recipient of the IASC-FPA2 Fellowship for the period 2023-26

Matthew Druckenmiller is a research scientist at National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Since 2006, he has worked within the coastal regions of Arctic Alaska, investigating the connections between changing sea ice conditions and marine mammal habitat, and local Indigenous community use of sea ice for hunting and travel. Currently, he serves as director of the Navigating the New Arctic Community Office (NNA-CO) and co-leads the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA). Druckenmiller also serves as the Lead US Delegate to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), an editor for the Arctic Report Card, and an editor for the Arctic Chapter within the annual Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) State of the Climate Report.

Prof. Jane Francis is a geologist by training, with research interests in understanding past climate change. She has undertaken research projects at the universities of Southampton, London, Leeds and Adelaide, using fossil plants to determine the change from greenhouse to icehouse climates in the polar regions over the past 100 million years. She has undertaken over 15 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica in search of fossil forests. Jane is Director of the British Antarctic Survey, a research centre of the Natural Environment Research Council (UKRI-NERC). She is involved with international polar organisations, such as the Antarctic Treaty and European Polar Board, and on several advisory boards of national polar programmes. Jane was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) in recognition of services to UK polar science and diplomacy. She was also awarded the Polar Medal by H.M The Queen, and in 2018 became Chancellor of the University of Leeds. 

Mads Qvist Frederiksen is the Executive director of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC) that is located in Tromsø, Norway. The AEC is a pan-arctic independent business membership organization established in 2014. It delivers policy advocacy, networking and outreach related to the Arctic. The organization facilitates Arctic sustainable economic development throughout the Arctic region. Mr. Frederiksen has a background from global companies and organisations working in Afghanistan, Iran, MENA region and sub-saharan Africa.

Dr Gwenaëlle Gremion is a PostDoctoral researcher in Oceanography based in Canada, where she is affiliated with the Institut des Sciences de la Mer in the University of Quebec at Rimouski. Gwen’s research interests are multidisciplinary, combining physical and biological oceanography to understand how organic marine matter settles in the water column in the specific environment of the North Water Polynya in Northern Baffin Bay and how modifications of ecological and physical features due to climate change affect the downward flux of organic carbon. Gwen has participated in field missions in the Arctic and the Antarctic and aimed to develop numerical tools to assess change in both regions. Gwen has been heavily involved as President in numerous Early Career Associations (e.g. ArcticNet Student Association (ASA), the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), the National committee APECS-France). She has led three group reviews of the IPCC 6th Assessment report organized by APECS, MRI, PAGES ECN, PYRN and YESS, and swince 2019 co-organised since two Polar Weeks with APECS-France as science communication is of high interest for her. She also took part in the redaction of two books in the INTERACT-APECS book projects

H.E. Mr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson served as President of Iceland for twenty years, 1996-2016; elected five times in nationwide elections. Previously, he was Minister of Finance, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the first Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He now serves as Chairman of Arctic Circle, which he founded in 2013 with various Arctic partners. The Arctic Circle Assembly held in Iceland every October has become the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. Arctic Circle also organizes specialized Forums in other countries; so far, in Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition to devoting his post-presidential efforts to the three areas of climate, the Arctic and clean energy, H.E. Mr Grímsson is also involved in international cooperation on the oceans and the evolution of sustainable use of marine resources. President Grímsson has received many international awards, including the Nehru Award for International Understanding, presented to him by the President of India.

Hugo Guímaro is a Biosciences PhD student at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), based at the Marine and Environmental Science Centre (MARE) and at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on Antarctic marine animal ecology with a particular interest in ecological interactions of apex predators (e. g. Emperor Penguins) to climate change and conservation in the Southern Ocean, using new technologies like satellite imagery, tracking and modelling.  Besides his scientific work, he is highly involved in education and outreach activities related to polar science, raising awareness for environmental issues. He is a member of APECS Portugal, since 2018, and was President in 2020 and 2021. In APECS International, he is the Representative of Portugal and the National Committee Coordinator, being the point of contact between early carrer scientists from all over the world.

