APECS career development panel: (Inter)national opportunities for Asian early career
scientists
The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is an international andinterdisciplinary organization for students, postdoctoral researchers, early faculty members,
educators and anyone with interest in the polar regions. The aims are to stimulateinterdisciplinary and international research collaborations and develop effective leaders inpolar research, education and outreach. APECS promotes education and outreach as anintegral component of polar research, stimulates future generations of polar researchers,
facilitates networking, and provides opportunities for professional career development. An
important goal is thus to help early career scientists and students to better interact withcolleagues and senior scientists. To this end, this career development panel at the 3rdInternational Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR3) in Tokyo, Japan (at the Conference
room 2, Miraikan, January 16th 2013, 12h20‐13h20) is organized, to break the ice between
senior scientists with an extensive career and young students eager to learn and who canbenefit from the experience and perspectives of experienced mentors.
The panel is composed of experienced Japanese and international polar scientists who canadvise participants on polar science careers, both academic and non‐academic, in Japan andthe rest of the world. Through short presentations, followed by a lively discussion,
participants will learn about (inter)national polar science opportunities and can ask all thequestions they want.
Panel moderator: Ines Tavernier, APECS Vice President 2012‐2013, Marine@UGent
coordinator at Ghent University, Belgium
Ines Tavernier finished her biology (zoology) studies in 2007 and obtained a master after
master in marine and lacustrine sciences at Ghent University in 2008. She started then her
PhD focusing on Holocene climate and relative sea‐level changes in Lützow Holm Bay (EastAntarctica). She is now in the final stage of her PhD and started as coordinator of theMarine@UGent consortium. This consortium unites 24 marine and maritime research groups
from 5 faculties from Ghent University (Belgium), to promote and facilitate the interfaculty
and interdisciplinary cooperation between these groups and with Flanders Marine Institute.
She is actively involved in the national committees of APECS Belgium, and APECS BeNeLux
and is Vice President in the Executive Committee.
Mentors
Larry Hinzman is the director of the International Arctic Research Center and is professor ofCivil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His primaryresearch interests involve permafrost hydrology. He has conducted hydrological andmeteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic continuously for over 25 years while
frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian and Canadian Arctic. His
research efforts have involved characterizing and quantifying hydrological processes andtheir inter‐dependence with climate and ecosystem dynamics. Dr. Hinzman’s academicdegrees were earned from South Dakota State University, Purdue University and theUniversity 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 theInternational Permafrost Association and is 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 ofEnergy’s Arctic Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment. He has served on the U.S. SEARCH(Study of Environmental Arctic Change) Observing Change Panel, the Alaska Governor’s Sub‐cabinet Economic Activities Technical Working Group, and on the advisory board for theAlaska Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence. He serves on the International
Advisory Board for the Korea Polar Research Institute and on the Scientific Steering Group for
WRCP Climate and Cryosphere (CliC). He is an Advisory Committee Member for the Alaska
Center for Energy and Power and Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. He is strongly
committed to facilitating international partnerships to advance our understanding of thearctic system.
Hans‐Wolfgang Hubberten, graduated with the M.Sc in mineralogy at the University ofTuebingen, Germany and with the research doctorate in Sciences at the University of Karlsruhe.
He was appointed as professor of Mineralogy, at the Earth Science Faculty at the University ofNuevo Leon, Mexico, from 1982 to 1986. In 1984, he attained the Habilitation as Dr. habil. atthe University of Karlsruhe. From 1986 to 1991 he was appointed a senior scientist at AWI
Bremerhaven. Since 1992 he is professor for Isotope Geology at the Potsdam University andhead of the AWI Research Unit Potsdam with the Section of Periglacial Research. He built up apermafrost research team at AWI Potsdam, which is today held in internationally highesteem. He participated in more than 20 expeditions into the Arctic and Antarctic andcontributed with his research papers to a better understanding of the processes inpermafrost soils and in marine gas hydrates. He was appointed president of the International
Permafrost Association (IPA) until summer of 2012.
Kazuyuki Shiraishi is director‐general of the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR),
Japan since October 2011. He is a geologist and his major research interests include Pre‐Cambrian continental crustal evolution in terms of petrology, geochronology andgeochemistry. He paid particular attention to the formation of the late Proterozoic
supercontinents in East Antarctica and surrounding continents. He served as Head of theAntarctic Meteorite Research Center, of the Polar Data Center and Vice‐Director General in
charge of the Antarctic Program at NIPR. He has been representative and member of various
international and national committees on polar studies and logistics. He is currently thenational representative of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research), ICSU(International Council for Science), FARO (Forum of Arctic Research Operators) and COMNAP(Council of Mangers of National Antarctic Programs). He served as a vice‐chair of COMNAPfrom 2008‐2011.
Atsuko Sugimoto is professor at the Faculty of Environmental Earth Science, at Hokkaido
University. After obtaining her Master and Doctoral degree at the Division of Atmosphericand Hydrospheric Science at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, she became
a postdoctoral fellow at the Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences (1990‐1991). Between
1991 and 1996, she became an instructor at the Center for Ecological Research at Kyoto
University. In 1994, she was a visiting scientist at the Department of Biology at the Universityof Miami. Between 1996 and 2003, she was an associate professor at the Center forEcological Research at Kyoto University. From 2003 and 2005 onwards, she became
respectively a professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science and theFaculty of Environmental Earth Science, both at Hokkaido University. Her main research fieldis biogeoscience.
Volker Rachold is the Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee(IASC), from 2006 to 2008 based in Stockholm, Sweden, and, since 2009, in Potsdam,Germany. In this function, he is a member of various high‐level international committees andcoordinates multidisciplinary research activities and international conferences. Dr. Racholdgraduated as a geochemist from Göttingen University, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in
1994. During the following 12 years, he worked for the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdamand Bremerhaven. In 2002, Dr. Rachold received his habilitation postdoctoral lecturing
qualification from the University of Potsdam. His research focused on land‐oceaninteractions in the Siberian Arctic and he led several land‐ and ship‐based Russian‐Germanexpeditions. He is author and editor of numerous scientific papers and serves as a reviewer
for scientific journals and funding agencies.