Conference Chair Robert White, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, says scientists and graduate students from Russia, Canada and the U.S. will participate. White says the focus of this year's meeting will provide a unique blend of art and science. Well-known Alaska artist David Mollett will help open the session Sept. 19.
Scientists generally think in terms of hard facts.
Joining artist David Mollett at the opening session is Wallace Cole of the Denali National Park Wilderness Center to offer a tourist's perspective, and George Yaska of the Tanana Chiefs Council for a Native perspective. Conference sessions are open to the public and will include current research on the complex interaction of physical environments, vegetation and animals and how the Arctic plays a key role in influencing global climate change. Also included on the agenda are discussions of human migration. While it is commonly accepted that the first humans made their way from Asia to Alaska across a land bridge called Beringia, discussions will focus on the influence landscape has had on the habitation of the New World and its effect on language and culture. Technical sessions include physiology and ecology of wildlife and fisheries resources, ecosystem studies of Prince William Sound, cold regions engineering and a perspective on research potential at Barrow.