Alice Guzzi is an APECS' National Committee Representative

PhD student: 3rd year in Environmental, Geological and Polar Sciences and Technologies. University of Siena.

Research fields: Marine Ecology Graduated in Marine Sciences, at the University of Genoa. During the PhD she work on Antarctic Echinoderms using morphological and molecular approach and analyze convergent evolution and cryptic diversity in Ophiuroids.

Victoria Herrmann is the President and Managing Director of The Arctic Institute. In addition to managing the Institute and Board of Directors, her research and writing focus on climate change, community adaptation, human development, and resource economies, with a particular focus on Arctic oil and gas.

Dr Larry Hinzman is the Assistant Director of Polar Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Executive Director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. He recently served as the Vice Chancellor for Research and as a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Dr Hinzman served as the Director of the UAF International Arctic Research Center from 2007 to 2015. Dr Hinzman's primary research interests involve permafrost hydrology. He conducted hydrological and meteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic continuously for over 35 years while frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian and Canadian Arctic. He has served as a member of the U.S. Polar Research Board and as the U.S. delegate and president of the International Arctic Science Committee. He is strongly committed to facilitating national and international partnerships to advance our understanding of the Arctic and Antarctic systems.

Professor Karentz is a marine biologist with expertise in plankton ecology and ultraviolet photobiology. Her work has focused on investigating the ecological implications of Antarctic ozone depletion, specifically identifying strategies for protection from UV exposure and understanding mechanisms for repair of UV–induced damage. She has over 30 years of field experience in Antarctica. In addition to research, Deneb mentors early-career scientists through the US National Science Foundation (NSF) International Training Program in Antarctic biology and the USF/UCSF Program in Mentoring and Teaching. She is also involved in environmental management and policy as a science adviser to the US Department of State for the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and in her participation in the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

Bridget Larocque is an Indigenous resident of the Northwest Territories, has extensive knowledge of the Northwest Territories and the broader circumpolar world, brings a distinct worldview from that region, and also shares a comprehensive knowledge of research methods and Indigenous and gender issues. She serves as a policy advisor and researcher with the Arctic Athabaskan Council (ACC) and was executive director of Gwich’in Council International (GCI) from 2007- 12, so she has tremendous expertise on the Arctic Council and Arctic governance issues. Her other recent work includes managing self-government negotiations for the Gwich’in Tribal Council, serving as land claim implementation coordinator and project analyst with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and as assistant negotiator with Executive and Indigenous Affairs in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and as Executive Director of the Fort Norman Community in the Northwest Territories.

Dr Céline Le Bohec is a researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Centre Scientifique de Monaco (CSM), specialising in polar biology. Her research, which she has been conducting for 20 years, aims to understand polar ecosystems and how they are changing, particularly in the face of climate change, and to provide the results and tools that are essential for implementing strategies to preserve these ecosystems and their biodiversity. To achieve this, she is developing and running complex 'Observatories of Life' in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, using innovative, non-intrusive technologies to analyse and monitor populations of bio-indicator species such as penguins over the long term.

Vicki Lee Wallgren is the Director of the Global Arctic Programme. As such, she leads on WWF’s pan-Arctic work, bringing together a core team of senior specialists who provide thought leadership, technical and policy input to help facilitate cooperation and joint strategizing of the Arctic Programme’s goals among the various offices in the network. She is the primary contact for regional stakeholders, including the Arctic Council, and is responsible for ensuring a close dialogue with the international WWF network.

Vicki Lee Wallgren earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from McGill University (Canada) and a Master’s of Environmental Studies from Waterloo University (Canada). Prior to joining the Global Arctic Programme, Vicki was WWF-Sweden’s Director for Forests and Wildlife team, leading a diverse team and global programming in Asia, Africa, Europe, and domestically in Sweden. She has also been part of the WWF Network’s Baltic Ecoregion Programme, and was Interim Country Director for WWF-Laos. She is passionate about developing solutions that allow people to live in harmony with nature, and supporting and strengthening others to action.

