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Encounters on Polar Street
Around 2300 scientists, policy makers, teachers and students have attended one or more of the 1800 or so presentations that have been held during the IPY-OSC week. We asked some of them about their experiences.
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Andra Bergamasco, Nantional Resarch Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR)Professor Andrea Bergamasco, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR)
"I think IPY-OSC has been a good conference. There has been a great deal of enthusiasm . But it has been a problem that the conference venue is so spread out. The organisers should have kept things closer together.
I have given two presentations myself, one about Antarctic bottom water and one about Antarctic marine dynamics and biological records, but I've also had time to attend several other lectures.
On Friday, for instance, I was at a very interesting lecture within the theme "New frontiers and directions in biology, ecology and biodiversity". It was about the use of sensors attached to seals in the IPY project Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole (MEOP). I believe this will be an important method in the future. This was a very useful talk for me to attend, particularly because it brought together biologists and us physicists in a very constructive way."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Ana Weissling, Fabra Elementary School,Texas,USA.Ana Weissling, teacher at Fabra Elementary School, Texas, USA
"I've connected with colleagues from all over the world who teach the same subjects as I do. I'll definitely be using my new contacts in future projects.
We've been building up networks for knowledge exchange, which is great.
I also attended the PolarTEACHERS conference just prior to IPY-OSC. I've now been able to talk directly to the scientists behind the topics we discussed at the teachers' conference. I've been able to ask directly about issues I am interested in, which was truly a unique opportunity.
I brought my own special penguin to the conference with me. The children back home insisted that I get autographs from all the scientists that I met - and as you can see, it's already getting pretty full of names."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Harald Steen, Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway.Harald Steen, Deputy Research Director at the Norwegian Polar Institute
"This has been a huge conference with a lot of different topics. I found the first couple of days a bit chaotic as it was hard to choose between all the sessions and lectures. Sometimes I found that there were three lectures I really wanted to go to, and they were all at the same time, which was a bit frustrating.
The fact that the conference has been devoid of paper and entirely based on electronic solutions was a bit out of the usual, but the next time we hit a paperless conference I'm sure we'll master the drill.
Having said that, however, the conference has provided unique opportunities to meet people. Here on "Polar Street" at the heart of the conference, important meeting points have been established. Just now, by coincidence and by listening in on a lecture, I met and had a very fruitful discussion with someone from a different part of the world who is using exactly the same technique as I am to map seabird populations.
We've already made definite plans to exchange data and to cooperate in the future."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Samantha Hansen, Pennsylvania State University, USASamantha Hansen, post doc at Pennsylvania State University, USA
"It's great for me to be here and meet so many other researchers. I'm about to finish my post doctorate, so I'm at the beginning of my career. This is a wonderful opportunity to make new contacts.
I found the first day of the conference most useful. There were several lectures and presentations in my field, which is earth structures and seismology.
I think it's very important to communicate research results to schools, so I've been to some of the education-related lectures too, and found them useful."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Huigeng Yang, Polar Research Institute of ChinaDr. Huigeng Yang, Director of the Polar Research Institute of China
"The conference has been a wonderful opportunity for exchanging knowledge. But first and foremost it has been a social meeting place for both young and established researchers.
My research interest is Aurora observations. Before joining PRIC, I spent 17 months doing Aurora observations at Japan's Syowa Station in the Antarctic. I've heard some interesting lectures on the topic here at the conference.
This conference has opened the minds of the participants, but even more importantly, we have also reached those on the outside. Outreach activities are a very important part of polar research, and IPY has been very successful in this regard."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Wenfang Chen, Polar Research Institute of China.Wenfang Chen, Polar Research Institute of China
"I have found this conference to be a wonderful experience, especially for young researchers who have been able to meet established researchers and build new networks.
I'm working on data management myself at the Polar Research Institute of China, and I think that the Polar Information Centre (PIC), which was launched here at the conference, is very good. The open source data from IPY will be of great benefit to the research community. When data is more readily available, research makes progress more quickly."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
J.W.V. Storey, University of New South Wales, Australia.Professor John W.V. Storey, University of New South Wales, Australia
"For me, the real benefit of IPY-OSC has been the opportunity to meet so many researchers at once. I'm an astronomist, working on Antarctic astronomy. It's interesting to meet scientists who are working on astronomy in the north, for instance on the Aurora Borealis - we're all using the same physics, after all.
And I'd like to add that Oslo is the nicest city I've ever been to. I particularly like being able to walk everywhere.
There's been a lot of walking here at the conference venue too. I have a pedometer on my mobile, and it says I've walked 15000 steps in the last 24 hours, or about 12 kilometres. The size of the conference centre and the number of participants must have made this quite a challenge for the organisers, but I think they've done a good job.
I'm on my way to a session about the exploitation of minerals and the relationship between state players and non-state players. It's right at the other end of the venue, so I'd better go so that I get there in time."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Helga Saudny, McGill University, Canada.Helga Saudny, Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
"I think the conference is very well organised, but I'm a little disappointed that my field of research - human health - has not been given a very prominent place in the programme. Let's hope it will be more to the fore next time round.
I am research coordinator for the Canadian IPY project Inuit Health Survey.
Apart from this, I feel the conference sessions are scattered across too large an area. It takes a long time to walk from one session to another, which is a bit wearing. It would be nice if things were closer together ..."
Photo: John Petter Reinertsen/Samfoto
Cinzia Verde, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Protein BiochemistryProfessor Cinzia Verde, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Protein Biochemistry
"I think the conference is far too big. I've only had a limited amount of interaction with other researchers, and unfortunately didn't get very much out of the poster sessions either.
I also think the organisers have failed in some respects, which is hardly surprising. With the best will in the world, there's a limit to how many participants you can have and still organise a good conference. There have just been too many people to deal with. In my opinion, the best conferences have at most 100-200 participants. It was worst at the start of the conference - now that the whole apparatus has got going, it's running much more smoothly.
As an experienced researcher, I've had no trouble finding out which lectures and presentations I wanted to attend, but for young researchers the huge programme must have been completely confusing.
I've held two oral presentations at the conference, one on evolutionary adaptations in Antarctic marine organisms and one on Arctic fish haemoglobins."
Last updated: 13.06.2010
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