Consultant, educator and researcher with expertise in climate change science and polar regions. She is a former glaciologist specialized on the impact of Climate Change on Antarctic glaciers and science officer from the Office for Climate Education, UNESCO center dedicated to climate change education. She's currently working at the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, advising and advocating climate action in international negotiations.

Dr Lina Majad hails from Bremen in northern Germany, where she completed her PhD on the past dynamics of the West Greenland ice sheet, based on isotope geochemistry. She analysed radiogenic isotopes in marine sediments in order to trace the fluxes of detrital sediments through the flow of meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet into Baffin Bay. After completing her PhD, Dr Majad added organic geochemistry to her expertise in inorganic geochemistry with a postdoc at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. There, she is working on the fate and transport of organic carbon in the Arctic Ocean from thawing permafrost, mainly in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. Since the summer of 2015, Dr Lina Majad has wanted to contribute to polar research and scientific communication to help protect and raise public awareness of the fragile and rapidly changing Arctic. In recent years, she has been involved in various science communication and outreach projects, including being part of the APECS social media team - because science communication is, for her, as important as science itself. In addition to her involvement with APECS over the last four terms in different roles (project group leader, social media coordinator, executive committee member), she is also actively involved in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Early Career Network within the Cryosphere Division, currently holding the position of editor-in-chief of the EGU Cryosphere Blog.

Elle Merete Omma is born and raised in a reindeer herding family in Norway and in Sweden. She is currently the head of the Saami Council EU Unit. Previously she held the position of Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples Secretariat. Prior to her work with the Arctic Council she was Senior Advisor on Sámi Affairs at the Norwegain Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. She holds a Master in Law from the University of Oslo and a Bachelor degree in Social Science from Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Helen Millman is a glaciologist and climate scientist. As the Hoffmann Fellow for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, she works with Arctic Basecamp, the World Economic Forum and the University of Exeter to foster cooperation between society, science and technology in support of the poles in crisis. She has conducted fieldwork in both the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as other icy parts of the world, and has advocated for the polar regions at the UNFCCC COPs and the XLIV Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. 

Birgit Njåstad leads the Antarctic Programme at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø, Norway. She has had various positions at the Institute over two decades, and throughout this period has worked extensively and broadly with Antarctic management, policy and research related issues. She has participated and/or represented Norway in the Committee for Environmental Protection since 1998. She currently serves as the Chair of this Committee (2018-2022). Njåstad has a Masters in Natural Resource Management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Anne-Catherine Ohlmann has been in charge of the general management of the UGA (University of Grenoble Alpes) Foundation since 2014. In 2021, she will take over as director of the International Ice Memory Foundation, hosted by the UGA Foundation. It aims to position the UGA Foundation and its foundations as players serving the economic and academic worlds, by driving and supporting large-scale projects of general interest. An engineer in biotechnology from UTC Compiègne, holder of an MBA in marketing from EM Lyon and convinced of civic engagement, Anne-Catherine Ohlmann held international marketing responsibilities for more than 12 years for HP where she simultaneously coordinated HP's sponsorship activities in Africa. On his own account, corporate foundations of large European groups then entrusted him with the implementation of their sponsorship projects in French-speaking Africa and the Maghreb for almost 10 years.

Dr Sara Olsvig is International Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council. She served as member of the Parliament of Denmark (2011 – 2015) and the Parliament of Greenland (2013 – 2018). Dr Olsvig has been leader of the political party Inuit Ataqatigiit and was Vice Premier and Minister of Social Affairs, Families, Gender Equality and Justice in the Government of Greenland from 2016 to 2018. She was member (2011 – 2014) and Chairperson of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region from 2013 to 2014. Dr Sara Olsvig was an appointed member of the Constitutional Commission of Greenland, and is today member of the Human Rights Council of Greenland. Dr Olsvig holds a MSc in Anthropology and has previously worked as Executive Director for Inuit Circumpolar Council Greenland, to which she today is a delegate.

Frederik Paulsen OBE is a businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist and explorer. Since 1988, he has been chairman of Ferring Pharmaceuticals Group. During this period he established the company as an international operation and today, Ferring has operations in over 50 countries and sells its products in more than 100 countries around the globe. Frederick is also an avid polar explorer. He has descended 3000m in a Russian MIR submersible to take samples at the bottom of the Arctic ocean, he was part of a team that completed the first crossing of Bering Strait from America to Russia with an Ultralight and he is the first human to tour all eight of the Earth's poles.

Dr. James Kirkham is a glaciologist and climate scientist. He received his PhD and MPhil degrees in Antarctic climate science from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic survey, and a BSc in geography from Durham University. He has undertaken two field campaigns to Antarctica as a geophysicist with the British Antarctic Survey, including to Thwaites Glacier — one of the most rapidly changing and unstable glaciers in the world. He also worked as a snow scientist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal, installing and analysing high-altitude weather stations to improve understanding of high-mountain water security. James now serves as the Chief Science Advisor and Coordinator of the Ambition on Melting Ice (AMI) High-level Group on Sea-level Rise and Mountain Water Resources.

José Queiros is a PhD candidate in biological sciences (marine ecology) at the University of Coimbra. His research focuses on trophic interactions and fishing activities in the deep waters of the Southern Ocean. Although his research objectives still focus on commercial species (Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni and Patagonian toothfish D. eleginoides), the impact of fishing and climate change on demersal communities plays a major role.

Dr Beatriz Recinos-Rivas is an oceanographer-glaciologist. She joined the University of Edinburgh in September 2021 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Antarctic Ice Sheet Uncertainty Quantification. Before she was a Research Scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, where she deliver research in the area of marine surface climate, including the development, evaluation and statistical analysis of marine surface meteorological observations. Her PhD background is in large scale glacier modelling focused on ocean-glacier interaction. She worked developing the calving parametrisation for the Open Global Glacier Model (written in Python) at the University of Bremen (Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences, DE) and while making several research stays at the University of Innsbruck (AT). Now as a post-doc at the University of Edinburgh she will be working and developing Fenics_ice; a finite element model framework written also in Python that quantifies the initialization uncertainty for time-dependent ice sheet models.

Dr. Snorri Sigurdsson is a biologist, who has worked for the Department of Environment and Planning in the City of Reykjavík, Iceland for the last six years. His work has mostly focused on nature conservation, biodiversity, green space planning and environmental education. Snorri is temporarily positioned at the Icelandic Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources working on the new Icelandic Nature Conservation Register.

Dr. Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek’s research focuses on Arctic and international environmental governance, science-policy interface and Arctic scientific cooperation, and gender-environment nexus. Gosia has worked on a number of national and international Arctic projects, including for the European Commission, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland’s Prime Minister Office, Germany’s Arctic Office, and Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is a co-founder and co-lead of a non-profit organization “Women of the Arctic”, an expert in the upcoming major EU program on Arctic observing system, and one of lead contributors to the “Gender Equality in the Arctic” project of the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDGW) of the Arctic Council (AC). She was also the co-organiser of the 4th China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium (CNARC), a research fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and one of the lead contributors to the EU–Polarnet White Papers. Over the years, Gosia has been involved with the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) as its fellow, a chair of IASC Action Group on Communicating Arctic Science to Policy Makers, and a representative of IASC to the meetings of the Arctic Council. She is a member of the steering committee of the North Pacific Arctic Conference (NPAC) of the East–West Center (EWC) and the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI).

Dieter Tetzner has been awarded the SCAR 2023 grant from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and represents the British Antarctic Survey in the UK.. His project, titled "Reconstructing past changes in the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT)" is set to take him to the UROCOLD Lab at the DISAT, University Milano-Bicocca, Italy. The project aims to deliver a centennially-resolved reconstruction of Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds changes during the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition, shedding light on the role of these winds in driving environmental changes in Antarctica during that period.

Romain Troublé has a Masters’ degree in molecular biology from the Sorbonne and another in management and engineering from HEC & Telecom Paris. He is also a professional regatta sailor at the highest level, having made two America’s Cup appearances for the French challenges in Auckland, NZ, in 2000 and 2003.

From 2003 to 2006 he worked for a company specializing in polar logistics in the Arctic, Antarctic and Siberia for sporting and scientific expeditions to the poles, as well as discoveries of mammoths frozen in the permafrost.

Since 2004 he has been responsible for the operational direction of the Tara expeditions and since 2009 has been Director General of the Tara Ocean Foundation. 

Additionally, since 2017, Romain has been president of the Ocean & Climate Platform association, bringing together more than 96 institutions, foundations, companies, local authorities and associations in advocating the importance of the ocean in climate and biodiversity issues.

The Tara Foundation is one of BeMed's founding members and Romain Troublé represents it on BeMed's Board of Directors. He is now President of the association.

Professor Gail Whiteman is Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, and founder of Arctic Basecamp, a unique science-solutions outreach platform held annual alongside the World Economic Forum’s meeting at Davos. She is an expert on global risk from sustainability challenges, and is an invited speaker and regular contributor to the World Economic Forum. Her research utilises organisation theory on knowledge to analyse how a range of actors (companies, civil society, and local communities) make sense of ecological change and risk, and how these actors transform and build resilience across scales given environmental pressures and social inequities. Professor Whiteman is also the Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and was actively involved in building science-based targets including those for a future low-carbon economy. Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Ecology & Society, and Nature, etc

Hanna Yevchun studies Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, mostly vegetation, and their protection and management. She is particularly interested in applying machine learning techniques for mapping and monitoring of Antarctic and Arctic vegetation using UAV imagery and remote sensing.

Dr. Gerlis Fugmann is the Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) based in Akureyri, Iceland, where the IASC Secretariat is hosted by Rannís The Icelandic Centre for Research. She held prior positions as Executive Director for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) based at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Throughout her career, she has worked with researchers, international organizations, and many other stakeholders in the Polar regions, helping to shape and manage large projects, events and meetings. She completed her PhD in Geography in 2011 at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany, and afterwards worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Her research focused on projects in the Canadian North as well as Northern Scandinavia, addressing questions of economic development, entrepreneurship, tourism, resource development and Northern participation in innovation and the knowledge economy.

Dr Eoghan Griffin is the Executive Officer of The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He has a PhD in Atmospheric Physics and an MSc in Experimental Physics from University College London where he studied the polar upper atmosphere, first as a PhD student and then as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow until 2009.  He has a teaching qualification from Imperial College INSPIRE teacher training programme and has previously held the position of Project Officer with SCAR. In his roles at SCAR he has helped manage aspects of the Open Science Conferences, develop Climate Change communications, manage the Capacity Building activities of the organisation and support specific policy activities such as within UNFCCC. 

Salomé Mormentyn is Polar Initiative Officer at the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

Dr Chandrika Nath is Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), the leading global organisation supporting collaboration in Antarctic Research and providing advice to the Antarctic Treaty System.

Dr Nath has over 15 years’ experience of providing scientific advice to policy makers with the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. She has briefed UK policymakers on a wide range of policy areas spanning environment, energy, security, ICT and international development.

Prior to working for Parliament, Chandrika worked as a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey from 1998-2002. She has a keen interest in diversity and capacity building and has worked with parliaments and researchers across the world to support uptake of research evidence in policy-making.

She has a PhD in High Energy Physics from Oxford University.

Dr. Olav Orheim is a glaciologist and climatologist who hasled more than 20 scientific expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. He worked for 40 years at the Norwegian Polar Institute, including 12 years as Managing Director. At the same time, he was professor of glaciology at the University of Bergen. He set up the Troll Station in Antarctica (Norway'spermanent research station). He is also the founder of the Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland and the Polaria Centre in Tromsø.

He has been a member of the Executive Boards of most of the organisations devoted to the study and protection of the poles, including the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). For many years, he was Vice-President of the International Glaciological Society (IGC) and Chairman of the Working Group on Glaciology of SCAR. He is currently amember of several international boards and committees. He is also President of the Fram Museum. In 2007he was made a Knight of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav.