Øivin Aarnes

DNV GL

Øivin Aarnes is Principal Specialist with DNV GL and lives in Bergen, Norway. Øivin is an environmentalist and scientist, and has for the past 20 years devoted his work to the field of environmental science and sustainability. Mr. Aarnes specializes in geographic information systems, and has a background in forestry and environmental engineering. With DNV GL, Øivin has been heavily involved in developing novel services to help Arctic oil and gas, and maritime businesses, understand and adapt to a changing Arctic landscape.

Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir

Professor

University of Iceland

Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir is professor of Glaciology at the University of Iceland. Her work focuses on the interaction of climate and glaciers/ice sheets by monitoring and modelling the response of glaciers and ice caps to climate change. She previously worked on coupling ice sheet and climate models at the Danish Climate Center in Copenhagen, in order to improve the projections of sea level rise. She studied geophysics and glaciology at University of Iceland, University of Alaska in Fairbanks and ETH in Zürich, Switzerland and has done field work in Iceland, Alaska, Switzerland, Greenland and two field seasons in Antarctica.

Elena Agarkova

senior program officer and shipping expert, Esq

WWF-US Arctic Program

Elena Agarkova is WWF-US’ Senior Program Officer for shipping in the Arctic and the Bering Sea. Her work focuses on improving international and domestic regulations that minimize risks of increasing shipping activity in sensitive marine ecosystems. She works with diverse stakeholders and government entities, including NGOs, U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA, the International Maritime Organization, and Russian agencies. She holds a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and an LLM in environmental law from NYU.

Josefin Ahlkrona

Postdoctoral researcher

University of Kiel/Cluster of Excellence

Josefin Ahlkrona is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Mathematics at Kiel University in Germany.  She is developing mathematical tools that are used for computer simulations of ice sheets. In collaboration with the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, she is currently working on methods for modelling the interaction between ice sheets and oceans. She obtained her PhD 

Adamie Delisle Alaku

Vice President, Renewable Resources

Makivik Corporation

Adamie Delisle-Alaku was educated in his hometown of Salluit and pursued higher education in Sciences in Montreal. After his studies, he worked at the Raglan mine for 10 years, as the human resources coordinator and as a foreman. Adamie joined Makivik Corporation in the capacity of Executive Assistant. He developed an understanding of wildlife issues and challenges related to renewable resources facing the Inuit of Nunavik. He has showed great devotion in ensuring that Nunavimmiut were heard and represented at a Regional, National and International level. He is a member of the Hunting Fishing Trapping Coordinating Committee and co-chair of the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Aboriginal Roundtable.

His Excellency Thani Bin Ahmed Al-Zeyoudi

Cabinet Member and Minister of Climate Change and Environment

United Arab Emirates

His Excellency Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi was appointed as the Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the United Arab Emirates in February 2016. Previously, His Excellency served as Permanent Representative of the UAE to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), 2010-2017. He also was the Director of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010- 2016.

H.E. Dr. Al Zeyoudi first began his career as a reservoir engineer at the Abu Dhabi Marine Oil Company and then moved to Masdar, where we worked on advancing renewable energy technologies and solutions. H.E. Dr. Al Zeyoudi played a major role in the UAE’s successful campaign in 2009 in host IRENA, the first international organization dedicated to renewable energy.

In 2015, Dr. Al Zeyoudi was awarded the first Gulf Cooperation Council Prize for Excellence in recognition of his pioneering efforts in renewable energy. He is a member of several committees, including the ‏Emirates Green Development Council, as well as Audit and Selection Committees of Zayed Future Energy Prize.

H. E. Dr. Al Zeyoudi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Tulsa University, an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology, MSc in Project Management from the British University in Dubai, and a PhD in Strategy, Programme & Project Management from SKEMA Business School in France, for which he received the Sheikh Rashid Award for Scientific Excellence for holders of doctorate degrees.

Markus Amann

Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program

IIASA

Markus Amann is Program Director of the Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program and co-leader of IIASA’s Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He also serves as the head of the Centre for Integrated Assessment Modelling (CIAM) of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Dr. Amann graduated from the Technical University Vienna in electrical engineering and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Under Dr. Amann’s leadership, the RAINS integrated assessment model for air pollution has been developed and implemented for Europe and Southeast Asia for several policy applications for negotiations on European emission control accords. The extension of RAINS, the GAINS model explores cost-effective emission control strategies that simultaneously tackle local air quality and greenhouse gases so as to maximize benefits at all scales. GAINS is now implemented for the whole world, distinguishing 165 regions including 48 European countries and 46 provinces/states in China and India. Policy applications include Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP), Directive on National Emission Ceilings of the European Union, Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Arctic Council, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). His research interests include the interface between science and policy and methods for the integrated assessment of environmental issues. Dr. Amann is member of several commissions and editorial boards, and reviewer of research programs.

Adnan Z. Amin

Director-General

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Adnan Z. Amin is the Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), currently serving his second term. He has over twenty five years of experience and recognized accomplishments in the international arena, primarily in the fields of sustainable development, international energy and environment policy, as well as a solid track record in institutional and organisational development and management of international organisations.

Mr. Amin joined IRENA in 2010 as the Interim Director-General of the Preparatory Commission for IRENA. In April 2011, he was elected as the agency’s first Director-General. During his tenure, IRENA has become the global authority on renewable energy and a vibrant international organisation. The agency today provides the world community with a strong international cooperation framework to accelerate sustainable energy transformation, as a major pathway to fostering sustainable development and one of the most important solutions to climate change.

A key priority of Mr. Amin’s tenure at IRENA was to create an inclusive and agile agency, responsive to the needs of its Members. In only five years, IRENA membership almost tripled since he took office, growing to over 170 countries in 2015. His close cooperation with the United Nations (UN) and its entities resulted in IRENA being the acknowledged lead agency for climate action in renewable energy with concrete initiatives profiled in key events such as the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit and at COP21 in Paris, France. Under Mr. Amin’s leadership, IRENA was also selected as the Hub for Renewable Energy within the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, bringing together countries, private sector and civil society to advance the objectives of the initiative.

Prior to joining IRENA, Mr. Amin served as Head of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) Secretariat. He was responsible for overseeing the Secretariat supporting the CEB in its UN system-wide policy coordination under the Chairmanship of the UN Secretary-General and comprising the Executive Heads of UN System organisations. Major initiatives on climate change and the financial crisis were introduced at this time. Mr. Amin also led the Secretariat for the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence in the areas of development, humanitarian assistance and environment. The panel undertook an ambitious and unprecedented level of consultation and proposed an ambitious reform programme with many of its recommendations being implemented under the framework of “One UN” and “Delivering as One”.

Mr. Amin served as the Director of the New York Office of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Special Representative of the UNEP Executive Director. In this function, he played the lead role in supporting the ministerial-level intergovernmental process to review International Environmental Governance and UNEP’s participation in the World Summit on Sustainable Development. He was also a Trustee and member of the Board of Directors of the Cambridge, UK-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre, considered one of the premier biodiversity information institutions in the world.

Mr. Amin is a development economist specializing in sustainable development. He is a national of Kenya.

Moses Amos

Director, Head of Fisheries

Pacific Island Forum Fisheries Agency

Moses Amos - Director, Division of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
Moses joined SPC as Director of the Division of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems in March 2014. He hails from Vanuatu and speaks fluent English, Bislama and Melanesian Pidgin, and is conversant in French. He has a Master of Science degree in Biological Science from the University of Auckland and a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology from Otago University, both in New Zealand.

Before joining SPC, Moses was the Director of Vanuatu’s Department of Fisheries for 12 years from September 1997 to December 2006 and from September 2010 until February 2014. From January 2007 to March 2010 he was Director of Fisheries Management at the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries

Christina Anaya

PhD student

biology at Oklahoma State University

I am a native of California and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. My current research examines the ecology and evolution of parasites using hairworms (Phylum: Nematomorpha) and orthopterans as a model system. I use hairworms to examine host-parasite interactions and make inferences about the physiological, morphological, and behavioral impacts of macroparasites on their hosts. Additionally, I examine the transmission strategies of these parasites using a comparative approach to understand the distribution of parasites in time and space.

Phil Anderson

Head of Marine Technology

Scottish Association for Marine Science, United Kingdom

Phil joined SAMS in the summer of 2012 as Head of Marine Technology after 27 years working at the British Antarctic Survey. He started at BAS as a field scientist and instrument designer, spending two austral winterers (1986 and 1991) at the Halley Research Station in the south Weddell Sea, and accumulated a further three years “south of the circle” during summer seasons, gaining his Ph.D. in 1994 on stratified geophysical flows and the Polar Medal in 1996 for studies of winter-time polar blizzards. His move north to SAMS in Scotland issued in a re-focus on the Arctic using robotic platforms.

Nils Andreassen

Executive Director

Institute of the North

Andreassen has a degree in Peace and Development from the University of Bradford in England and his background in rural and international development, Alaska and Arctic policy issues fit well within the Institute’s mission to inform public policy as it relates to natural resource development, and specifically to result in improved living and economic conditions for northern residents. The Institute has a legacy working on Arctic infrastructure priorities and policies that serve to strengthen and connect northern communities.

David Aplin

Interim Managing Director

WWF-US Arctic Program

Dave Aplin is Interim Managing Director for the WWF-US Arctic Program. For the past decade, his energies have been focused on education, community outreach, and advocacy in support of WWF’s work on mining, climate change, shipping, and offshore oil and gas development. Aplin holds a Masters Degree in Resource Management for the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. He lives in Homer, Alaska.

Antti Arasto

Research Manager

Solutions for Natural Resources and Environment, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Antti Arasto holds a DSc degree from Aalto University and has a specialist background in energy concept development and techno-economic assessment especially related to bioenergy, biofuels and carbon capture and storage technologies in addition to energy systems, strategy assessments and roadmaps. Antti’s experience in energy sector extends from research to power plant construction and commissioning abroad. Antti represents VTT in the Arctic Remote Energy Networks Academy of the Arctic Council, which focuses on knowledge sharing and establishing professional networks related to micrograms and integration of renewable energy resources for remote Arctic Communities. Antti is active in international networks, being currently active in IEA bioenergy agreement and in EERA, European Energy Research Alliance Executive Committees.

Patrick Arnold

Founder

New England Ocean Cluster

Patrick Arnold established Soli DG Inc. in 2007 to provide operations, marketing, and management consulting for ports throughout North America. Since 2009, Soli DG has worked under the Maine Port Authority to manage cargo operations at the International Marine Terminal in Portland. Patrick also helped to facilitate Eimskip’s relocation from Virginia to Portland, Maine, resulting in unprecedented development on Portland’s working waterfront and connection to the North Atlantic. In 2014, Patrick partnered with Thor Sigfusson, PhD. to launch the New England Ocean Cluster.

Ívar Atlason

HS veitur

Ívar Atlason is Technical Department Manager of HS Veitur hf. in Westman Islands. In recent years he has been working on the project to use heat pump instead of an electric boiler to heat up the water in the circular distribution heat system in Westman Islands. The heat resource for the heat pump is the sea (Gulf Stream). This technology decreases usage of electricity by 2/3.

Ívar Atlason was born and raised in Westman Islands. He obtained his BSc in Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Technology from Reykjavík University 1995.

Ann Christin Auestad

Project Manager

Arctic Safety Centre, University Centre in Svalbard

Ann Christin Auestad is a project manager at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), developing the new Arctic Safety Centre. Ann Christin has extensive experience from the oil- and gas industry, heading several development projects within safety and risk management for the Norwegian oil company Statoil. Ann Christin’s orientation will focus on the work executed to develop a new competence center for Arctic Safety.

Björn Axelsson

Director of Planning

Reykjavik

Björn Axelsson is the City Planning Director of Reykjavik. His work for the City of Reykjavik for over two decades has been focused on urban, neighborhood, landscape, land use and general planning with the emphasis on social, environmental and economic sustainability from a local standpoint. Björn has an MA degree in Landscape Architecture from The University of Greenwich, London and as the Head of the City Planning Office of Reykjavik since 2012, Björn has been responsible for overseeing the supervision and the administrative aspect of local planning projects and sustainable, scenario-based urban revitalization and regeneration planning projects in the City of Reykjavik.

Helga Árnadóttir

Managing Director

Icelandic Travel Industry Associations

Helga Árnadóttir – Icelandic Travel Industry Associations (MD) Recently becoming Managing Director for the Icelandic Travel Industry Associations, Helga Árnadóttir also spent 10 years with Icelandair in various key positions. With a degree in Business administration and Finance from the University of Reykjavik, she has been Sales Manager for Icelandair as well as being a Board Member of Icelandair Hotels. Before occupying her current position, Ms. Árnadóttir was Director of VR - the General Employees Union in Iceland.

Kristín Ástgeirsdóttir

Director

Centre for Gender Equality Iceland

Kristín Ástgeirsdóttir was director of the Icelandic Centre for Gender Equality from 2007-2017. The Centre is a government agency under the Ministry for Welfare. Before that Kristin was a researcher at the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research at the University of Iceland 2003-2007 and was a teacher in gender studies at the University. She worked as a Project manager for UNIFEM in Kosovo 2000-2001 and was a Member of Parliament for the Women’s Alliance 1991-1999. Kristín is an MA in history and has written numerous articles on the history of the women’s movements in Iceland from 1875-2005 and edited books on women’s history. Kristín was one of three members of the Icelandic Parliament’s Special Investigation Committee on the collapse of the banking sector in Iceland, a committee which dealt with the ethical side of the collapse

Ólafur S Ástþórsson

senior scientist

the Icelandic Marine Research Institute

Ólafur S Ástþórsson is a senior scientist at the Icelandic Marine Research Institute. He has published extensively on species distribution and life cycle strategies of zooplankton, on long term changes in relation to climate, and relations between zooplankton and the recruitment of commercial fish stocks. He has lectured and supervised PhD students at the University of Iceland and taught in the Fisheries Training Programme at the United Nations University. As deputy and later director of the Marine Research Institute he has considerable experience in working at the science and policy interface. He is the author of the chapter on climate change and marine life in the CCIAI.

Barbara Baczynska

PhD student

Sociology, Nord University

Barbara studied sociology of culture and media and was working within this field for almost whole her life. Several years’ experience in a City Council as well as in various cultural institutions, her activity in NGOs and experience in the international and multidisciplinary project First Motion have thought her how important effective communication is. Passionate about winter sports, concerned about climate - the move to Norway was a natural fit. Now, settled in the Arctic, working for CLINF Project, is trying to combine her academic and professional background with the urgent need for the effective solutions to the climate change challenges.

Trausti Baldursson

Director

Icelandic Institute of Natural History

Trausti Baldursson is the director of the Ecology and Consultancy Department of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. With coworkers he is responsible for research on plant and animal species and communities and contributes to their protection by providing advice on conservation and sustainable harvest. Furthermore, he has been heavily involved in mapping of vegetative communities and habitat types. Trausti has extensive experience in nature conservation, and alongside his administrative duties he has represented Iceland in international bodies such as CAFF and Ramsar convention.  He is chapter author on terrestrial biology and climate change in CCIAI.  is the director of the Ecology and Consultancy Department of the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. With coworkers he is responsible for research on plant and animal species and communities and contributes to their protection by providing advice on conservation and sustainable harvest. Furthermore, he has been heavily involved in mapping of vegetative communities and habitat types. Trausti has extensive experience in nature conservation, and alongside his administrative duties he has represented Iceland in international bodies such as CAFF and Ramsar convention.  He is chapter author on terrestrial biology and climate change in CCIAI. 

Jonathan Bamber

President

European Geosciences Union

Jonathan Bamber is a professor in physical geography at Bristol University. His main areas of interest are in applications of remote sensing data in the Polar Regions. More specifically, he has been working on the use of remote sensing data to elucidate the morphology and dynamics of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. More recently he has begun work on cryosphere-climate interactions and feedbacks through a combined modelling and observational approach. He is also involved in the use of remote sensing data for a variety of other applications such as the generation of digital elevation models and in oceanography. He is President of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Vladimir Vladimirovich Barbin

Senior Arctic Official

Representative of Russia in the Arctic Council

Vladimir V. Barbin assumed his duties as Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Senior Arctic Official of Russia to the Arctic Council in summer of 2014. Before this appointment, Ambassador Barbin served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Ghana and to the Republic of Liberia (non resident). After graduating from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Vladimir V. Barbin began his diplomatic career in 1979 and has since then occupied various positions at the
Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and abroad. He speaks Russian, English, Swedish and Finnish.

Domagoj Baresic

Fellow

Shipping Unit, Polar Research and Policy Initiative, Global Energy Institute, University College London

Domagoj Baresic is an academic researcher at University College London, Energy Institute specialising in sustainable maritime transport and alternative fuels with a specific interest in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Arctic. In addition, he serves as a researcher in charge of shipping within the Arctic policy think tank, PRPI (Polar Research and Policy Initiative). He has several years of experience in analysing Arctic and subarctic energy, climate and shipping issues working as an analyst with GlobalData and Bloomberg. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Anne Barker

Arctic Program Leader

National Research Council of Canada

Ms. Barker is an engineer at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). She has led projects such as physical modelling studies of ice loads against offshore wind turbine towers, evaluating the risk of damage to overwintering fuel barges due to ice conditions, feasibility studies for emergency evacuation in the Beaufort Sea and numerical modelling studies of ice loads on structures. Ms. Barker presently leads NRC’s Arctic Program, wherein she has responsibility for outcomes that support the development of engineering technologies to ensure sustainable, low impact development of the Arctic while increasing the quality of life of northerners.

Birkir Bárðason

Marine biologist

Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Reykjavik

Birkir Bardarson (MPhil) is a senior fisheries biologist at Marine & Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland with expertize on stock assessment and ecology of pelagic fish. He is responsible for the acoustic stock assessment and biological studies of the Iceland-Greenland-Jan Mayen capelin stock and is the stock coordinator for this stock within International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). He has since the year 2000 been involved in bio- and ecological studies of fish including numerous research surveys in subarctic and arctic waters near Iceland, Greenland and Jan Mayen.

Liv La Cour Belling

Bio-economy Project Manager

Nordic Council of Ministers

 Ms. Liv La Cour Belling is the project manager in the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) on Nordic bioeconomy. The NCM has focused targeted on bioeconomy since the Icelandic presidency of the NCM in 2014. Nordic bioeconomy holds great potential in meeting the need for a transition to as sustainable society in addressing major challenges such as climate change and producing sufficient nutritious food, materials and energy for a growing population. In the effort to draft a joint Nordic bioeconomy strategy – the first of its kind – a Nordic Bioeconomy Panel has been established to identify four fundamental strongholds of the region’s bioeconomy: replace, upgrade, circulate and collaborate. It is this work Ms. La Cour Belling is coordination between the Nordic countries.

Bjarni Benediktsson

Prime Minister Minister of Iceland

Government of Iceland

Member of the Icelandic parliament Althingi for Southwest Iceland since 2003, Bjarni Benediktsson has been leader of the Independence party since 2009. He was minister of finance and economic affairs from April 2013 to January 2017 when he became prime minister.

Born in Reykjavík on 26 January 1970, Mr Benediktsson graduated from Reykjavik Junior College in 1989 and completed his law degree from the University of Iceland in 1995. He followed this up with a year of study in Germany in 1995-96, and then graduated with an LLM degree from the University of Miami School of Law in the US in 1997. After taking his bar exam in 1998 he practiced as District Court attorney and is a certified securities trader.

He and his wife, Þóra Margrét Baldvinsdóttir, have four children.

David B. Bernhardt

Commissioner

Maine Department of Transportation

David B. Bernhardt was appointed to be Maine's Commissioner of Transportation by Governor Paul R. LePage, and was sworn into office in February 2011. He joined the Maine Department of Transportation in 1984 and has held several positions at the department over the years. Prior to becoming commissioner, he was MaineDOT's director of Engineering and Operations. Commissioner Bernhardt is a 1984 graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, where he earned associates and bachelor of science degrees in civil engineering. He is a registered professional engineer, and an active participant on national and state committees involved in transportation issues.

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen

Professor

University of Tromsø – Norway’s Arctic University

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen is Professor of Northern Studies and the inaugural Barents Chair in Politics at University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway. He is a Danish national, who grew up in Reykjavik and has a deep personal and professional commitment to the North Atlantic and Arctic. Rasmus studied in Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Geneva, Lausanne and Amsterdam. His Ph.D. is from the University of Cambridge with a year at Sciences Po. Rasmus was postdoc at Harvard, United Nations University (Yokohama) and Aalborg University. His main research interest is transnational flows of knowledge, talent and resources between the West and East.

Agnieszka Beszczyńska-Möller

Physical Oceanographer

Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences

Physical oceanographer with 25 years of experience in polar regions, leader of the IOPAN Observational Oceanography Group. Extensive expertise in oceanographic moorings, ship-borne measurements, floats and gliders. In 2003-2013 responsible for the moored array and glider program in Fram Strait. 30+ Arctic expeditions on German, Norwegian and Polish research vessels and icebreakers. Member of ICES Ocean Hydrography Working Group, editor of ICES Report on Ocean Climate. Polish representative in SAON Board. Participant and PI in several international projects (VEINS, ASOF-N, DAMOCLES IP, ACOBAR, GROOM, SIOS, UNDER-ICE, AWAKE2, NAtMAP). Coordinator of the Polish-Norwegian project PAVE (2013-2016). Leader of WP3 ‘Multidisciplinary in situ observing systems’ and Executive Board member in the H2020 project Integrated Arctic Observation System INTAROS (2016-2020).

Nauja Bianco

Senior Adviser

Nordic Council of Ministers

Nauja Bianco is part of the international team of the NCM and specifically responsible for the Arctic Cooperation Program that allocates app. 1,2 mio. euros annually for projects and initiatives that support sustainable development in the Arctic. Ms. Bianco has more than 12 years of experience with political, economic and administrative decision-making processes and advisory services in the Greenlandic, Danish, and Nordic central administration and also has extensive experience with EU policy. Ms. Bianco has years of expertise within the global Arctic agenda, including international law; Danish-Greenlandic relations and relations within the Danish Kingdom incl. constitutional law as well as extensive experience on cooperation with international players such as the United States, Canada and China. 

Arctic Circle Assembly 2015
Breakout Session Chair:
Nordic Nexus: Nordic Connections and Solutions for a Developing Arctic
Organized by: The Nordic Council of Ministers

Breakout Session Speaker:
Actions for Arctic Biodiversity 2013-2021: Implementing the Recommendations of the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment.
Organized by: The Arctic Council’s Working Group on the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)
Title: The importance of implementing the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment recommendations from a Nordic Council of Ministers perspective.

Nicole Biebow

Head of International Cooperation Unit

Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Alfred Wegener Institute)

Dr. Nicole Biebow received her PhD in Marine Geology at GEOMAR in Kiel in 1996. She has long-standing experience in the management of international projects and coordination of international consortia. She has worked as scientific coordinator or executive manager of international projects since 1996. Since 2010, she leads the International Cooperation Unit at the AWI. Nicole Biebow is the executive manager of the EU coordination and support action EU-PolarNet – Connecting Science with society and engaged in the development of a European Polar Research Programme co-designed with stakeholders.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2015
Breakout Session Speaker:
Sustainable Development in Northern Québec: Challenges and Innovation
Organized by: The Québec Northern Institute and the Sociéte du Plan Nord du Québec

Breakout Session Speaker:
What Can Arctic Stakeholders and Researchers Learn from Each Other?
Organized by: EU-PolarNet and the European Polar Board
Title of presentation: EU-PolarNet aims and planned activities.

Thomas Bishop

Unit Lead

Polar Research and Policy Initiative

Thomas Bishop is a creative and independent thinker, built environment professional and consultant, as well as Unit Lead for the Built Environment at PRPI. He has expertise in housing, localism, sustainability and planning, and is currently employed by WilkinsonEyre Architects. His portfolio includes projects in the UK, Europe and Asia, from Alpine PassivHaus ecohomes to grand infrastructure projects like HS2, and visionary masterplans for London and Birmingham. Thomas studied architecture at Cambridge University to Master's level where he specialised in masterplanning, neighbourhood plans and sustainable smart cities. As a qualified governance practitioner, he also has committee-level experience in finance, corporate governance and risk management.

Peter Bjerregaard

Professor

University of Southern Denmark

Peter Bjerregaard, MD, Dr. Med. Sci., born 1947. Professor of Arctic Health since 1996. Worked as a District Medical Officer in Northern Greenland in 1978-1980, then for four years in Kenya until his research career started in 1989. His main research interests are social epidemiology of mental health and cardiovascular disease among the Inuit in Greenland but he also spends time advising the Greenland Government on health issues. He is former president of the Circumpolar Health Research Network and the International Union for Circumpolar Health. He was scientific editor of International Journal of Circumpolar Health 1996-2012. Peter has published extensively in English and Danish language.

Eiríkur Björn Björgvinsson

Mayor

Akureyri

Eiríkur Björn was the youth and sports representative for the town of Egilsstaðir from 1994-1996 and the sports and leisure representative for the town of Akureyri 1996-2002. In 2002 he was appointed the Mayor of Fljótsdalshérað, a position he held until 2010.
Eiríkur Björn is borin in 1966. He completed a degree in physical education at primary and secondary level from the Icelandic Shool of Physical Education in 1990 and a diplom-vorprüfung from the Sport University of Cologne, Germany in 1994. Additionally he achieved a diploma in management skills from the Iceland University of Education in 2000.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2014
Breakout Session Speaker:
Regional Cooperation of the World's Northern Regions
Organized by: The Northern Forum and Arctic Portal

Breakout Session Speaker:
Global Challenges - Local Solutions: Regional Adaptation to Global Changes in the Arctic
Organized by: The Northern Forum, Arctic Portal, and the University of the Arctic

Halldór Björnsson

Head of the Atmospheric Research Group

the Icelandic Meteorological Office

Halldór Björnsson is head of the Atmospheric Research Group at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. His research has covered climate data analysis, climate variability and Arctic climate change, sea ice, ocean and atmospheric modelling as well as wind energy and volcanic clouds. Halldór has chaired two climate impact assessments for Iceland, and has extensive experience in research into climate change impacts in the Arctic.

Lill Rastad Bjørst

Research Coordinator

AAU Arctic

Lill Rastad Bjørst is associate professor at Aalborg University and holds a PhD in Arctic Studies from the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Recent research is focusing on the climate change debate in Greenland and, since 2012, the political debate about Greenland’s uranium. She is head of the research center CIRCLA, Platform Coordinator at AAU Arctic and academic coordinator for Arctic Studies, a Master’s programme specialization at Aalborg University. Her research interests include Inuit culture and society; climate change and sustainability; mining and industrialization; postcolonialism and tourism.

Glenn Blackwood

Vice President, Fisheries and Marine Institute

Memorial University of Newfoundland

As vice-president of Memorial University (Marine Institute), Glenn Blackwood oversees Canada's largest and most comprehensive education and applied research institute for the ocean sector.
Mr. Blackwood has led the Institute through a highly successful expansion including broadening its range of industry-driven academic programs, establishing a new school and two new applied research centers in ocean technology and fisheries ecosystem research programs, and constructing a marine base in Holyrood, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Blackwood is well recognized for his collaboration with industry to spearhead major projects. He is also known for his ability to attract funding from private and public sector organizations and his expertise in resource management

Arctic Circle Assembly 2015
Breakout Session Speaker:
Newfoundland and Labrador – The Path to the Arctic.
Organized by: The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
Title of presentation: Newfoundland and Labrador Expertise

Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær

Programme Director of West Nordic Studies

Fróðskaparsetur Føroya

Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær, Assistant Professor and Programme Director of West Nordic Studies, Governance and Sustainable Management at the University of the Faroe Islands.
Lau’s research focus on climate governance, green growth, science diplomacy, and engaged scholarship. He works with environmental transformation of society in the Faroe Islands and the West Nordic region. He represented the Faroe Islands at COP21 in Paris, and has also adviced the Nordic Council of Ministers in UN climate negotiations. Lau is Leader of University of the Arctic’s Thematic Network on Arctic Coastal Communities for Sustainability. He developed and leads the Green Growth Dialogue.

John Bodinger

Chair

Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Susquehanna University

John Bodinger is an associate professor of anthropology and Chair of the Sociology & Anthropology Department at Susquehanna University. He also directs the Museum Studies and Diversity Studies Programs. His research interests include tourism; questions of identity, representation, and Native American sovereignty; and how such issues are engaged in contemporary museum, casino, touristic, and photographic practice. He is the author of Casino and Museum: Mashantucket Pequot Representation; his articles and reviews have appeared in Museum & Society, Museum Anthropology, Visual Anthropology Review, Museum Anthropology Review, Ethnohistory, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Tribal Government Gaming, and the Journal of Anthropological Research.

Odd Jarl Borch

Professor

Nord University Business School

Odd Jarl Borch is Professor in Strategy and Management at Nord University Business School. He holds a graduate degree in Economics and Business Administration (siviløkonom) from NHH – Norwegian School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics from Umeå University and has been a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University. Borch’s research focuses on business and societal development within a range and sectors and industries, fisheries, aquaculture, food industry, maritime business as well as safety and preparedness. He currently leads several international R&D projects focusing on preparedness and emergency management.

Caroline Bouchard

Scientist

the Greenland Climate Research Centre

Caroline Bouchard was trained at Université du Québec at Rimouski, Université Laval and the University of Iceland. Dr Bouchard has conducted research in several parts of the circumpolar Arctic, focusing on understanding how variability in environmental conditions during the early life stages impact growth, survival and recruitment of Arctic fish. Her areas of expertise include larval fish ecology, otolith microstructure and microchemistry, fisheries acoustics and population genetics. Dr. Bouchard recognizes and use all means to answer her scientific questions, from acquiring new knowledge and technical skills to engaging in diverse field work and expanding her network of international collaborators.

Anatoli Bourmistrov

High North Centre for Business

Anatoli Bourmistrov holds a position of Professor, and is Head of Department Economic Analysis and Accounting at the Nord University Business School. He is also project manager at the High North Center for Business and Governance. He has a Master of Science degree in Space Technology from Baltic State Technical University, Business Administration degree from Bodø Graduate School of Business, and a Doctoral degree from Norwegian School of Economics. His current research covers a broad area of business studies, especially management control in organizations operating in dynamic environments and industrial cooperation in the High North. He is one of the authors who received David Solomons Prize Sponsored by the Charted Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for the best article in the annual volume of Management Accounting Research for 2013.

Mark Brandon

Reader in Polar Oceanography

The Open University

Mark Brandon is a polar oceanographer who has spent years in remote polar regions. His research interests are in how the ocean is affecting the great polar ice sheets and he has published more than 35 research articles in leading journals. Mark has always had a strong interest in communicating Arctic change and his passion is helping the public and policy makers to understand the science of the high latitudes. He has worked as a consultant on several major television series including Frozen Planet (global audiences > 100 million), and the forthcoming Blue Planet II.

Lawson Brigham

Distinguished Professor of Geography & Arctic Policy

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Dr. Lawson W. Brigham is Distinguished Fellow and Faculty Member at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.  He is also a Fellow at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy.  Captain Brigham was a career Coast Guard officer and commanded four cutters including the icebreaker Polar Sea on Arctic & Antarctic expeditions. During 2004-09 he was chair of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment. His research interests have focused on the Russian maritime Arctic, environmental change, polar marine transportation, and polar geopolitics. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Charles Brunette

PhD student

atmospheric and ocean sciences, McGill University

Charles Brunette is a Ph.D. student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is studying predictability of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean with Professor Bruno Tremblay. After completing a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2015, he started graduate studies in the field of climate science, with a special focus on variability of the sea ice cover in a changing Arctic climate. He is looking forward to sharing his research and seeing how it can help address the interdisciplinary challenges related to development in the Arctic.

Kristoffer Buch

Innovation Manager

DTU Skylab

Kristoffer has been working at the Technical University of Denmark’s DTU Skylab from early on, being responsible for creating the best possible environment for student entrepreneurship and innovation. With a background in Design Thinking, business development, and startup experience of his own, he coaches startups on all levels, and has been designing, planning and executing acclaimed local and cross-border entrepreneurship programs in partnerships with leading European universities, e.g. EU-XCEL and European Venture Program.

Henry Burgess

Head

NERC Arctic Office

Henry Burgess is the Head of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Arctic Office, hosted by the British Antarctic Survey. The Office supports UK research in the High North; provides advice to policy makers; and develops international scientific cooperation across all aspects of Arctic research. The Office also helps deliver the operation and planning for the NERC Arctic Research Station in Svalbard, Norway. Prior to joining the British Antarctic Survey, Henry was the Deputy Head of the Polar Regions Department in the FCO.

Diane Burko

Explorer, Activist, Painter and Photographer whose work focuses on the intersection of Art and Climate Change

Diane Burko’s art focuses on monumental geological phenomena, which merges a vision that is panoramic, intimate and provocative. At the intersection of art and science focused on climate change, her images reflect research and visual data from scientists. Burko’s paintings and photography, over 100 exhibits thus far, bear witness to changes in the Polar regions, translating data including recessional lines and Landsat images into compelling imagery. These Polar images are in response to her travels around Svalbard, Greenland’s Jakobshavn, Iceland and the Antarctica Peninsula. She sees melting glaciers as a key indicator of climate change.  

Jane Burston

Head of Energy and Environment

National Physical Laboratory

Jane leads the Climate, Environment and Energy work at the National Physical Laboratory. Her team of 150 scientists and engineers deliver £18m pa research and commercial work on emissions measurement, air pollution, climate monitoring and energy technologies. Jane is a Trustee of the climate policy think tank Sandbag and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Energy.  Jane has received a number of recognitions for her work, including being named one of the ‘40 under 40 European Young Leaders’ by Friends of Europe and one of the ‘Top Twenty Outstanding Young People of the Year’ globally by the International Chamber of Commerce. Twitter: @Jane_Burston

Michael Byers

Professor & Canada Research Chair,

Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He has been a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, a Professor of Law at Duke University, and a Visiting Professor at the universities of Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Nord (Norway) and Novosibirsk (Russia). Professor Byers is the author of Who Owns the Arctic? (D&M Publishers, 2010) and International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge University Press, 2013). 

Arctic Circle Assembly 2014
Breakout Session Speaker:
Polar Law: Arctic Shipping.
Organized by: The University of Akureyri
Title: Arctic Straits: The Russian-Canadian Alliance.

Gilbert Castellanos

U.S. Head of Delegation

the CAFF Working Group, U.S. Department of the Interior:

Gilbert Castellanos serves as the United States Head of Delegation to the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group, where he represents U.S. strategic interests related to Arctic science, conservation and sustainable development. Gilbert knows that in order to look after the Arctic properly all those who live, work and appreciate the region must have good information about what is there, and how it might be impacted by development and other human activities. Gilbert has been working in international affairs for the U.S. government for over 15 years, and appreciates the need for cooperation, inclusion and clarity in order to best achieve enduring well-being across the Arctic and beyond.

Martha Cerny

curator

Museum Cerny Inuit Collection, Bern-Switzerland

Martha Cerny (Canadian/Swiss) is curator (MAS, Zurich University of the Arts) and director of the Cerny Inuit Collection, in Bern-Switzerland. She has been working with Inuit art from Canada since 1995 and from other circumpolar regions since 1998. Her latest exhibition Linked at the Musée océanographique in Monaco showcased a dialogue of contemporary art of high and lower latitudes in creating awareness on climate change. As a curator she aims at addressing the human dimension and challenges brought about by global change. Her projects highlight the connections among contemporary artists of different cultures. She has also facilitated the participation of northern Indigenous artists at international events and informal meetings with Western artists.

Zhuoqi Chen

Associate Professor

Beijing Normal University

Professor Zhuoqi Chen has utilized the abilities of the Landsat-8 OLI image bands to create a 30-m image mosaic of Greenland.

Yating Chen

Master Candidate

Beijing Normal University

Yating Chen (Master) works on the evaluation of carbon release from Arctic permafrost regions. 

Xiao Cheng

Professor

Beijing Normal University

Professor Xiao Cheng’s research interests include the interaction between ice sheet, sea ice and ocean, remote sensing of polar regions. 

Hanne H. Christiansen

Professor

Department leader; Arctic Geology, University Centre in Svalbard

Hanne H. Christiansen is a Professor of physical geography at the University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS and the President of the International Permafrost Association. She is specializing in periglacial geomorphology. Her research focus are studying the largest climatic gradient in the High Arctic between Northern Greenland and Svalbard and its influence on permafrost, climatic and meteorological control on periglacial landforms, processes and sediments. She has worked in both recent and former cold-climate areas of the North Atlantic area since 1990, and has experience from participation in numerous research projects in Greenland since 1990, in the Faroe Islands since 1994 and in Norway and Svalbard since 2002

Emanuel Ferreira Coelho

Programme Manager

EKOE

Dr. Emanuel Ferreira Coelho has a Ph.D. in Oceanography by the Naval Postgraduate School (US) and Operational Navy training from the Portuguese Navy. Previous assignments included NATO research positions, Professor-Research at the University of New Orleans and the University of Southern Mississippi, and working under contract for the Naval Research Laboratory (US) to develop environmental characterization solutions using numerical models and underwater robotic networks. Since 2014 he is the head of the Oceanography group at the NATO-CMRE that is conducting a multi-year programme for high latitudes ocean-acoustic monitoring and prediction, using robotic platforms and adaptive enhanced sensing capabilities.

Sonya Kelliher-Combs

artist

Alaska, USA

Sonya Kelliher-Combs was raised in the Northwest Alaska community of Nome. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree is from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Master of Fine Arts is from Arizona State University. Through her mixed media painting and sculpture, Kelliher-Combs offers a chronicle of the ongoing struggle for self-definition and identity in the Alaskan context. Her combination of shared iconography with intensely personal imagery demonstrates the generative power that each vocabulary has over the other. Similarly, her use of synthetic, organic, traditional and modern materials moves beyond oppositions between Western/Native culture, self/other and man/nature, to examine their interrelationships and interdependence while also questioning accepted notions of beauty. Kelliher-Combs' process dialogues the relationship of her work to skin, the surface by which an individual is mediated in culture.

Chip Comins

Chairman & CEO AREI

American Renewable Energy Institute, Founder AREDAY

Chip Comins is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of the American Renewable Energy Institute, (AREI, Inc), Founder of the AREDAY Summit and IMPACT FILM. He is President of American Spirit Productions and Managing Partner in S&C Capital, LLC. An advocate of developing and implementing renewable energy resources to abate greenhouse gases and climate change, in 2009 he produced 13 official side events at the UNFCCC COP 15, and presented at COP 16, 21 & 22.  He produced the AREDAY Summit in 2014 featuring President Jimmy Carter, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2015 and President Olafur Grimmson in 2016. He is a producer of the feature documentaries Racing Extinction and Rooted in Peace. 

Michael T. Corgan

Associate Professor

University of Boston

Professor Corgan is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of GlobalStudies, Boston University. He specializes in international security, Nordic affairs and the Arctic. He has taught at the University of Iceland in 2001, 2006, and 2014, is a Founding Partner of the Centre for Small State Studies at the University, and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Arctic Policy. A US Naval Academy graduate, he was a career naval officer for 25 years including a tour as Political Advisor to the Commander, Iceland Defense Force, 1981 and 1982. 

Barry A. Costa-Pierce

Chair and Director

the Department of Marine Sciences, Marine Science Center, University of New England

Dr. Costa-Pierce is the Doherty Professor of Marine Sciences at UNE. He is a marine ecologist with research interests in “ocean food systems”: how fisheries, aquaculture, and seafood value chains throughout the world interact locally with marine ecosystems and people. In Maine he is a PI on a 5-year, $20 mil NSF award for SEANET, the largest award ever given to aquaculture by the NSF. He is currently a Fulbright at the University of Akureyri and the Swedish Royal Academy Knut & Alice Wallenberg Professor at the University of Gothenburg. Dr. Costa-Pierce is a Fellow of the AAAS and AIFRB.

Nic Craig

Fellow

Energy Unit, Polar Research and Policy Initiative

Nic Craig specialises in energy and climate change. Based in Denmark, Nic contributes to PRPI's work on the UK's energy relationship with Arctic states and is currently writing a chapter for the book 'Renewable Energy for the Arctic: New Perspectives' to be published by Routledge in 2018. He is also completing a postgraduate degree in Climate Change at the University of Copenhagen and has previously spent time studying in Finland at the University of Helsinki. Nic has a background in renewables and energy policy. He is particularly fascinated by the new opportunities that a changing Arctic brings and the interconnectivity of natural, commercial and social factors in the region.

Kirsty Crocket

Science Coordinator

NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Programme

Kirsty Crocket is the Science Coordinator of the NERC Changing Arctic Ocean Programme, and she carries out this role based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban on the Scottish West Coast. Kirsty is also a lecturer and geochemist at SAMS, and has expertise in rare earth elements and radiogenic isotope geochemistry. She applies these techniques to investigate modern process studies in marine and coastal settings, and also to deep sea sediment cores and fossil corals for palaeoceanographic reconstruction of past ocean circulation and continental weathering rates.

Glenn Cummings

President

University of Southern Maine

Dr. Glenn Cummings presently serves as the 13th president of the University of Southern Maine. His long and distinguished career in education and public service includes serving as a former Speaker of the House in the Maine House of Representatives, Majority Leader, Chairman of the state’s Joint Committee of Education and Cultural Affairs, and Deputy Assistant Secretary within the U.S. Department of Education. He holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, a Masters of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Brown University.

Ashley Cummings

Northern Consultant

Alumni and Ambassador Coordinator of North in Focus

Ashley Cummings - Ashley is the Northern Consultant, Alumni/Ambassador Coordinator for North in Focus, a youth-run and -centered organization focusing on mental health stigma and suicide reduction in the Canadian North. Her colorful background of living in both Northern and Southern Canada provides her with a unique perspective and drive to bridge gaps between regions. Ashley is a proud Inuit youth who is passionate about sharing her culture and supporting others. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and English at Mount Allison University and aims to become a mental health counselor in her home region of Nunavut.

Ashlee Cunsolo

Director

the Labrador Institute, Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador

Ashlee Cunsolo, Director of Memorial University’s Labrador Institute is a passionate researcher and environmental advocate, working with research and policy to make a difference in how we live with and in this world.  For the past 10 years, she has worked with Indigenous communities and leaders across Canada on a variety of community-led and community-identified research initiatives, ranging from climate change impacts on health, cultural reclamation and intergenerational knowledge transmission, suicide reduction and prevention, land-based education programs, environmental grief, and Indigenization of higher education.

Björn Dahlbäck

Director-General

Swedish Polar Research Secretariat

Björn Dahlbäck is Director-General of the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat since 2010. As a government agency, the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is mandated to coordinate and promote Swedish polar research.
With a PhD in marine microbiology Björn Dahlbäck has had different manager positions in research-intensive industry such as petrochemical and pharmaceutical.
After a period as senior consultant in organization and leadership development, Dahlbäck returned to academia as a research leader at the University of Gothenburg before taking up his present position at the Secretariat.
Follow Dahlbäck on social media via the Twitter account @polarforskning.

Clint Davis

Chairman

NGC Nunatsiavut Inc

Clint Davis is the Partner and Managing Director of Acasta Capital Indigenous (ACI), an Indigenous-owned subsidiary company of Acasta Capital. ACI partners with Indigenous governments and economic development corporations to achieve growth and value creation by assisting in the maximization of their inherent competitive advantage. Prior to the creation of this company, Clint was the Vice President of Indigenous Banking at TD. Clint, an Inuk from Labrador, is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Nunatsiavut Group of Companies, which is the economic arm of Nunatsiavut Government, a self-governing entity that represents the political, social and economic interests of the Inuit of Labrador. Clint has a BA in Business Administration, Acadia University, BA in Laws from Dalhousie University, and an MPA from Harvard University. He is a Canada-U.S. Fulbright scholar and the recipient of multiple scholarships including the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (Indspire) and the Fred C. Manning Entrance Scholarship, Acadia University.

Julie Decker

Director, CEO

Anchorage Museum

Julie Decker is Director/CEO of the Anchorage Museum. She has also served as Chief Curator for the Anchorage Museum and has organized and curated numerous major exhibitions and authored numerous publications on the art and architecture of the North.

Geneviève Desportes

General Secretary

NAMMCO

Geneviève Desportes is the General Secretary of NAMMCO. French by origin, Geneviève has lived most of her life in the North - Faroe Island, Iceland, Denmark and presently Northern Norway. Her scientific work focussed on reproduction, nutrition and abundance estimates of small cetaceans, harbour porpoise by-catch mitigation and conservation. Geneviève believes in the sustainable and responsible use of natural resources associated to animal welfare, science supported by traditional knowledge – based management and transparency in management advice and processes. Her goal is to make NAMMCO more visible as an effective regional management organisation and develop its ecosystem approach to management.

Frej Sorento Dichman,

Senior Advisor

Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science

Mr. Dichmann is a Government official with 12 years' experience within the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. During this time, Mr. Dichmann has worked on labor law relating to university staff, the committees on scientific dishonesty, the EU Framework Programme (FP7), and international research collaboration.
For the last five years, Mr. Dichmann has led a secretariat within the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science that handles issues related to the Arctic. Mr. Dichmann holds a Master's Degree in Law. Prior to law school, he served as an officer in the Royal Danish Air Force for 9 years.

Ulf Dieckmann

Program Director

IIASA

Ulf Dieckmann directs the Evolution and Ecology Program (EEP) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics and his master’s degree in theoretical physics from the University of Aachen, Germany. He completed his PhD research on theoretical biology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and obtained his Habilitation (venia legendi) in biomathematics from the University of Vienna. He has worked at Stanford University and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, USA, the Research Center Jülich, Germany, the University of York, UK, Leiden University, the Netherlands, and the University of Vienna, Austria.

Stephen Van Dine

Assistant Deputy Minister

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada

Stephen was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of the Northern Affairs Organization on January 21, 2015. Prior to this, he was Director General, Northern Strategic Policy Branch. Stephen grew up in the Northwest Territories and began his career as a community planner with the City of Yellowknife and later with the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. In 1997, he began working at AANDC, in the Yellowknife Regional Office. Stephen later transferred to headquarters and worked on a variety of northern policy, legislative and regulatory initiatives with territorial governments, Aboriginal organizations, other federal departments and the private sector laying the ground work for Regulatory Improvement in the North. Stephen has a degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Ryerson University and a Masters in Public Administration from Queen's University. Stephen has been married for 20 years and has two children with his wife Marie.

Yifan Ding

PhD Candidate

Beijing Normal University

Yifan Ding (Ph.D) works on the derivation and processes of polynyas and melt ponds. 

Erica Dingman

Director

Arctic in Context

Erica Dingman is a Fellow at World Policy Institute where she continues to develop WPI’s Arctic program. In 2014 she launched the Arctic in Context initiative, which mixes digital technology with in-person events. The initiatives web-based platform provides a global audience with an accessible overview of region-wide issues using timelines, videos, and analysis. Her articles have appeared in various publications including CNN, Al Jazeera, Arctic Yearbook and Diplomatic Courier. She is a member of the University of Washington’s Arctic Center Steering Committee and holds a Master’s in International Affairs from The New School.

Erica M. Dingman

Fellow

World Policy Institute

Erica Dingman is a Fellow at World Policy Institute where she continues to develop WPI’s Arctic program. In 2014 she launched the Arctic in Context initiative, which mixes digital technology with in-person events. The initiatives web-based platform provides a global audience with an accessible overview of region-wide issues using timelines, videos, and analysis. Her articles have appeared in various publications including CNN, Al Jazeera, Arctic Yearbook and Diplomatic Courier. She is a member of the University of Washington’s Arctic Center Steering Committee and holds a Master’s in International Affairs from The New School.

The Honourable Stéphane Dion

Ambassador

Germany

Prior to his appointment, M. Dion was Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from November 2015 until January 2017, where he championed Canadian leadership in the world on crucial global interests including promotion of universal human rights, peace and stability efforts, the global climate challenge and Canada’s commitment to multilateralism. He was previously Minister of the Environment from 2004 to 2005, when he secured what is praised as one of the greenest budgets in the history of Canada and, in 2005, chaired the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP11/MOP1) where he reconciled the diverging interests of member countries so that decisions could be taken to effectively implement the Kyoto Protocol. Serving as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs between 1996 and 2003, longer than any other Canadian since Confederation, he played a primary role promoting Canadian unity.

Daniela Domeisen

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

Daniela Domeisen is an Assistant Professor for Atmospheric Predictability at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She studies the predictability of the atmosphere on timescales of 2 weeks to several months. Within the Horizon2020 project "Blue Action" she studies the predictability of persistent weather events in the Arctic and in the regions affected by the Arctic. She holds a Ph.D. in stratospheric dynamics from M.I.T. and a Masters degree from Columbia University with a focus on the impact of climate on society.

June Borge Doornich

Associate Professor in Strategy and Control

Business School, Nord University

June Borge Doornich is an Associate Professor in International Strategy and Control, at the Business School, Nord University, Norway. Doornich research portfolio is organizational learning and management of internationalization processes, and management control of international subsidiaries. She studies the oil and gas sector, with a particular focus on Western companies activities in Eastern markets, and multinational companies in the Arctic. Doornich is deeply connected with the oil and gas sector, through her research, active participation, and board representation.

Sheila Downer

Strategic Northern Liaison

Public Engagement and Labrador Institute, Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Sheila Downer, Strategic Northern Liaison, Public Engagement and Labrador Institute, Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Biography:
Sheila is a strong advocate for the development of Northern, rural and coastal communities. As part of Memorial University’s Cold Ocean Arctic, Science, Technology, and Society (COASTS) initiative, she is the Strategic Northern Liaison and is dedicated to supporting collaborations between Memorial’s students, faculty and staff and community and global networks. Sheila has worked as part of a team throughout Labrador to build local knowledge, skills and effective tools to support the way people live, work and do business in Northern communities. With more than 30 years of experience, her work has provided a strong background in understanding and addressing opportunities and challenges for project partnership, regional network development and ICT services. Sheila also currently serves as the Vice President of Finance, Development and Engagement for the UArctic.

Kjell Dragnes

Former Foreign Editor

Aftenposten

Kjell Dragnes is the former Foreign Editor of Aftenposten, Norway’s newspaper of record. He is now a free lance writer and lecturer after an over 40 year long career as a staff member of The Norwegian News Agency, Norwegian Broadcasting and Aftenposten. He has worked abroad as correspondent three times, in Moscow (1978-1982), London (1989-1992) and Moscow ((1995-1997).  His special fields are East-West affairs, military and strategic matters and Russia. He is a graduate of Oslo University and The National Defence College of Norway.

Kelly Drew

Professor

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Dr. Drew studied neuropharmacology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and at the Karolinska Institute before returning to Alaska in 1990 where she is now Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Passionate about the neurochemistry of consciousness Dr. Drew fell in love with hibernation. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Drew’s research group discovered a mechanism sufficient to drive the onset of hibernation. She founded Be Cool Pharmaceutics LLC in 2015 to commercialize therapeutics for rural and remote emergency medicine and human space flight based on hibernation. In her free time Dr. Drew advocates for the neurologically disabled.

Julie Ducrocq

PhD student in epidemiology

Université Laval

Julie Ducrocq is a PhD candidate in human epidemiology at Université Laval (Québec, Canada). She is part of the 2017 Nunavik Inuit Health Survey research team and her thesis focuses on zoonotic diseases, gastroenteritis and water use. In 2017, she was awarded PhD grants from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec en Santé and for EcoHealth research exchange within the One Health Institute (UC Davis). Initially trained as a veterinarian and wildlife epidemiologist (DMV, MSc), Julie has spent the last 20 years working at the human/animal/environment interface in the Arctic while promoting knowledge mobilisation, capacity building and healthier Inuit communities.

Knut-Eirik Dybdal

CEO

Arctic Race of Norway

Knut-Eirik Dybdal (42) is from the island of Andørja, located in the county of Troms in the midst of Northern Norway.  Dybdal is known for having developed the Arctic Race of Norway from “a crazy idea” to an international stage race on road bike in Northern Norway. In collaboration with the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), a French sports events company, Dybdal and other Norwegians organize each year “the Race above the Arctic Circle”, which in 2017 was broadcasted to 190 countries. Dybdal has received much acclaim for his entrepreneurship, positive energy and unifying qualities, including the “North-Norwegian of the Year” award, which he received in 2013. 

David Eades

BBC

David Eades is a mainstream anchor for BBC World News, with 15 years' experience of presenting, plus a decade as a Foreign Correspondent. He has covered some of the major news stories of the last 25 years, from the death of Princess Diana, to the launch of the Euro,  'terror' attacks across Europe, as well as many general and European elections. He has also hosted and moderated at international conferences, focussing on issues of the Environment, European Politics and Sport.

Okalik Eegeesiak

Chair

Inuit Circumpolar Council

Okalik Eegeesiak was elected Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) in July 2014. ICC represents the international interests of Inuit in Canada, Greenland, Chukotka (Russia) and Alaska (USA).
Ms. Eegeesiak was President of Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) from 2008-2014. QIA represents approximately 14,000 Inuit in 13 communities of the Qikiqtani Region. QIA’s mandate includes protecting, preserving and promoting Inuit rights, interests, and aspirations.
Ms. Eegeesiak is fluent in written and oral Inuktitut, and was born, raised, and schooled in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. Okalik attended post-secondary institutions such as Nunavut Arctic College and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.


Arctic Circle Assembly 2015
Plenary Session Speaker:
Opening Session

Breakout Session Panelist:
Managing Shared Interests in Arctic Oil and Gas
Organized by: Stony Brook University

Breakout Session Speaker:
Arctic Renewable Energy: Alternatives for People and the Environment
Organized by: The WWF Global Arctic Programme

Arctic Circle Assembly 2014
Plenary Session Speaker:
Indigenous Voices from the Arctic

Marta Einarsdóttir

Dr. Marta Einarsdóttir is a researcher at the University of Akureyri Research Centre. She takes part in designing, planning and implementing both qualitative and quantitative research projects. Marta has a Ph.D. in Educational Sciences from the University of East Anglia. Her background is in education, gender, international development and psychology. Marta´s main research interests are in education, gender and international development. Recent research projects include a survey on the satisfaction of University students at universities in Iceland, a focus group study on work-life balance in Icelandic families and a focus group study on the experiences and aspirations of Icelandic Youth.

Níels Einarsson

Director

Stefansson Arctic Institute

Níels Einarsson is an anthropologist and Director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland. His main professional interests include the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of marine resource governance; climate change, whale watching and whaling in Iceland, and North Atlantic Arctic sustainability and social change issues. He has led and participated in numerous international research and scientific assessment projects with a focus on the circumpolar region, including co-editing the first Arctic Human Development Report, and as Co-PI on the current ARCPATH and GREENICE projects, with the primary goal of investigating the environmental and social change in Arctic coastal communities.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2013
Breakout Session Speaker:
Polar Law.
Organized by: the Symposium on Polar Law
Title: Arctic Resource Development: Arctic Energy Meets Polar Law.

Bo Elberling

Professor, Center for Permafrost (CENPERM)

Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management. University of Copenhagen

Dr. Bo Elberling is a professor at University of Copenhagen (Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management) and director of the center of excellence, Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), under Danish National Research Foundation. Bo Elberling has been working in the Arctic for more than 25 years mainly within biogeochemical processes in the ice-free part of Greenland. Research includes waste management, heavy metal release, carbon & nitrogen cycles and greenhouse gas budgets. Professor II at UNIS (Svalbard, 2007-2013), from 2014 leader of Arctic Station at Disko, West Greenland, and from 2016 affiliated Faculty at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Victoria Elias

Programme Director

WWF-Russia

Victoria Elias is Programme Director of WWF Russia. She is responsible for overall WWF Russia Conservation Strategy development and implementation, oversees Arctic portfolio and line manages Biodiversity conservation, Sustainable Fishery, Climate and Energy Programmes, Amur Branch and all WWF Russia regional offices, including Barent, Bering/Kamchatka, Russian Caucasus, Altay-Sayan ones and Central Asia Programme.
Prior to joining WWF Russia in 2007, Victoria was a Chair and a Head of Secretariat of the European ECO-Forum – Pan-European Coalition of environmental citizens organizations. Victoria served on Boards membership of LEAD International (“Leadership for Environment and Development”), FIM (Forum International Montreal), WECF (Women in Europe for Common Future), ANPED – the Northern Alliance for Sustainability. Biodiversity Conservation Centre (Russia,) and several others.
Ms. Elias holds PhD in Biology from Moscow Lomonossov Stare University. She has broad experience working on environmental and sustainable development issues at national and international level, including current chairing Pan-European Biodiversity Platform on behalf of the Russian Federation, involvement in strategic environmental, sustainable development and education for sustainable development debates and policy formulation as well as research.

Mike Emerson

Director of Marine Transportation Systems

United States Coast Guard

Mike Emerson is the Director for Marine Transportation Systems at Coast Guard Headquarters. He manages a broad portfolio of marine navigation, waterway, and bridge programs, and is also responsible for a wide variety of Polar and Arctic safety and security initiatives.

Emerson retired from the Coast Guard in 2014, after 30 years of service. His tours of duty included the Office of Operations Coordination at Department of Homeland Security, Headquarters; Senior Fellow for CNO Strategic Studies Group in Newport, Rhode Island; Chief of Aviation Forces at Coast Guard Headquarters; Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida; and Chief of Drug Interdiction at Coast Guard Headquarters. His operational assignments included four tours in aviation as a C-130 pilot, and two tours at sea.

Patricia Espinosa

Executive Secretary

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

On 18 May 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Patricia Espinosa of Mexico as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Ms. Espinosa took office on 18 July 2016.

Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights.

As Mexico's representative on multilateral bodies and international organizations in Vienna, Geneva and New York, Ms. Espinosa has been engaged as leader in the global challenge to address climate change and its consequences, notably as Chair of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC leading to the adoption of the Cancun Agreements. Named by the UN Secretary-General to the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post 2015 Development Agenda, she is a tireless supporter of multilateralism as a way to improve conditions for development in all regions of the world, understanding the inextricable link between the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Elected Chair of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly (1996) she played a key role in the process leading to the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action at the 4th World Conference on Women. Previous Ambassador of Mexico to Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and UN Organisations in Vienna (2002-2006), she was Chief of Staff to the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1989-1991) and responsible for economic issues at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the UN in Geneva (1982-1988).

Born in 1958, she has postgraduate studies in International Law from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva and is holder of a Degree in International Relations from El Colegio de Mexico. Fluent in English and German, she is confident in French with Spanish mother tongue.

Karen Everett

PhD Candidate

Trent University, Ontario

Karen Everett is a PhD candidate at Trent University. Her research examines Canada-US border management and draws on securitization theory and political discourse analysis to understand the policy making process and what Canada’s border management programs promise to deliver. Using Canada’s remote Northern borders as a case study, her research addresses the implications of national programs in a regional context.

Heather Exner-Pirot

Strategist

Outreach and Indigenous Engagement, University of Saskatchewan

Heather Exner-Pirot is the Managing Editor of the Arctic Yearbook and regular contributor to Radio Canada’s Eye on the Arctic.  She is the Chair of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust, the Coordinator of the UArctic Thematic Network on Northern Nursing Education, and sits on the Boards of The Arctic Institute, the Saskatchewan First Nations Economic Development Network, and the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal. She earned her PhD in Political Studies from the University of Calgary in 2011, focusing on Arctic human security and regionalization. She has further written on Arctic innovation, distance learning, telehealth and greenhouses.  She is currently a Strategist for Outreach and Indigenous Engagement at the University of Saskatchewan. 

Kelly Falkner

Director,

Office of Polar Programs

Kelly Falkner is the Director of the Office of Polar Programs of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Director of the U.S. Antarctic Program. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she oversees an annual budget of about $450 million covering scientific research and logistics programs in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Prior to Federal service, she was a Professor at Oregon State University, where she taught and conducted research for 26 years, culminating in over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters primarily on Arctic oceanoography. Kelly earned her PhD in Chemical Oceanography from MIT/WHOI in 1989.

Gao Feng

Special Representative for Arctic Affairs

Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China

Mr. Gao Feng is the Special Representative for Arctic affairs of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.He was born on August 18, 1954 in Beijing. He studied at Peking University and the Nottingham University, graduated with a LL.M. Degree in public international law. Mr. Gao joined foreign service in 1985. He was assigned the Legal Counsel to the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations in 1996, and appointed the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Treaty and Law in 1999. In 2005 he joined the UNFCCC Secretariat as the Deputy Executive Secretary and, later as the Director for Legal Affairs Programme. In 2011 he was appointed as the Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations until assumed the present post in November 2016.

Matthias Finger

Professor, Co-Director

Institute of Technology and Public Policy at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland

Matthias Finger is known for his expertise in matters of regulation and governance of network industries. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of Geneva and has been an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University (New York), an Associate Professor at Columbia University (New York) and a Full Professor of Management of Public Enterprises at the Swiss Federal Institute of Public Administration. Since 2002, he holds the Swiss Post Chair in Management of Network Industries at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. Since 2010 he also directs the Florence School of Regulation’s Transport Area at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Since 2014 he directs the Institute of Technology and Public Policy at EPFL. Prof. Finger is the editor-in-chief of the Journal Competition and Regulation in Network Industries (Sage), a member of the editorial board of Utilities Policy and a member of the Swiss electricity regulatory authority (ElCom). His most recent global project focuses on the governance of large urban systems in collaboration with six global cities and partner Universities, along with selected global firms.

Stefan Flückiger

Head of the Sectoral Foreign Policies Division

the Directorate of Political Affairs of Switzerland

Stefan Flückiger coordinates Arctic policies and interests within the Swiss Government. He heads the Global Issues Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Flückiger has served in various positions within the department, including as Swiss Chief of Mission to the OECD. As a graduate from Zurich and Yale Universities, he has also worked at the World Bank and the Swiss Think Tank Avenir Suisse.

Allison A. Fong

Coordinator

MOSAiC Ecosystems Working Group

Dr. Allison A. Fong has never lived more than a 20-minute drive from the ocean, and this proximity to the sea has shaped both her research and recreational interests. Her research is centered on topics in microbial oceanography, particularly on Bacteria and the roles they play in catalyzing biogeochemical processes and shaping interactions within ecosystems. Dr. Fong has explored their activities across the globe, including the subtropical North Pacific, the Weddell Sea, and several regions of the Arctic Ocean. As a MOSAiC Ecosystems Working Group coordinator, she is responsible for leading and shaping the ecosystems scientific program.

Rene Forsberg

Danish Technical University-Space

Rene Forsberg is professor at the National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark. Rene has a long experience in monitoring current changes of the cryosphere (ice caps and sea ice) from aircraft and satellites, both in Greenland and Antarctica. He has been active with Greenland geodetic and remote sensing activities in the Arctic for more than 35 years. Rene leads the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative for Greenland, and has participated in numerous research projects from national and international sources over the years, as well governmental survey works, lately especially in connection with the Danish/Greenlandic Law of the Seas activities in the Arctic, and for national Danish/Greenland assessment programmes for both ice sheet and sea ice changes.

Louis Fortier

Scientific director and innovation

Institut nordique du Québec (INQ), Université Laval, Québec

A specialist of the ecology of marine zooplankton and fish, Professor Louis Fortier holds the Canada Research Chair on the response of arctic marine ecosystems to climate warming. He has coordinated several international arctic research programs such as the International North Water Polynya Study (NOW) and the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES). He is the Scientific Leader for the Canadian Research Icebreaker Amundsen. Fortier is Scientific Director of Canada’s Network of Centres of Excellence ArcticNet (2004-2018) and of the Unité Mixte Internationale Takuvik of the French Conseil national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). 

Anu Fredrikson

Director

Arctic Economic Council

Anu Fredrikson is the Director of the Arctic Economic Council Secretariat located in Tromsø, Norway. Ms. Fredrikson has previously worked with foreign and security policy, issues related to energy and economy, climate and development policies as well as the Arctic. Prior to joining the AEC, Ms. Fredrikson worked as an Advisor in Political Affairs and Arctic Policy at the Embassy of Finland in Oslo. Ms. Fredrikson is originally from Oulu, Finland. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Tampere in Finland and holds a Certificat d’Etudes Politiques from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille in France.  She has also studied in the United States and Norway. 

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
Regions as Arctic developers – sustainable development through multilateral cooperation
Organized by: Troms County Council, Norway
Title: Sustainable Business Development.

Eyal Freud

Postdoctoral researcher

Stockholm University

Eyal Freud is a currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, employed by the Department of Environmental Sciences and Analytical Chemistry at Stockholm University. Eyal got his PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he studied aerosol-cloud interactions by collecting and analysing is-situ data. In his recent research, Eyal focuses on Arctic aerosols, especially those with the greatest climate relevance, their characterisation and transport in a pan-Arctic perspective.

Jay Friedlander

Professor

College of the Atlantic

Jay Friedlander is the Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Jay’s research and professional endeavors merge sustainability, entrepreneurship and strategy. To that end he created the Abundance Cycle, a model demonstrating how enterprises can maximize returns for shareholders, the planet and society. His work is featured in The New York Times, MITSloan Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Triple Pundit and other media outlets. Jay also serves as a Babson College Senior Fellow in Social Innovation and lectures globally on sustainable innovation.

Thomas Gasser

Research Scholar

IIASA

Thomas Gasser is a Research Scholar in the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program at the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA). He is a physicist by training and holds a PhD in climate sciences. He develops and uses simple Earth system models to deal with research questions such as: analyzing couplings and feedbacks in the Earth system, quantifying the contribution of nations to human-induced climate change, or developing global scenarios that meet climate and other environmental targets. His recent work focuses on permafrost carbon, and the Paris agreement.

Violetta Gassiy

Professor

Kuban State University

Doctor of Economics, professor of Public administration department, Kuban State University, Russia. Since 2017 Dr. Violetta Gassiy is a postdoc fellow of IASC. She got her doctoral degree at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow in 2016. Currently she realizes several projects on the environmental economics, Arctic development, indigenous communities financed by Russian Fund for fundamental researches: “Scientific tools development for the changes management on the traditional territories”, “The methodology development on the damage assessment for the indigenous peoples of the North” etc. Prof. Gassiy is a participant of 5 Arctic expeditions. Dr. Gassiy is a participant of such well known exchange programs as Fulbright (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA), DAAD (Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin, Germany), project MERIT-2 TACIS “Municipal social-economic reform in the South of Russia”, Ireland (National University of Ireland). Dr. Violetta Gassiy is the author of more than 80 publications, including scientific papers, monographs, analytical reports on Arctic changes, indigenous communities, partnership and sustainable development.

Kristina Gjerde

High Seas Policy Advisor

IUCN

Kristina Gjerde is Senior High Seas Advisor to IUCN’ Global Marine and Polar Programme, adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, and co-lead of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative.
She specializes in international marine environmental law, particularly as it relates to the high seas and international seabed Area. Her interest is in the nexus of international law, science and management, and the ability of international law to adapt to increasing impacts of human use and climate-related changes.
Kristina has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications combining marine law, science and policy and sits on the boards of multiple scientific partnerships including the Deep Ocean Observation Strategy, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative and the Atlantic Ocean Observation project known as AtlantOS. She also participated in the EU funded MIDAS project—Managing Impacts of Deep Sea Resource Exploitation.

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv

Nansen Professor, UNAK/Professor

UiT-The Arctic University of Norway

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor of Critical Peace and Conflict Studies at the Centre for Peace Studies at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She is also the Nansen Professor 2017-2018 at the University of Akureyri. Professor Hoogensen Gjørv specializes in security studies and international relations theory, focusing on feminist and gender security studies theory, human security, security in the Arctic, civil-military interaction (in Arctic as well as in large-scale conflict settings), and civilian agency

Edvard Glücksman

Senior

Environmental and Social Specialist at Wardell Armstrong LLP and University of Exeter

Edvard Glücksman is Senior Environmental & Social Specialist at Wardell Armstrong and Stakeholder Affiliate at the University of Exeter. His work focuses on the social impact of development projects in emerging economies and capacity building for sustainable development to international standards. Edvard is a Chartered Scientist and a member of the Atlantic Council’s Emerging Leaders in Energy & Environmental Policy network and the Friends of Europe's European Young Leaders. He holds a doctorate and master's degree in biology from the University of Oxford and bachelors’ degrees in biology and sociology from the University of St Andrews and McGill University, respectively.

Gina Goh

Republic of Singapore, representing a number of Arctic youth programs in Singapore

Ms. Gina Goh is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences and minor in Environmental Sustainability at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. A natural leader and high achiever, Gina has led the Society in organizing a wide range of environmental and nature conservation activities and projects.
As a Green Ambassador, she has also represented her school at various dialogue sessions with the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources on environmental sustainability and the Permanent Secretary for National Climate Change on climate change issues.
She has proactively organized many enrichment programs for schools and the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA). For her outstanding leadership and contributions, she was awarded the 2011 HSBC/NYAA Youth Environment Award by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources.
In 2014, Gina was also part of the NYAA team that undertook a ten-day expedition to Churchill Northern Studies Centre in Manitoba, Canada, where they studied saplings to investigate the effects of climate change in the North.

Ola Gråbak

Applications Engineer

European Space Agency

Ola Gråbak joined the European Space Agency (ESRIN) in 1993 after doing his masters degree in Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Trondheim, Norway. After completing the ESA young graduate program, he worked with facilities management within the ESA Earth Observation ground segment until 1996. From 1996-1997 he earned a masters degree in Space Studies with the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. After returning to ESRIN, Ola has been involved with Earth Observations applications development, sharing his time between developing the industrial markets (oil&gas, insurance etc.) and supporting the GMES Service Element (GSE) in preparations for the Copernicus initiative.

Wilfrid Greaves

Assistant Professor

University of Victoria

Wilfrid Greaves is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His research examines the intersections between security theory and environmental politics with focuses on climate change, energy extraction, Indigenous peoples, and the circumpolar Arctic. He has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and his first monograph is forthcoming from University of Toronto Press. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and was previously Lecturer at the Trudeau Centre for Peace, Conflict and Justice.

Mogens H. Greve

Head of Research Section

AU

Mogen H Greve has extensive experience in soil spectroscopy, soil classification, soil mapping and digital soil mapping, his research interest involves study of soil variability and soil mapping in general in scales from field to national scales. His is interested in soil mapping for specific purposes eg. forest site classification, mapping of Danish Terroirs and soils of South Greenland. He teach Soil Science, Soil Sensors, GIS, Geostatistics, and are responsible for PhD courses in “Soil Sensors, theory and applications” and Soil Classification”. His presently supervising BSc, MSc and PhD students for their dissertation work. He is currently supervising five PhD students and three post docs.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

Chairman

Arctic Circle

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson served as President of the Republic of Iceland from 1996 to 2016. President Grímsson earned his BA degree in economics and political science at the University of Manchester, England, in 1965 where he also completed his PhD thesis in political science five years later. He subsequently became the first professor of political science at the University of Iceland. He took a seat in Althingi, the legislative assembly, in 1978 and served as Iceland’s Minister of Finance from 1988 to 1991.

During his Presidency he emphasized sustainable management of natural resources to control climate change, advocating the use of geothermal energy as a renewable, economically viable, and reliable resource. Since the end of his presidential mandate, he has continued serving as Chairman of the Arctic Circle. 

President Grimsson has been active as a spokesman for clean energy solutions, and in 2014 Cornell University in the United States awarded him a special recognition for his contributions in this field.

President Grímsson has actively promoted desertification control, which is also an important issue with respect to climate changes, and in 2009 he was honoured by The Ohio State University for his efforts in this area

President Grimsson has been a spokesman of increased, peaceful, international cooperation both in the Arctic and the Himalayas. With this in mind he initiated, together with others, the Arctic Circle which held its first Assembly in Iceland in 2013 with over 1,200 participants from more than 40 countries. The Arctic Circle Assembly convened a second and third time in 2014 and 2015 with even more participants.

President Grímsson has lectured at universities in many different countries, including Beijing University and Fudan University in China, and Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, and The Ohio State University in the US. Among the topics he has presented is the interaction of democracy and financial markets, which was a highly current issue for Iceland after the breakdown of the three leading private banks in Iceland in 2008. 

President Grimsson has for a long time had good connections with countries in Asia, including India and China, and Presidents of both these countries have visited Iceland. Among many international awards he has received is the 2007 Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. 

President Grimsson is married to Dorrit Moussaieff. He has two daughters from his marriage to Gudrun Katrin Thorbergsdottir who passed away in 1998.

Max Gruenig

President

Ecologic Institute – Washington, DC

Max Gruenig is President of Ecologic Institute in Washington, DC, where his research focuses on sustainable development in the energy and transport sectors, as well as urban sustainability and resilient cities. He is a founding member of the European Institute for Sustainable Transport, the sustainability advisory board German energy provider NaturEnergiePlus, and the Consumer Research Network of the German Federal Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection. Max speaks frequently on sustainability issues, reaching audiences in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has lived and worked in Germany, Iceland, Japan, and the United States.

Thorsteinn Gunnarsson

Senior Adviser

Icelandic Centre for Research ( Rannis )

Dr. Thorsteinn Gunnarsson is Senior Adviser at the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannis) since 2009 and is, among other things, responsible for Arctic cooperation in science and innovation. He served as the Rector of University of Akureyri from 1994-2009 and was Science & Education Counsellor in the Icelandic Mission to the European Union, 1993-1994.  Dr. Gunnarsson is the Icelandic representative in the Council of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and a member of the Advisory Board of the Arctic Circle and of the Steering Committee of the Northern Research Forum (NRF). In addition, he is the Icelandic representative in the Joint Nordic Initiative on Arctic Research Programme Committee.

Árni Gunnarsson

Managing Director

Air Iceland

Árni Gunnarsson – Air Iceland (MD) Mr. Gunnarsson has held several key positions in Icelandic and European aviation and has been Managing Director of Air Iceland for more than 12 years. With a degree in Economics from the University of Augsburg, Mr. Gunnarsson is also a Board Member of European Regions Airline Association as well as Visit Greenland. Through his positions as Managing Director of Air Iceland and Chairman of The Icelandic Travel Industry Association, he has played a key role for the general development of tourism and aviation in Iceland.

Hannu Halinen

IIASA

Since 2015, Ambassador Hannu Halinen has been Special Advisor on the Arctic to the Director General and CEO of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and Co-chair of the Advisory Board of the Arctic Futures Initiative. He is a member of the Arctic Yearbook Editorial Board. Ambassador Halinen has a Master of Law degree from the University of Helsinki (1973). He has served in the Foreign Service of Finland 1973-2015, and was Ambassador of Finland in Germany, Hungary, Egypt and Sudan. He has served at the United Nations Mission of Finland in New York, and been the Permanent Representative of Finland to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and International Organizations in Rome, as well as UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Furthermore, he has been Director of the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat in Stockholm. He has been Ambassador-at-large for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, and 2009-2014 Arctic Ambassador and Senior Arctic Official at the Arctic Council

Henrik Halkjær

Dean

the faculty of Humanities at Aalborg University

Henrik Halkier is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Aalborg University, Denmark, and a professor of tourism and regional development. He chairs the steering committee of AAU Arctic. His research focus on tourist destination development, governance and policy. Currently working on synergies between food and tourism in northwestern Europe, Danish tourism policy and governance, and destination development in Siberia.

Halldór Pálmar Halldórsson

Director

University of Iceland´s Research Center in Sudurnes, Iceland

Halldór Pálmar Halldórsson is an ecotoxicologist with extensive experience in studying effects of pollutants on marine organisms, performing both field and laboratory experiments. He has participated in various national and co-Nordic research projects and environmental assessment programs. His main focus has been on biomarker measurements studying pollution effects on the physiological, cellular and molecular level in marine invertebrates and fish with special emphasis on shipping related pollutants. In recent years he and his students have been investigating a newly introduced crab species (Cancer irroratus) in Iceland. He has supervised graduate students and organized meetings and conferences held in Iceland.

Aleqa Hammond

MEP

the Danish Parliament

As former party leader (2003-2014) for the Siumut party of Greenland, minister for foreign and financial affairs as well as chairman of Greenland’s Government, Aleqa Hammond has had significant experience from politics in Greenland. She is now a member of the Danish Parliament. Ms. Hammond also has extensive experience from work in the tourism sector as board member in South Greenland Tourism from 2003-2005 as well as Great Greenland from 2004-2005. In addition she was commissioner of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (1999-2002) as well as regional coordinator for Greenland Tourism from 1990 to 1993.

Peter Handy

President & CEO

Bristol Seafood

Peter Handy leads Bristol Seafood, a processor, and distributor is known for its uncompromising Maine standards and commitment to quality, transparency, and integrity. In addition, he is on the Advisory Board of the New England Ocean Cluster, and on the board of the National Fisheries Institute. Prior to Bristol, Peter founded BoxMyDorm.com, a national logistics company for college students. In addition, he worked in financial services at JPMorgan and Sanford Bernstein. Peter is a graduate of the Wharton School at UPenn, a Chartered Financial Analyst, private pilot, and avid fly fisherman. He lives in Maine with his wife and two daughters.

Martin Marco Hansen

Mayers

Madhus

Martin Marco Hansen is currently working at the renown “Mayers Madhus” as the head of development. He has for many years been working with innovation, recipe development and project development within the food industry.
He was Co-founder, Headchef and Partner in the compagny Rødder ApS from 2010 to 2014.

Anne Merrild

Professor of Social Science, Arctic Oil and Gas Studies and Director of the Arctic Oil and Gas Research Centre, Ilisimatusarfik

Anne Merrild Hansen is Professor of Social Science, Arctic Oil and Gas Studies at Ilisimatusarfik, Associate Professor in Environmental Assessment and the Arctic at Aalborg University, Denmark. She was a Fulbright Arctic Initiative scholar 2015-2016 with University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She is also a member of the regional ‘Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic’ team on Baffin Bay – Davis Strait for the Arctic Council. She has published widely on impacts assessments related to extractive industries, social indicators and determinants of well-being in the Arctic. Anne specializes in participatory and engaging research practices. 

Klaus Georg Hansen

Acting Head of Department

Ministry of Finance, Government of Greenland

Dr. Klaus Georg Hansen is the Acting Head of the Department of National Economic Planning in the Government of Greenland. He previously worked as head of National Spatial Planning in the Government of Greenland, as the Head of the Ilimmarfik Institute at the University of Greenland, and as Deputy Director of Nordregio in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Hansen received his PhD from the Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University. He is social anthropologist from Aarhus University with expertise in Greenland, Inuit and the Arctic. Dr. Hansen’s current research is focused on demographic development, the colonial era, and the ongoing decolonization process in Greenland.

Bryndís Haraldsdóttir

Vice-President

the West Nordic Council and Member of the Icelandic Parliament

Bryndís Haraldsdóttir is the Vice- President of the West Nordic Council, the cooperation forum of the parliaments of Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. She has been a Member of the Parliament of Iceland (the Althingi) for the Independence Party since 2016. She is a member of the Environment and Communications Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, in addition to being the Chair of the Icelandic delegation to the West Nordic Council. Bryndís is furthermore a member of the EU-Iceland joint Parliamentary Committee. She was a member of the Mosfellsbær Town Council from 2010-2017 and project manager at Innovation Center Iceland from 2001-2007. Bryndís holds a BS degree in International Marketing. 

Stephen Hart

Head of Office

European Investment Bank

Stephen Hart is Head of the Copenhagen Office for the European Investment Bank (EIB). Here he works with among other things with investments in the Arctic. Prior to that he was a senior engineer for the EIB during technical, economic, financial and environmental appraisal, procurement supervision and physical monitoring of infrastructure projects. Before he worked as a project manager for Rambøll and as a planning engineer in Gladsaxe Municipality in Denmark. Mr. Hart has a MSc. Environmental Science and Engineering and a MSc. In Banking and Finance.

Hiroyasu Hasumi

Professor

Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo

1997 PhD (physical oceanography), The University of Tokyo
1998 Research Associate, Center for Climate System Research, The University of Tokyo
2004 Associate professor, Center for Climate System Research, The University of Tokyo
2013 Professor, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo

Petr Havlík

Senior Research Scholar

IIASA

Petr Havlík received a M.Sc. degree in economics and management (2001), and in economics of agriculture, agri-business, and rural development (2002), from the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno (Czech Republic) and the University of Montpellier 1 (France), respectively. Under double supervision from these two universities, he received a PhD degree in 2006. Before joining IIASA in 2007, Dr. Havlík worked at INRA Grignon (France). Dr. Havlík’s research interests include forest and agricultural sector optimization models. At IIASA, Dr. Havlík leads the GLOBIOM model development team and supervises the development of the fisheries and aquaculture component.

Michael Hawes

Chief Executive Officer

Fulbright Canada

Dr. Michael Hawes is a professor of political science, a tireless advocate of international education, and a proud alumnus of the Fulbright program. He assumed the leadership of Fulbright Canada in September of 2001 and has had the privilege of directing the program through some very exciting times. He is Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Educational Exchange between Canada and the United States of America and Executive Director of Fulbright Canada. Under his direction, Fulbright Canada has witnessed dramatic growth in its programs and in the number of students and scholars that the program supports.

Mikko Heino

Professor

University of Bergen

Mikko Heino is professor in fisheries biology at the University of Bergen, Norway, principal scientist at the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 1998. He is a population and evolutionary biologist working with both fundamental and applied aspects of life-history evolution and population dynamics. Much of his work relates to evolution and sustainable exploitation of fish stocks in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Timothy Heleniak

Senior Research Fellow

Nordregio

Timothy Heleniak is a Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio in Stockholm, Sweden. His areas of research are population change and regional development in the Arctic, migration into the Nordic countries, and regional development in Europe. He has researched and written extensively on migration and population change in the Arctic, Nordic countries, and Russia.
He is the Principal Investigator of a project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Arctic Social Sciences Program titled Polar Peoples: Past, Present, and Future (award number PLR-1418272). He previously worked at the U.S. Census Bureau, the World Bank, UNICEF, and George Washington University.

Jóhan Pauli Helgason

Adviser

Faroese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Jóhan Pauli Helgason – Adviser at the Faroese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade With a degree in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen, Mr. Helgason has been an adviser at the Faroese Ministry of Social Affairs, before switching to a similar position at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Currently responsible for the areas of Tourism, Telecom and Immigration Mr. Helgason has been part of the working group, which recently presented its comprehensive set of recommendations for the internal development of Faroese tourism.

Celma Regina Hellebust

Lawyer

member of the Brazilian and Norwegian Bar Associations

Celma Regina Hellebust is a lawyer and has a Master in Societal Safety degree from University of Stavanger, Norway. The focus of her thesis in Societal Safety was the comparison between Brazilian and Norwegian Health, Safety and Environment regulations for the petroleum industry. She has published many related articles in reputed journals. She also works as a consultant within Brazilian and International Law in Norway.

Emily Hewitt

Fellow

2017 Arctic Summer College

Emily is a Researcher for the Towards a Sustainable Fishery for Nunavummiut Project at Carleton University where she just completed her Masters in Public Policy and Administration. She has been supporting the development of an integrated knowledge model and co-management strategy to work towards improved economic development and food security in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. Emily brings experience from her work at a Canadian think tank, the Institute on Governance, in addition to previous roles in federal and provincial governments.

John Higginbotham

Head

Arctic Program, Centre for International Governance Innovation

John Higginbotham is head of the Arctic Program at the Center for International Governance Innovation and a senior resident Fellow at Carleton University in Canada. He has held senior positions in Global Affairs Canada in Headquarters, China, Hong Kong and Washington DC as well as in Transport Canada. He has special interests in Arctic economic and social development given the melting Arctic Ocean, the effectiveness of Canadian Arctic policies, in governance issues in the region and within Canada and in Arctic marine issues in an increasingly open and commercial setting.

Larry Hinzman

Vice Chancellor for Research

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Larry Hinzman is Vice Chancellor for Research and is Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Larry served as the Director of the UAF International Arctic Research Center from 2007 to 2015. His primary research interests involve permafrost hydrology and has 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. His research efforts have involved characterizing and quantifying hydrological processes and their inter-dependence with climate and ecosystem dynamics. He has served as a member of the U.S. Polar Research Board and also serves as the US delegate and vice-president of the International Arctic Science Committee and as the vice-chair of SAON (Sustaining Arctic Observations Network). He is strongly committed to facilitating national and international partnerships to advance our understanding of the arctic system

Diane Hirshberg

Professor of Education Policy, and Director

Center for Alaska Education Policy Research Institute of Social and Economic Research

Diane Hirshberg is Professor of Education Policy at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), and serves as Advisor to the UAA Chancellor on Arctic Research and Education. She also sits on the International Arctic Social Sciences Association Council. Dr. Hirshberg’s research interests include education policy analysis, indigenous education, circumpolar education, and the role of human capacity development in sustainable development. She has a PhD in Education from UCLA, a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. She teaches in the UAA Honors College and College of Education.

Friðrik Árni Friðriksson Hirst

Co-Director

the Arctic Law Institute, University of Iceland

Friðrik Árni Friðriksson Hirst
Friðrik graduated with a master’s degree in law from the University of Iceland in 2011 and an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 2014. Friðrik is co-director of the Arctic Law Institute and co-supervisor of a government-funded research project on infrastructure and economic activities in the Arctic, with emphasis on the legal framework of ports. The project’s scope includes issues connected to ownership, foreign investment, finance, taxation and competition in the port sector, as well as ports’ role in enforcing regulations concerning the marine environment and safety at sea, such as the Polar Code. The project is part of Iceland’s preparation for the country’s upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council in spring 2019.

Graham Hogg

Lateral North, Scotland

Graham Hogg is a director of Scotland based Lateral North; an architecture, research and design collective working throughout the circumpolar north.

Lateral North focus on working with and empowering communities to explore the challenges and opportunities they face at a micro and macro scale, resulting in cartographic, architectural, graphics and product design solutions. In 2016 Lateral North represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale and are currently undertaking a variety of projects throughout Scotland and the wider 'north'. Lateral North focus on sustainable design and how it can address some of the biggest challenges facing communities within an emerging northern region.

Gwen Holdmann

Director

Alaska Center for Energy and Power

Gwen Holdmann is the Director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), which is an applied energy research program based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks focusing on both fossil and renewable/alternative energy technologies.
Prior to joining the University of Alaska, Gwen served as the Vice President of New Development at Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks. While at Chena, Gwen oversaw the construction of the first geothermal power plant in the state. Gwen has been the recipient of several awards throughout her career, including an R&D 100 award, Project of the Year from Power Engineering Magazine, the Alaska Top 40 Under 40 Award.

John Holdren

Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy

Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Co-Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He is also Senior Advisor to the Director at the independent, nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. From January 2009 to January 2017, he was President Obama's Science Advisor and the Senate confirmed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). His responsibilities in that role included advising the President on all S&T issues bearing on the President’s agenda (including economic competitiveness and job creation, biomedicine and public health, energy and climate change, the oceans and the Arctic, the Nation's space program, and national and homeland security); coordinating R&D strategy and budgets across the Executive Branch departments and agencies; overseeing interagency S&T programs, including the U.S. Global Change Research Program; developing initiatives in STEM education; advancing scientific integrity and openness in government; and representing the U.S. government in interactions with the U.S. and global science and engineering communities.

Lene Kielsen Holm

Scientist and project leader

Greenland Climate Research Centre, Greenland

Lene Kielsen Holm was secretary for the Minister for Housing and Infrastructure at the Homerule Government in Greenland, and then became special assistant within Inuit Circumpolar Council, ICC Greenland, where she dealt with Environmental and Sustainable Development Issues, working with the Arctic Council. She has worked with bodies such as IPY and KNAPK, the Greenlandic Association of Fishermen and Hunters where she interviews hunters, fishermen, sheep-farmers and other knowledgeable persons about their perception on a changing environment, with special interest of climate change. Lene has been Greenlandic coordinator for Siku-Inuit-Hila, an international and interdisciplinary project, where hunters from Alaska, Canada, and Qaanaaq in Greenland, together with researchers in multiple fields, have been brought together in the different regions of the Inuit countries, to exchange knowledge primarily on sea-ice and life with it.  Lene is Researcher and Project leader at the Greenland Climate Research Centre, at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk

Chris Hope

Reader in Policy Modelling and Visiting Professor

Judge Business School at University College, London

Chris Hope is Reader in Policy Modelling at Judge Business School, and Visiting Professor at University College, London. He was a Lead Author and Review Editor for the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an advisor on the PAGE model to the Stern review on the Economics of Climate Change, and a specialist advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs Inquiry into the economics of climate change. In 2007, he was cited as a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when it was awarded a half share of the Nobel Peace Prize, and received the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Academy of Business in Society. In 2015 he was awarded the inaugural Judge Business School research impact award. His research interests involve numerical information in public policy and the integrated assessment modeling of climate change, and he has published extensively in books and peer-reviewed journals.

Mark Hopkins

Business Development

Hancock Lumber

Mark Hopkins has been an employee of Hancock Lumber, a sixth-generation family-owned lumber supply company, for over 20 years and currently serves as its Chief Operating Officer. Recently, Mark has been collaborating with a group of businesses to discuss partnerships to supply and transport building materials to Greenland. He has been a part of multinational conversations on how to innovate and problem-solve in order to foster new trade relationships and open new markets for Maine goods.

Robert Howe

Managing Director,

Bremenports GmbH & Co. KG

Dipl.-Ing. Robert Howe, Managing Director Bremenports GmbH & Co. KG
Robert Howe was born in 1962. He graduated with a master of science in civil engineering from TU Braunschweig (the Brunswick Institute of Technology) in Germany in 1992.

Mr. Howe started his career with Philip Holzmann AG, a German building and construction company based in Hanover, where he worked for around 10 years. In 2002 he changed employment to Ed. Züblin AG, a German building and construction company with offices in Bremen and Hamburg.

Mr. Howe joined Bremenports Ltd., the publicly-owned ports management company of the state of Bremen, as Managing Director in 2012.

Anna Hudson

York University

Anna Hudson is an historian, curator, writer and educator specializing in Canadian art and visual culture. Formerly associate curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Hudson is currently leading Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage (MICH), a six-year federal government-supported research-creation collaboration project aimed at recovering, preserving, documenting, facilitating and disseminating Inuit knowledge, culture and creativity. Under MICH Hudson is currently developing an edited volume of essays, Growing a language: an Inuit worldview aesthetic (working title), that will bring circumpolar Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, artists, and performers together to explore what it means to be and continuously become Inuk (or Sami) today and where and how Indigenous knowledge lives today and in Indigenous futures.

Murray Humphries

INQ-McGill Chairholder

Northern Research-Wildlife Conservation and Tradional Food Security, Québec

Prof. Murray Humphries is a leading Canadian wildlife researcher, whose work has made successful links between fundamental ecological research and the needs and contributions of indigenous communities in Canada’s North. His research explores how environment, physiology, and behavior influence the abundance, distribution, and coexistence of mammal populations. His research also focuses on wildlife and environmental contributions to the traditional food systems of Indigenous Peoples. Prof. Humphries is the chairholder of the INQ-McGill chair in Northern Research since 2016, as well as the academic director of the McGill’s Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment since 2010.

Jussi Huotari

PhD Candidate

Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki

Jussi Huotari is a researcher and PhD Candidate at Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland. His fields of interests are International Relations (IR), Arctic politics, Russian studies, energy politics, security politics, and geopolitics. He is also a co-coordinator of NRF-Uarctic joint thematic network on geopolitics and security.  

Anne Husebekk

Rector

UiT

Anne Husebekk is physician (MD, specialist in immunology and transfusion medicine) and professor in immunology at Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø The Arctic University of Norway (UiT).
From August 1st 2013 she is the rector (president) of UiT. The university is one of four classical universities in Norway, with a special responsibility in research and education of arctic interest. This means arctic marine and terrestrial biology, climate changes, geology, law of the sea, health issues, fine art and culture, Sami history, language and culture, arctic tourism, fisheries, development of businesses in the arctic area, geopolitics, coldtech engineering, aviation, security and many more topics of importance for understanding and developing the high north in a sustainable way. My aim and interest is to see opportunities across classical topics and in collaboration with public and private sector to make research and education relevant and of importance for future activities in the north. Also, I would like to see natural resources being developed in the north keeping the value and profit close to the resources. In order to reach this goal, there must be an educated population in the north and relevant research projects aiming at innovation and entrepreneurship for business development.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
Regions as Arctic developers – sustainable development through multilateral cooperation
Organized by: Troms County Council, Norway
The Arctic University of Norway: Knowledge and Cooperation as Drivers for Development.

Kári Páll Højgaard

President

the West Nordic Council

Kári has been a member of Sjálvstýrisflokkurin (The Independence Party) in the Faroese Parliament since 2002 and the Chairman of the Party from 2002–2010 and 2011–2015. He is the Chairman of the Faroese delegation to the West Nordic Council and a Member of the Foreign Policy Committee. He was previously the Minister of the Interior and a member of the Finance Committee and the Committee on Industry, Fisheries and Agriculture. Kári was furthermore a member of the town council in Runavík in the Faroe Islands from 1988-2008. Before entering politics, Kári was a fisherman and a postman.

Keiji Ide

Ambassador in Charge of Arctic Affairs

Japan

Keiji IDE is Ambassador in Charge of Arctic Affairs and Representative of the Government of Japan, Ambassador for International Economic Affairs. From 2014 to 2016 he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Croatia, from 2010 to 2014 he was Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister, Embassy of Japan in Russia and from 2007 to 2010 he was Assistant Vice-Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
He studied economics at the University of Tokyo and obtained his economics degree in 1980. He obtained M.A. degree (International relations) at the Diplomatic Academy of Russian Federation.
He published books on Public Diplomacy, International relations in Asia, etc.

Jón Haukur Ingimundarson

Senior Scientist

Stefansson Arctic Institute

Jón Haukur Ingimundarson is Senior Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute and Associate Professor of anthropology and Arctic studies at the University of Akureyri. His research interests include the political ecology of medieval Iceland, as well as present-day Arctic human development, agriculture, food security and impacts of globalization and climate change. He is co-leader of the project Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures, research partner in the REXSAC Nordic Centre of Excellence and the EU-Horizon 2020 project NUNATARYUK, and Co-PI of the project Reflections of Change: The Natural World in Literary and Historical Sources from Iceland ca. AD 800 to 1800.

Ágúst Hjörtur Ingþórsson

Head of Division

Rannís

Ágúst Hjörtur Ingþórsson is head of Education and Culture Division at Rannís – the Icelandic Centre for Research. He is responsible for the National Agency for the Erasmus+ programme in Iceland that annually supports the mobility of a large number of people to and from Iceland. He has been involved in European cooperation for more than 25 years as project promoter, programme operator and country representative in international research and education cooperation.

Larus Isfeld

Managing Director & Executive Vice President

Eimskip USA

Larus Isfeld is the Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Eimskip USA. Previously, Larus was President and owner of Icexpress a Freight Forwarding Company. He also served as CEO of an Icelandic Investment fund with focus on M&A of food production companies in Iceland. He started his career for an Icelandic retailer in 1981 working through various positions until becoming Director of Private Label. Larus was a moving force behind the relocation of Eimskip USA from Norfolk VA to Portland ME. He is a proven business leader and entrepreneur with extensive experience in management, retail, and international logistics.

Maya Sialuk Jacobson

Tattoo and visual artist

Maya Sialuk Jacobson is a tattoo and visual artist. She has 16 years of tattoo experience with 6 years of intensive research and practice in Inuit tattooing. Although Maya spent a good part of her youth in Greenland surrounded by her culture. She is now a displaced Greenlandic Inuit. After 10 years of working with western tattoo designs and machines she decided to look at her own culture and now exclusively works in the art of Inuit tattoos without machine. She has accumulated vast amounts of patterns and knowledge from Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Chukotka and has begun work on a book on Tattoo Traditions from Inuit Nunaat. The research has given her huge insight to this part of Inuit culture and the more she learned the more she realized that the movement of specialized Inuit tattooing should be done by an Inuit woman. She is a culture bearer, an activist and strong Inuit woman doing what she can for her community. Having been trained by master tattoo artist in the Netherlands, she owned and operated a shop (Lucky 7 Tattoos) for the last 10 years in Norway.

Jacek Adam Jania

Professor – Chair

Committee of Polar Research, Polish Academy of Science

Glaciologist and physical geographer working in the Arctic since 1972. Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia; Head of the Centre for Polar Studies; Chair of the Committee on Polar Research, Polish Academy of Sciences; Member of the European Polar Board and former Member of the IASC Council (2006-2017). Member of many scientific committees and societies. He graduated from the University of Wroclaw in 1973 (M.Sc. in geography); Ph.D. in 1978; Dr. habilitatus degree (tenure at the university) in 1988 and the title of Professor in 1996. In foci of his research are response of polythermal glaciers to climate changes and dynamics of tidewater glaciers. He was coordinator and PI in number of research projects, published 3 books and more than 80 peer reviewed papers. Supervisor of 15 completed Ph.D. dissertations. He was Dean of the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Vice-President of the University of Silesia. He received number of awards, i.a. Medal of the Polish Geographical Society and the “Bene merito” honorary distinction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland.

Martin Jeffries

Assistant Director of Polar Science

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Dr Martin Jeffries, Assistant Director for Polar Sciences & Executive Director, U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, White Office of Science and Technology Policy
Dr Jeffries has been on detail at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, since February 2016. His home agency is the Office of Naval Research, where he is an Arctic Science Advisor and Program Officer for Arctic and Global Prediction. During the International Polar Year 2007-2009, Dr Jeffries was on detail at the National Science Foundation, where he was the Program Director for the Arctic Observing Network. As a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (1985-2014) he investigated sea ice, freshwater ice, iceberg and ice shelf processes in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Tenna Jensen

Associate Professor

Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities

Tenna Jensen is associate professor in historical/ethnological research on health and ageing at CoRe- Copenhagen Center for Health Research in the Humanities(core.ku.dk). She is PI on the research and development project Ageing in the Arctic (AgeArc). Well-being, quality of life and health promotion among older people in Greenland (arktiskaldring.ku.dk). The partners include the greenlandic municipalities, Ilisimatusarfik, Professionshøjskolen UCC, University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI). Moreover she is part of the Center for Healthy Ageing (healthyaging.ku.dk) and the CALM project (Counteracting age related loss of skeletal muscle-mass in the elderly)(calm.ku.dk).

Leif Christian Jensen

Senior Research Fellow

FNI

 Leif Christian Jensen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tromsø (2013) and conducts research on politics and international relations in the European Arctic, including an emphasis on Norwegian northern foreign and energy policy.

Yang Jian

Vice President

Shanghai Institutes for International Studies

Dr. Yang Jian, Vice President, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and Deputy Director, CNARC

Vice President of SIIS, Senior Fellow. His areas of specialization include: the International political economy (IPE), China’s regional strategy in polar affaires and cyber governance. His previous positions include: Executive Vice-Chairman at Shanghai Institute for International Strategic Studies, Vice Chairman of Shanghai Society of Taiwan Studies, researcher at the Cross-Strait Relations Research Center, a member of the editorial board for the Arctic Yearbook, a member of the editorial board for Review of Policy Research, and deputy director of the department of IPE in the Institute of World Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS). He received his doctorate in economics from SASS, and his master’s degree in history from Soochow University.

Aksel V. Johannesen

Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands

Government of the Faroe Islands

Aksel Vilhelmson Johannesen was born in Klaksvík on November 8, 1972. He is married to Katrini D. Apol. They have three children and live in Tórshavn. He is a lawyer by training.

Royndir sum landsstýrismaður
Aksel Vilhelmson Johannesen was the Minister of Health from June 2009 until February 2011 and Finance Minister from February to November 2011. He was first elected to the Faroese Parliament in October 2011 as a member of the Social Democratic Party (Javnaðarflokkinum)..

Per Michael Johansen

Rector, professor

Aalborg University, Denmark

Professor Per Michael Johansen has served as Rector of Aalborg University since May 2014. Before that he was dean at the Faculty of Engineering at University of Southern Denmark for 7 years. From 1992 until 2004 he was research professor and head of research programme on Optical Materials at Risoe Nat. Labs., Optics and Fluid Dynamics Department (now part of The Technical University of Denmark). Per Michael Johansen has published 120 scientific publications and reports within the areas of nonlinear dynamics in photorefractive materials and active optical polymers.

Margareta Johansson

Research Coordinator

INTERACT Coordinator

Dr. Margareta Johansson is based at Lund University in Sweden. Margareta has a broad experience in Arctic research, ranging from glaciology/climatology to Arctic ecology and for the last decade she has been focusing on permafrost in a changing climate in northern Sweden. Margareta was a convening lead author for two chapters (snow and permafrost) of the AMAP SWIPA assessment 2011. She has recently co-lead the terrestrial ecosystem chapter in the Arctic Freshwater Synthesis. Margareta has a great interest in outreach. She is currently the coordinator of an EU Horizon2020 project INTERACT networking 80 research stations in the north (www.eu-interact.org).

Noor Johnson

Research Scientist

National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder & The Fletcher School, Tufts University

Dr. Noor Johnson is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on environmental knowledge production and governance in the Arctic. She holds a joint Research Scientist appointment with the ELOKA Project at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. From 2015 – 2016, she was an inaugural Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar working on offshore and renewable energy. Noor has worked as both a scholar and practitioner on issues related to science policy and diplomacy, sustainable development, and peacebuilding in the Arctic and South Asia.

Cathy Johnston

Group Manager

Development and Regeneration Services, Glasgow City Council

Cathy is a landscape architect, planner and urban regeneration professional who leads the Development Plan Group in delivering key strategic objectives for the local authority. These include input to the Strategic Development Plan for Glasgow and Clyde Valley (Clydeplan), development of the City Development Plan for Glasgow and the complementary Glasgow Open Space Strategy, all of which are a fundamental tools in delivering better quality places for people.
Cathy is experienced in developing projects and policies that have contributed to the understanding of the built and natural environment and its role in the regeneration of the City.

Rachael Lorna Johnstone

Professor of Law

University of Akureyri

Rachael Lorna Johnstone is Professor of Law, Arctic Oil and Gas Studies, at Ilisimatusarfik (the University of Greenland), Director of the Arctic Oil and Gas Research Centre and Professor of law at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. Professor Johnstone specializes in Polar law: the governance of the Arctic and the Antarctic under international and domestic law. She is the author of Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Arctic under International Law: Risk and Responsibility (Brill 2015) and has published widely on the rights of indigenous people; international human rights law; international environmental law; due diligence; state responsibility; and Arctic strategies.

Rachael Lorna Johnstone

Professor of Law and Director

the Arctic Oil and Gas Research Centre, Ilisimatusarfik

Rachael Lorna Johnstone is Professor of Law, Arctic Oil and Gas Studies, at Ilisimatusarfik (the University of Greenland), Director of the Arctic Oil and Gas Research Centre and Professor of law at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. Professor Johnstone specialises in Polar law: the governance of the Arctic and the Antarctic under international and domestic law. She is the author of Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Arctic under International Law: Risk and Responsibility (Brill 2015) and has published widely on the rights of indigenous people; international human rights law; international environmental law; due diligence; state responsibility; and Arctic strategies.

Tanja joona

Senior Researcher

University of Lapland

Tanja Joona is working as a senior researcher at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland. Joona’s main research interests focus on comparative legal and political aspects of Sámi society and especially issues dealing with traditional livelihoods, international human rights law and identity questions. She is currently working in a project on Sámi children and youth in urban cities funded by the Norwegian Research Council. She has several positions of trust at the University of Lapland, e.g. member of the Arctic Centre Board. She is also the Chair of the Doctoral Programme Communities and Changing Work

Birgir Jóhannesson

ICI

Birgir Jóhannesson has a BSc in physics from the University of Iceland and a PhD in materials science from the University of Surrey in England. His doctorate was on measurements and modeling of internal stresses in fiber reinforced aluminium. After post-doc work at Risø National Laboratory in Denmark he joined Innovation Center Iceland in 1998 and has mostly worked on wear properties of ductile iron, corrosion of aluminium and magnesium as well as being responsible for running the scanning electron microscope at the Center. Recently he took part in a project on applicability of Icelandic basalt for production of continuous fibers.

Guðni A. Jóhannesson

CEO

the Icelandic Energy Agency

Since 2008, Dr. Jóhannesson has been the Director General of Orkustofnun, the Icelandic National Energy Authority which is responsible for public adminstration of energy research, energy utilisation, regulation and oil and gas exploration. He is a steering group member and former chair of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technologies, a member of the EU SET-Plan Steering Group, and is presently the coordinator of the Geothermica, a European project on co-funding research and development for geothermal utilisation. Dr. Jóhannesson holds an MSc in Engineering physics and wrote his PhD thesis on thermal models for buildings.

H.E. Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

President

Iceland

The President of Iceland is the country´s head of state and the only representative chosen by the entire electorate in a direct election. The office of President was established in the Constitution of the Republic of Iceland which took effect on 17 June 1944.

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson was born in Reykjavík on 26 June, 1968. He is the son of Margrét Thorlacius and Jóhannes Sæmundsson; Jóhannes died in 1983. Guðni grew up in Garðabær and has two brothers.

Guðni graduated from secondary school in 1987 in Reykjavík, then studied history and political science at Warwick University in England and finished his B.A. degree in 1991. He studied German at Bonn University in Germany in 1991-1992 and Russian at the University of Iceland in 1993-1994. Guðni graduated with a master’s degree in history from the University of Iceland in 1997. He studied at Oxford University in England and graduated with an M.St. degree in history in 1999. In 2003 he completed his Ph.D. in history from Queen Mary, University of London.

Guðni is married to Eliza Jean Reid, whom he met while they were both studying at Oxford University. Eliza is from Canada and studied modern history at Oxford University and international relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto. Guðni and Eliza have been living in Iceland since 2003. Their children are Duncan Tindur (b. 2007), Donald Gunnar (b. 2009), Sæþór Peter (b. 2011) and Edda Margrét (b. 2013). Rut (b. 1994) is Guðni’s eldest child, from his previous marriage to Elín Haraldsdóttir, business administrator and artist.

Before taking office as President, Guðni was Professor of history at the University of Iceland. He has taught at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik University, Bifröst University and the University of London. For a few years he also worked part-time for the Icelandic State Broadcasting Company as a reporter. Guðni has written numerous books on modern Icelandic history, including works about the Cod Wars, the Icelandic presidency, the late Prime Minister Gunnar Thoroddsen, a book about spying in Iceland, a book about former President Kristján Eldjárn, and a book about the 2008 banking collapse. He has also written dozens of scholarly articles and newspaper articles. He has received a variety of recognitions for his works.

Halldór Jóhannsson

Executive Director

Arctic Portal, Iceland

Halldór Jóhannsson – executive director of the Arctic Portal, the Gateway to Arctic information and data. Holding a degree in design and planning from UofT in Toronto, Canada, he has vast Arctic and international experience in cooperation, communication, policy, planning and data management. Attended, presented and chaired at numerous international meetings, seminars and conferences on Arctic communication issues. Member of committees of SAON, European Polar Board, International Permafrost Association, UArctic, and projects of relevance: Horizon 2020 EDU-ARCTIC, APPLICATE, NUNATARYUK, EUPolarNet and INTAROS, Global Terrestrial Network on Permafrost - GTN-P, SDWG - Arctic Renewable Energy Atlas and the China-Iceland Aurora Observatory

Steingrímur Jónsson

Professor

University of Akureyri

Steingrímur Jónsson is a professor at the University of Akureyri and a scientist at the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Iceland. He received his Ph.d. degree in physical oceanography from the University of Bergen in 1990. His main research interests are the ocean circulation around Iceland, climate variability and its effects on the ecosystem. He is a member of the Marine Working Group of IASC since 2004.

Leneisja Jungsberg

Research Fellow

Nordregio

Leneisja Jungsberg is Research Fellow at Nordregio. With MSc in Social Science and specializing in regional development, she has been involved in research projects focusing on the impacts of large-scale mining, small and medium enterprise development, socio-economic assessments, young people and education. Projects include working with six municipalities on developing local smart specialisation strategies under the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme and, as member of the Nordic working group for Sustainable Regional Development in the Arctic, carrying out a three-step foresight analysis to assess opportunities and challenges for sustainable regional development in the Nordic Arctic and identify future development perspectives.

Pavel Kabat

Director General and Chief Executive Officer

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Professor Kabat is Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), an independent, international, science, and science-to-policy institute. IIASA has 24 member countries, nearly 400 international staff, and a global research network of around 2,500 scholars and over 600 partner institutions. He is full professor of Earth System Science at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, founding chair and director of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts Institute for Integrated Research on the Wadden Sea Region (the Wadden Academy), a member of the Leadership Council for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and co-founder of the high-level Alpbach – Laxenburg Group. Trained as a mathematician and hydrologist, Professor Kabat’s almost-30-year research career has covered earth system science and global change, with a specific focus on land-atmosphere interactions, climate hydrology, the water cycle, and water resources. He is an author and coauthor of over 300 refereed publications, member of international editorial boards, and (co)editor of numerous special issues of peer-reviewed international journals.

Salla Kalliojärvi

PhD Candidate

University of Lapland

Salla Kalliojärvi is a PhD Candidate in Political Sciences at the University of Lapland. Her research interests include International Relations (IR), international security and climate politics, Critical Security Studies and political philosophy. Her current research work focuses on understanding how the prevailing security paradigm is affected by the discourse(s) of climate change. Prior to her academic career, Kalliojärvi has worked within the energy efficiency sector and volunteered in various civil society projects. Currently, she is a member of the Committee of 100 in Finland.

Paula Kankaanpä

Director of the Marine Research Centre

Finnish Environment Institute SYKE

Dr. Paula Kankaanpää is the Director of the Marine Research Centre of Finnish Environment Institute. She acted as the Director and Professor of the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in 2000 – 15. She was a research fellow at the Dartmouth College in 2010. She worked as a Senior Advisor for the Arctic, Barents and Antarctic cooperation in the Ministry of the Environment in 1991 - 99. She acted as the Deputy Executive Secretary of Arctic Council’s CAFF Working Group in Iceland 1998. Kankaanpää made her PhD about sea ice pressure ridges in the University of Helsinki while working as a scientist in Finnish Marine Research Institute. She also studied in the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Kankaanpää is a member of the Arctic Team of the Ministry of the Environment, the chair of the Finnish National Committee of Arctic and Antarctic Research and Finnish Delegate for International Arctic Science Committee.

Anne Lise Kappel

Head of Department

Social Science, Business, and Management by Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland

Anne Lise Kappel has a wide business career in leading positions both in public and private business. Her experience includes 10 years as self-employed in business consultancy. At Ilisimatusarfik she has started the education of BA in business economy in Greenland and is a member of Sermersooq Business Council. In research Anne Lise Kappel has focus on entrepreneurship in remote areas, the framework conditions influence on entrepreneurship and how to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, especially among youngsters. 

Anna Karlsdóttir

Senior Research Fellow

Nordregio

Anna Karlsdottir has a PhD in Social Sciences, Department of Environmental, Social and Spatial change, Roskilde University, Roskilde and MsC in Social Sciences, Department of Geography and Department of Public Administration, Roskilde University, Roskilde Specialized in coastal areas, rural and urban, Arctic, international affairs, societal and occupational changes across sectors such as tourism, primary industries (fisheries and agriculture), mega industries and creative industries.  Interested in gender, youth, labor market, cultural and mobility aspects of geography, planning and spatial development.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
Sustainable Regional Development in the Nordic Arctic     
Organized by: Nordregio

Liisa Kauppila

PhD Candidate

University of Turku

Liisa Kauppila is a PhD Candidate from the University of Turku, Finland. Drawing from her academic background of East Asian Studies, Futures Studies and Politics and History, Liisa studies rising China’s role in processes of regionalisation in the High North. Over the years, she has been working in various China and/or futures research related posts both in China and Finland. Furthermore, she has conducted fieldwork and studied Chinese intensively in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her major academic interests include China’s political economy and global resource quest, as well as experimental methodology of futures studies.

Noel Keenlyside

Professor

Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen

Noel Keenlyside is a climate scientist and Professor at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. He has 20 years of research experience and has published more than 80 scientific articles on the climate variability, climate prediction, and climate change of many regions of the globe, including the Arctic, North Atlantic and Europe. He leads the NordForsk GREENICE project, and is a Co-PI on the NordForsk Nordic Centre of Excellence ARCPATH project. Currently, he serves on the World Climate Research Programmes CLIVAR Climate Dynamics and Atlantic Regional Panels.

 Ilan Kelman

Reader

UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London

Dr Ilan Kelman is Reader in Risk, Resilience and Global Health at UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction and UCL Institute for Global Health, University College London; Thematic Director for Global Environmental Sustainability at the UCL Global Governance Institute; Professor II at the University of Agder, Norway; and Co-Director of Many Strong Voices (MSV). Dr Kelman focuses on polar regions and island communities, linking disasters and health, and integrating climate change into his research. His work covers peace and conflict (disaster and health related interventions); island sustainability (developing safer and healthier communities); and risk education (increasing effectiveness, especially for health and disaster risks).

Lawrence Keyte

Northern Sustainable Energy Specialist,

Polar Knowledge Canada

Lawrence Keyte is Team Lead of the Clean Energy and Infrastructure program with Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR), where he works with northern and Indigenous communities to develop and mobilize clean energy and infrastructure solutions across the North.  He works to build respectful relationships with northern communities to better understand local priorities, and to support projects that enhance resilience and local capacity, keep energy dollars local and bring long-term social and environmental benefit to communities.  His team also works to test and northernize renewable energy, housing and waste management technologies at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

Jong-Deog Kim

Director General

Industry Intelligence and Strategy Research Division, Korea Maritime Institute

Dr. Jong-Deog Kim is currently the Director General of Industry Intelligence and Strategy Research Division at Korea Maritime Institute. He has led and participated in several national projects on coastal and ocean policy and on international marine environmental relations. Kim has a PhD in Oceanic Architecture and Engineering from Nihon University, and a B.A and an M.A. from Seoul National University.

Jeehye Kim

Representing

the 'Korea Arctic Academy'

Jeehye Kim works as a researcher for the Polar Research Center at Korea Maritime Institute (KMI). At KMI she is involved in various Arctic and ocean-related research projects, and was herself a participant of the Korea Arctic Academy in 2015. Kim holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from Korea University. 

Leslie King

Professor and Director

Canadian Centre for Environmental Education, Royal Roads University

Leslie King is Professor of Environment and Sustainability at Royal Roads University in Canada. She holds degrees from the University of British Columbia, York University, University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. King was faculty at the University of Vermont, the Founding Chair of Environment at the University of Northern British Columbia, Founding Dean of the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources at the University of Manitoba and Vice President Academic at Vancouver Island University. Recent research projects include Protected Areas and Poverty Reduction in Africa and Canada and Clam Gardens in BC: Eco-cultural Restoration.

Lotte Frank Kirkegaard

CSR

Greenland

As director of CSR Greenland, Lotte is responsible for developing and running one of the largest Greenlandic business networks and several multi-stakeholder initiatives, among others the cross-sector partnership “Healthy workplaces” that aims at raising the public health in Greenland. CSR Greenland also provides networks for knowledge sharing and inspiration on CSR, advising and education of member companies and partners, developing public courses and conferences, functioning as partnership broker, developing projects and initiatives in close cooperation with members and partners in the public sector.

Alexander Klepikov

Head

Department for Antarctic Ocean and Climate Studies, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute

Alexander Klepikov, educated as a physical oceanographer in 1978 from the Leningrad State University. He obtained his PhD in oceanography at the Leningrad State Hydrometeorological Institute in 1983. In 1992 – 2016, he was the head of Department of the Antarctic Ocean and Climate Studies at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now he is Deputy Director for Research and International Cooperation of the AARI. His research interests include climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic, oceanography of the polar oceans. He has field experience as oceanographer on seven ocean cruises. He is involved in numerous international programs and groups including AMAP, SCAR, IASC, WCRP/CliC, SOOS, and YOPP.

Zbigniew Klimont

Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program

IIASA

Zbigniew Klimont has a degree in environmental engineering from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland. He worked at the University of Warsaw (Department of Geography and Regional Studies) and then as a Research Fellow at the Polish Academy of Sciences (Department of Energy Problems). Zbigniew Klimont joined IIASA's Transboundary Air Pollution Project in 1992. Currently, he is a research scholar with the Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program (formerly Mitigation of Air pollution and Greenhouse gases program), where he works on the assessment of regional (Europe, Asia) and global emissions of various air pollutants. He leads the development of models to estimate emissions and mitigation costs of ammonia, NMVOC, and particulate matter (including black carbon). These models are part of the integrated assessment framework GAINS recently supporting development of air pollution policy in Europe. Since more than a decade he has been involved in European and Asian work on emission control strategies and has co-authored European, Asian, and global inventories and policy studies on air pollutants and their future evolution with a specific focus on black carbon and other aerosols.

Ögmundur Knútsson

Dean

School of Business and Science, University of Akureyri

Ögmundur Knútsson has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Edinburgh. He is the Dean of the School of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri.  His main research emphasis is on the fish industry: its value chain, structure, and collaboration in the industry. His research has focused on the marketing aspects of fisheries management systems and comparisons between different fisheries management systems in the world. He has extensive practical experience within the fisheries industry both inside companies as a manager and as a consultant. Ögmundur is responsible for the special program on the “Management of Fisheries” companies for the United Nations University’s Fisheries Training Program.

Timo Koivurova

Director

Arctic Centre in Finland, University of Lapland

Research professor Timo Koivurova has specialized in various aspects of international law applicable in the Arctic and Antarctic region. In 2002, Koivurova's doctoral dissertation "Environmental impact assessment in the Arctic: a Study of International Legal Norms" was published by Ashgate. Increasingly, his research work addresses the interplay between different levels of environmental law, legal status of indigenous peoples, law of the sea in the Arctic waters, integrated maritime policy in the EU, the role of law in mitigating/adapting to climate change, the function and role of the Arctic Council in view of its future challenges and the possibilities for an Arctic treaty. He has been involved as an expert in several international processes globally and in the Arctic region and has published on the above-mentioned topics extensively.

Valery Konyshev

Professor

Saint Petersburg State University

KONYSHEV, Valery (Ph.D) is Professor of International Relations at the St. Petersburg State University, Russia. His fields of research and teaching include International Relations Theory, U.S. foreign policy thinking and making, military strategy, Arctic politics, BRICS. His most recent publications include: Konyshev V., Sergunin A. Russia in the Arctic: Hard or Soft Power? (Stuttgard, 2016); Konyshev V. et al. U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System: Past, Present, Future (Saint-Petersburg, 2015); Konisev V., Sergunin A. Russianin Arktika daki ulusal cirkarlari: mitler ve gercecler // Kuresel bakisla kutur cagi - catismalar, isberlikleri ve ulusal cikarlar. – Ankara: , 2015; Konyshev V. & Sergunin A. Contemporary Military Strategy (Moscow, 2014); Konyshev V., Sergunin A. Russian Military Strategies in the High North // Security and Sovereignty in the North Atlantic. Ed. by Lassi Heininen. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014; Konyshev V., Sergunin A. Is Russia a revisionist military power in the Arctic? // Defense and Security Analysis, 2014. — № 3; Konyshev V., Sergunin A. Russia in search of its Arctic strategy: between hard and soft power? // The Polar Journal, 2014. — Vol. 4, — № 1; Konyshev V., Sergunin A. The Arctic at the crossroads of geopolitical interests // Russian Politics and Law, 2012. — Vol. 50, — № 2; Konyshev V., Sergunin A. The Arctic in International Politics: Cooperation or Competition? (Moscow, 2011)

Sanna Kopra

Post-doc

University of Lapland

Sanna Kopra is a post-doctoral researcher at University of Lapland. Her research focuses on China’s foreign policy, international ethics, climate politics and Arctic governance. Her recent publications include “Great power management and China’s responsibility in international climate politics” (Journal of China and International Relations, 2016), “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility? China and the International Practice of Climate Responsibility” (Tampere University Press, 2016) and “China's Arctic Interests” (Arctic Yearbook 2013).

Yury Kostin

Deputy Head

The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport

Cpt. Yury Kostin is the Deputy Head of The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport since 2012. The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport is a federal executive body, which is entrusted to provide state services and to manage state property in the field of maritime and inland waterway transport.
Rosmorrechflot performs functions of a competent body in the field of maritime and inland waterway transport on the implementation of obligations arising out of the Russian Federation’s international agreements with regard to state services provision and state property management.
Y. Kostin coordinates and supervises the activities of the Safety navigation department of The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport, 8 Maritime port administrations with 67 Harbor Master Services, Marine Rescue Service, Rescue Coordination Center, The Northern Sea Route Administration, Hydrographic Enterprise, PSC/FSC Directorate.
Yury Kostin successively held the positions of the master on board of merchant ships for 14 years, after he was the Deputy Director General on fleet in shipping company for 3 years.

R. Andreas Kraemer 

Founder

Arctic Summer College

R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder of Ecologic Institute and the Arctic Summer College, is currently Senior Fellow at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS Potsdam) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada; non-executive Director of the Fundação Oceano Azul, Portugal; and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of German Studies at Duke University. In 2015, he was Visiting Scholar at MIT. His research focuses on the theory and practice of think tanks and how they function in different political systems; the interactions among policy domains and international relations; and global governance on environment, resources, climate, and energy.

Marina Krasilnikova

Living Standards Research Director

Analytical Center of Yuri Levada

Living Standards research director, Analytical Center of Yuri Levada (Levada-Center, Moscow, Russia)
She has her education from Moscow State University, Economy Department, Cybernetics, 1981; Moscow State University, Economy Department – PhD in economy, 1985
Ms Krasilnikova has also training and experience from the Centre of Management in Sundridge Park, London, GB (general management) and Gallup Institute, Denmark (project management).
Ms Krasilnikova has previously held the position of research fellow, senior research fellow, head of department at VCIOM (“All-Russian Centre for Public Opinion and Market Research”)
and a junior research fellow at the Economic Research Institute of Aircraft Ministry.
Ms Krasilnikova has published5 books (with co-authors) and about 100 papers.

Diana Krawczyk

Scientist

Greenland Climate Research Centre

Diana Krawczyk has been involved in Arctic research for the past 10 years. She received her master and PhD degree in Earth Sciences, specialized in paleoceanography at University of Szczecin, Poland. Since 2010, she has been involved in Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring program as an expert in phytoplankton taxonomy. Dr Krawczyk conducted her post doc project at Greenland Climate Research Centre, where she is now a scientist and research network coordinator. Dr Krawczyk coordinates projects within three disciplines: 1 paleoceanography, 2 phytoplankton taxonomy and 3 seabed mapping. She is also involved in teaching and supervising at the Greenland Climate Research Centre.

Niels Tanderup Kristensen

Consul General & Head of Trade Mission

Danish Consulate General in Toronto, Canada

Niels Tanderup Kristensen is the Head of Trade Mission and General consul at the Danish consulate in Toronto. Prior to that he was the Deputy Director at the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) where he worked on international business development. He was also the director of the Arctic Cluster of Raw Materials. Before joining DI he worked as a policy expert in the European Commission and prior he worked for Air Greenland as a Sales Manager and was the Head of Sector in the Greenland Home Rule Government. Mr Kristensen holds a MSc. In Political Science from the University of Århus and from Sciences Po de Lille in France.

Berit Kristoffersen

Political geographer and associate professor

UiT

Berit Kristoffersen is a Political geographer and associate professor at the Arctic University of Norway. Her research focuses on the historical, present and future geographies of energy production, resource conflicts and climate change. Especially related to the Arctic, she has recently published on how this relates sustainable development debates across scale state practices related to drilling in areas in close proximity to the Arctic ice sheet. She finished her PhD in 2014, focused around the development of the concept and analysis of post-petroleum and opportunistic adaptation.

Christin Kristoffersen

Partner & Senior Affiliate

Arctic Advocacy Group & Conow

Kristoffersen is a Norwegian academic and the former Mayor of Longyearbyen, Svalbard at 78 degrees north (2011- 2015). Kristoffersen has substantial experience from public and the private sector. Kristoffersen was Chair of the Longyearbyen Science and Educational Forum (2009-2011) and she has been a lecturer, administrative leader, adviser, and head of research and education in academia where she also was part of the Rectors Forum within the University of the Arctic. Kristoffersen is a major contributor to Arctic development and knowledge through extensive lecturing, keynote speeches and presentations internationally. Now residing in Oslo, Kristoffersen is a member of an expert committee in the Norwegian mining industry and a member of the board for Mo Industrial Park (110 companies and 2300 employees). She is also a member of the Board of the Museum of Svalbard (50,000 visitors annually) and Chairman of the northern most Faculty of UiT, Norwegian Arctic University. Her work is regularly featured in media, including as a regular contributor to High North News. Kristoffersen is Partner in Conow and Arctic Advocacy Group.

Marianne Kroglund

Chair of the Arctic Council

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)

Marianne Kroglund is a Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Environment Agency, where she coordinates international work on Arctic related issues, including Arctic cooperation on climate change, pollution and the protection of natural resources. She is the Chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) of the Arctic Council. AMAP is responsible for monitoring and assessing the status and effects of Arctic pollution and climate change issues. Marianne has also been a member of the Norwegian delegation to the Arctic Council working group PAME (Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment). Marianne is a biologist by background and training. She received her degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1998, and spent the first years of her career researching the biological effects of acidification.

Natalia Kukarenko

Associate Professor

Philosophy and Sociology Department, Higher School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Intercultural Communication, Northern Arctic Federal University, Arkhangelsk, Russia

Natalia Kukarenko (PhD in Social Philosophy/ kand.filos.nauk) is currently a Vice-rector for Strategy and Cooperation at Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU, Arkhangelsk, Russia) and an Associate Professor at Philosophy and Sociology Department, Higher School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Intercultural Communication, NArFU. As a researcher her interests cover such topics as justice theories, gender studies, human diversity. Recently she has been involved into a number of international multidisciplinary research projects on climate change, ecological security, Arctic communities and human health. She has over 50 publications (articles, book chapters, monograph) in Russian and foreign languages.

Lars Kullerud

President

the University of the Arctic

Lars Kullerud has held the position of President of UArctic since May 2002. Throughout his UArctic Presidency, Lars has continued to foster an academic interest in the northern environment and development issues and published several academic papers on the issue in addition to representing UArctic. Before joining the UArctic team, he was the Polar Programme Manager for GRID-Arendal which serves as UNEP's (United Nations Environment Program) key polar centre. His academic background is in Precambrian Geology and Isotope Geochemistry, geostatistics, petroleum resource assessments, as well as assessments of the Arctic environment.

Katri Kulmuni

Chair

the Finnish Arctic Parliamentarians group

Katri Kulmuni is a first-term MP in the Finnish Parliament and City Council Chair from Tornio, Western Lapland. Since June 2016 she is the Second Deputy Chairman of the Finnish Centre Party. She holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree in International Relations from the University of Lapland. Ms. Kulmuni has also studied in St. Petersburg. Prior to entering the Finnish Parliament, she has worked as business coordinator and as press assistant to the former Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen.
In the Parliament, Ms. Kulmuni is member of two committees: Grand Committee and Commerce Committee, and deputy member of Foreign Affairs Committee. She is the current Chair of the Finnish Delegation to the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, and a member of Finnish Delegation to the Nordic Council. Ms. Kulmuni has a strong interest in Nordic and Arctic affairs and aims at an enhanced cooperation in all spheres of society.
Outside of the Parliament, Ms. Kulmuni currently chairs two organisations, namely the UN Association of Finland and the Finland-Russia Society.

Kaarle Kupiainen

Finnish Environment Institute

Kaarle Kupiainen first came to IIASA in 2001 as a participant in the Young Scientists Summer Program. He worked as a Research Scholar with the Transboundary Air Pollution (TAP) Program and returned again in 2010 to work with the Atmospheric Pollution and Economic Development (APD) Program, now Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases (AIR) Program.
Dr. Kupiainen has a PhD in environmental science & policy on air pollution issues from the University of Helsinki. He has worked in research and development projects regarding airborne particulate matter, air pollutants and climate relevant emissions and their mitigation in governmental and private sectors. Dr. Kupiainen's ongoing work includes emission modelling of short-lived climate forcers including black and organic carbon as well as non-exhaust pollutants (road dust) emissions of traffic.

Erling Kvadsheim

Vice chair and Director for international affairs

Arctic Economic Council, The Norwegian Oil and Gas Assoc

Erling Kvadsheim (58) is Director for international affairs with the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, and one of the Vice Chairs of the Arctic Economic Council – on which he has served since its inauguration in 2014. He has worked his entire career in the oil and gas sector. He has worked as a geologist and project manager in BP, as a geologist and later project director with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, as a consultant and strategy advisor and since 2009 in various manager roles within the Norwegian Oil and gas Association.

Melanie Lancaster

Senior Specialist

Arctic species for WWF’s Arctic Programme

Melanie Lancaster is the Senior Specialist of Arctic species for WWF’s Arctic Programme. Her work has focused on research into and management of natural populations threatened by past and present human impacts, including historical seal hunting. Based in Canada, she coordinates WWF's work on species conservation across the Arctic, including for polar bears, walruses, ice whales and reindeer.  

Marc Lanteigne

Senior Research Fellow (Asia)

the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Dr Marc Lanteigne is a Senior Lecturer (China, East Asia, Polar Regions) at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS), in Auckland, New Zealand. His research interests include Chinese and East Asian foreign policy, China’s engagement and cooperation with regional and international organisations, Arctic and Antarctic politics and security, Sino-European relations, and non-traditional security in Asia. He is the author of China and International Institutions: Alternate Paths to Global Power (2005) and Chinese Foreign Policy: An Introduction (2009, 2013, 2015), and the co-editor of China’s Evolving Approach to Peacekeeping (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).

François Lapointe

PhD student

Earth sciences, INRS-ETE

Native of the Beauce region in Québec, Canada which is in the vicinity of Appalachian complex, Mr Lapointe always enjoys a day hiking and skiing in the mountains. His passion for environmental sciences started during his master degree when he went, for the first time to the Canadian Arctic. He started his PhD in Earth Sciences in mid-2012 and has returned twice. He has collected arctic lake sediment cores to better understand natural climate variability using annually laminated sediments. His main focus is to determine what mechanisms force climate change and what can be expected for the near future.

Hanna K. Lappalainen

Secretary General

Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX), University of Helsinki & Finnish Meteorological Institute

Hanna K. Lappalainen, PhD, Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Secretary General, works currently at PEEX Headquarters, at the University of Helsinki and also acts as a Co-Leader together with Academician M. Kulmala, of the Arctic-boreal Hub, which is a thematic network of the U-Arctic. She is the lead editor of the PEEX Science Plan. Lappalainen has a long-term experience of coordinating large-scale research projects has been working in the projects such as “European Integrated Project on Aerosol Could Climate and Air Quality Interaction” EU-FP7-EUCAARI (2007-2010) and “Finnish Center of Excellence in Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Meteorology of Atmospheric Composition and Climate Change” (2012-2013). Lappalainen has received NASA Goddar Team Award EOS-AURA satellite OMI-Team in 2005 and has been nominated as Member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Joan Nymand Larsen

Professor of Economics and Arctic Studies

University of Akureyri

Prof. Joan Nymand Larsen is senior scientist and research director with the Stefansson Arctic Institute, and professor of economics and arctic studies with the University of Akureyri, Iceland. She specializes in processes of economic, sustainable, and human development in the Arctic, northern extractive industries, and climate change impacts and adaptation. She leads “Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures (2016-2018), and led the Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages (2015), and Arctic Social Indicators (2010, 2015). She is a partner in REXSAC –Resource Extraction and Sustainable Communities; and was coordinating lead author with the IPCC, WG-II, AR5, Polar Regions chapter.

Jan Rene Larsen

Secretary

Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON

Dr. Jan Rene Larsen has served as the Secretary for the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) and Deputy Executive Secretary for the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), a working group of the Arctic Council, since 2011. His academic background is in environmental biology, statistics and computer science.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen

Member

the Danish Parliament from Greenland

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen – Member of the Danish Parliament  Ms. Chemnitz Larsen has been a member of the Danish Parliament since June 2015 for the Greenlandic Inuit Ataqatigiit party. In 2004, she graduated with a cand.scient.adm degree from the University of Greenland and she has held several municipality positions in Greenland as well as a short spell as an Associate Expert at the UN in New York from 2006 to 2007.

Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen

National Institute of Public Health

University of Southern Denmark/ University of Greenland

Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen is a sociologist and a PhD in Public Health. She has worked in the field of circumpolar health since 2007 at the Center for Health Research in Greenland at the National Institute of Public Health (University of Southern Denmark), which she is now the coordinator of (since September 2015). Her research interests are especially social inequality in health, pathological gambling, suicide prevention, mental health and the influence of the ongoing social transition on the health of the Greenland Inuit. Based on the countrywide population-based health surveys she works with social epidemiological research to improve our understanding of health among indigenous populations in the Arctic. Christina has lived and worked in Greenland for many years and is actively involved in projects across the Arctic which focuses on improving the mental well-being for indigenous peoples across the circumpolar area. In June 2015, she was elected President of the Circumpolar Health Research Network.

Ferral Lasi

Under Secretary Technical

Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources

Ferral Lasi – Under Secretary Technical, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (MFMR)
Ferral joined MFMR in 2016. He has worked in the region for many years, initially with the Secretariat of Pacific Communities as a Fisheries Officer. He also worked with FFA Operations Division before joining MFMR.
Ferral is responsible for Fisheries Policy and is a strong advocate for radically reforming fisheries management and practices to address critical issues, such as severely overfished tuna stocks and ensuring the economic value of fisheries benefit small island developing states.

Maryse Lassonde

Scientific Director

the Québec Nature and Technology Research Fund

Maryse Lassonde completed a Ph.D. in neuropsychology at Stanford University. She became professor at the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivieres (1977-1988) and then at the University of Montreal (1988-2013) where she was nominated Emeritus professor. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association (1994), the Royal Society of Canada (1997), the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2010) and held a Canada Research Chair (2001-2013). Professor Lassonde was named Officer, Order of Canada (2012), Knight, National Order of Quebec (1999). Professor Lassonde became the Scientific Director of the Quebec Science and Technology research granting agency in 2012 and is President elect of the Royal Society of Canada.

Kirsi Latola

Director

UArctic Thematic Networks

Over the past ten years Kirsi Latola has worked as a research coordinator at the Thule Institute at the University of Oulu and managed several national and international projects on research, knowledge sharing. She has managed the University of the Arctic (UArctic) Thematic Networks strategic area since 2005 and is now acting as a Director of Thematic Networks. I addition to her work for UArctic and supporting the other research projects and proposals she is leading the transnational access work package in INTERACT (2011-15 and 2016-2020) and a task on stakeholder consultations in a EU-PolarNet project on Polar Research coordination (2015-2019).

Antti Lauri

Research Director

University of Helsinki

Antti Lauri is in charge of education in atmospheric sciences at the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki. He received his PhD in aerosol physics from the University of Helsinki in 2006, and has since then coordinated several local, national and Nordic education programmes and projects on MSc and PhD level. Currently, he is leading the Master’s programme in atmospheric sciences and the education in eSTICC, PEEX and Global SMEAR. He has designed and organized numerous courses, workshops, special sessions and other events in multidisciplinary environmental issues, pedagogy, and science outreach. He also serves as the president of the Finnish Association for Aerosol Research (FAAR).

Antti Lauri

Research Director

University of Helsinki

Antti Lauri is in charge of education in atmospheric sciences at the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki. He received his PhD in aerosol physics from the University of Helsinki in 2006, and has since then coordinated several local, national and Nordic education programmes and projects on MSc and PhD level. Currently, he is leading the Master’s programme in atmospheric sciences and the education in eSTICC, PEEX and Global SMEAR. He has designed and organized numerous courses, workshops, special sessions and other events in multidisciplinary environmental issues, pedagogy, and science outreach. He also serves as the president of the Finnish Association for Aerosol Research (FAAR).

Sune Nordentoft Lauritsen

Head of Secretariat

Polar DTU, Technical University of Denmark

Sune Nordentoft Lauritsen, MBA, MA, Head of Secretariat at the Centre for Polar Activities at the Technical University of Denmark
Through his career as an entrepreneurial manager in a number of knowledge organisations, the overarching ambition has been to create value through the development and creative utilisation of know-how, technology and knowledge in collaboration with private and public stakeholders – especially in relation to significant, cross-cutting ideas, needs and challenges with a strategic impact. For the last five years Sune has been engaged in leveraging education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship to the benefit of Arctic stakeholders.

Craig Lee

Professor

School of Oceanography, University of Washington:

Craig Lee is a physical oceanographer specializing in observations and instrument development. His primary scientific interests include: (1) upper ocean dynamics, especially mesoscale and submesocale fronts and eddies, (2) interactions between biology, biogeochemistry and ocean physics and (3) high-latitude oceanography. With Dr. Jason Gobat, Lee founded and leads a team of scientists and technologists that pursues a wide range of observational programs. An important component of this work involves identifying advances that could be achieved through novel measurements and developing new instruments and approaches to meet these needs. Lee provides leadership at the national and international level through service on the science steering committees for several large research programs and by serving on and chairing advisory panels for U.S. Arctic efforts and the U.S. research fleet.

David Lee

Department of Wildlife and Environment

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

David Lee is a Wildlife biologist for Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. He was recently reappointed as the Marine Mammals Subcommittee co-chair of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. He has served as a co-chair of the Canadian Polar Bear Technical Committee and regularly serves as an external reviewer for various marine and terrestrial mammal meetings.

Eelco Leemans

Founder and CEO

Leemans Maritime Consultancy

Eelco is an expert on sustainable use of the oceans. Previously he was Executive Director of the North Sea Foundation, working on a range of marine issues, such as maritime policy and marine litter. He is a former mariner and has worked on ships in the Bering Sea and around Svalbard. He is now involved with a number of Arctic issues, in particular the Clean Arctic Alliance and the Arctic Litter research project.

Kristján Leósson

Innovation Centre Iceland

Dr. Leosson received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from DTU in Denmark in 2002. He co-founded and worked for two start-up companies in Denmark in the period 2002-2005, developing fabrication processes for new types of integrated optical circuits for telecommunications and biotechnology. From 2005-2014, he was employed as a senior research scientist at the Physics Department of the University of Iceland. Currently, he is the Managing Director of the Department of Materials Science, Biotechnology and Energy at Innovation Center Iceland. Dr. Leosson has co-authored 70 international peer-reviewed publications with over 4000 citations.

Paul R. LePage

Governor

Maine

The oldest of 18 children, Governor LePage left home at 11 to escape domestic violence. He lived on the streets for two years before being taken in by two families. Governor LePage graduated with a Business degree from Husson College then earned a MBA from the University of Maine. His private-sector experience includes consulting and management work in manufacturing, wood products, forestry, power, furniture, food and beverage, building supply and construction in Maine and Canada. Paul LePage became Maine’s Governor in 2011 and was reelected in 2014. Before becoming Governor, he served as the Mayor of the City of Waterville.

Dan Lewis

Chief

the Urban Risk Reduction Unit, UN-Habitat.

Lewis has worked for UN-Habitat since 1997 based in Somalia, Kosovo and Nairobi, and has managed the global portfolio of disaster and conflict related work of the Agency since 2002. As a civil engineer and private consultant, he has worked in urban reconstruction and housing programmes in South Africa and Chile as well as with First Nations communities in his home region on Vancouver Island, Canada since 1987. He is currently leading the UN-Habitat global Urban Resilience Programme designing new standards for measuring and monitoring the resilience of cities. The City Resilience Profiling Programme, and its associated projects and team, are based in the Risk Reduction Unit’s programme office in Barcelona, Spain.

Bingrui Li

Deputy Head of Polar Oceanography Division

Polar Research Institute of China

Bingrui Li, PH.D, physical oceanography, graduated from Ocean University of China, now deputy Head of Polar Oceanography Division, Polar Research Institute of China. He has worked at wave-current interaction, internal wave and mixing, and then at polar ocean process. His research experience includes tide simulation and analysis in China Sea, ocean wave and current interactions, ocean internal wave progress, breaking and mixing based spectral model et al. In the past few years, he participated in 24th Antarctic expedition and fifth, sixth Arctic expeditions of China. His current research is on polar ocean process and ice-ocean interaction, through field observations and numerical simulations.

Sven-Olof Lindblad

CEO & President

Lindblad Expeditions

Sven-Olof Lindblad, CEO & President of Lindblad Expeditions, born in Switzerland, traveled extensively with his father, renowned adventure-travel pioneer Lars-Eric Lindblad, who in 1966 led the first non-scientific groups of travelers to Antarctica. In 1979 he launched Special Expeditions, the expedition travel company that became Lindblad Expeditions.  In 2004, Lindblad formed a strategic alliance with National Geographic that combines the strengths of two pioneers in global exploration, with the goal of inspiring people to explore and care about the planet.  

Lindblad’s personal experience led to a commitment to environmentally responsible travel, which has resulted in numerous travel and environmental awards, including the 2007 Global Tourism Business Award from the World Travel and Tourism Council.  

He is an honorary member of the General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands.  He received international recognition for his innovative and successful model of tourism, receiving the “Commandeur de Notre Ordre de Merite Civil et Militaire d’Adolphe de Nassau” from Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg at the Grand-Ducal Place; and had a newly discovered endemic species of moth in the Galapagos Islands, Undulambia lindbladi, named in honor of his conservation work.  He serves on the Board of The Safina Center, the National Geographic Society’s International Council of Advisors, and the Board of Trustees for RARE; is a founding Ocean Elder of the non-profit organization, Ocean Elders, which brings together global leaders to pursue the protection of the ocean’s habitat and wildlife, and serves on the Board of Advisors for Pristine Seas.

Halla Hrund Logadóttir

Louis Bacon Environmental Leadership Fellow

the Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Halla Hrund Logadóttir is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS), where she has co-founded an Arctic Initiative with the Environment and Natural Resource Program and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. Her research interests are in the Arctic sphere, and include energy policy and land conservation, as well as the social and economic well-being of the Arctic region. Halla serves as an advisor to Iceland's Minister of Industry and Commerce on the country's Energy Fund and she chairs the Arctic Innovation Lab, which aims to engage more people in dialog around solutions for a sustainable and secure Arctic.

Halla is the former director of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University, where she continues to lecture on climate change, energy policy, and the Arctic. Previously, Halla worked on economic development in West Africa, on the "Aid for Trade Initiative" at the OECD in Paris and on international relations at Iceland’s Embassy in Brussels. Halla studied political science, economics and trade at the University of Iceland, at the London School of Economics, and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. In 2016 Halla was selected as a Louis Bacon Environmental Leadership Fellow through Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, and she earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School

Nikita Lomagin

Professor

European University in St. Petersburg

Prof. Lomagin is an expert on contemporary Russian foreign policy, international organizations and modern Russian history. His recent publications include The Leningrad Blockade, 1941-1944: A New Documentary History From the Soviet Archives co-authored with Richard Bidlack (Yale University Press, 2012) and chapters and articles such as ‘A Cold Peace Between Russia and the West: Did Geo-Economics Fail?’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); ‘Foreign Policy Preferences of Russia’s Energy Sector: A Shift to Asia? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); ‘Russia’s CIS Policy and Economic and Political Transformations in Eurasia’ (Ashgate, 2014); ‘Interest Groups in Russian Foreign Policy: The invisible hand of the Russian Orthodox Church’ International Politics, 2012; ‘Medvedev’s European Security Treaty Proposal: Building a Euro-Atlantic Security Community? (Republic of Letters Press, 2012); ‘Health and Globalization: A Case study of Russia’s Response to the HIV/AIDS’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). He has been a research fellow at the University of Michigan Law school, GSPIA of the University of Pittsburgh, George Washington University, the Finnish Institute of International Relations, the Kennan Institute and postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

Sara Longan

Executive Director

North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI), US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management

Dr. Sara Longan is the North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI) Executive Director and has 18 years of experience in natural resource management, environmental science, Arctic policy, and public health. She leads the NSSI team, which is a multi-institutional body that conducts science coordination efforts through a comprehensive science strategy addressing priority interests across the North Slope of Alaska.

Sten Lund

Research Coordinator

Ministry of Education and Research, Greenland

 Sten Lund is research coordinator at Ministry of Education and Research in Greenland. He is educated as administrator at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland) and has long experience as administrator in the private and the public sectors in Greenland.

Ditte Nissen Lund

Ministry of Science and Higher Education,

the Kingdom of Denmark

Ditte Nissen Lund has a background as MSc. in public administration, and works in the Polar Secretariat within the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education. Among other things, she manages the agencies UArctic funds and – relations. The Polar Secretariat was established in 2013, with the purpose of providing the Danish arctic research community with a single entry point into the Ministry. The Polar Secretariat is in continuous dialogue with relevant authorities, education and research institutions.

Xinchen Lv

Master Candidate

Beijing Normal University

Xinchen Lv (Master) works on the estimations and underlying drivers of phenology at mid-to-high latitudes. 

Sarah Mackie

PhD Candidate

Newcastle Law School

Sarah Mackie is a PhD candidate at Newcastle Law School in the United Kingdom and is currently a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. She is writing a thesis on the subject of comparative environment law in the Arctic, considering the role of the courts in environmental protection in the Arctic regions of Europe and North America. In conducting her research, Sarah has held posts as a visiting researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, the University of Greenland as well as Harvard Law School.

Sarah holds a law degree from St John’s College, Cambridge University and an LL.M in Environmental Law from Newcastle University. Prior to beginning her PhD, Sarah worked as an extern for Trustees for Alaska, an environmental public interest law firm based in Anchorage, Alaska and was Judicial Assistant to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. Sarah is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and teaches Public Law and Contract Law at Newcastle Law School.

Alison Macleod

Development Officer

Applecross Community Company

Alison Macleod has lived in Applecross, a remote West Highland peninsula, since 1983. She is development officer for Applecross Community Company, working for a board of volunteer directors on a wide range of projects, including community broadband and affordable housing provision.
Company directors recognized the need for a sustainable source of income for the community soon after the Company was founded in 2008 and began feasibility work to identify an energy scheme. The resulting hydro scheme was commissioned in December 2015, two days before the deadline, and immediately after a successful shares offer that raised over £800,000 in 37 days.

Gwyneth Anne MacMillan

PhD student

biological sciences, Université de Montréal

Gwyneth Anne MacMillan is a PhD candidate in Biology at the University of Montreal, Québec, Canada. Her main research areas are ecotoxicology and northern limnology. The main themes of her doctoral research are the biogeochemistry and food web dynamics of metal contaminants (mercury and rare earth elements) in ecosystems of the rapidly changing north. She have worked in northern Quebec on the subarctic taiga, on the arctic tundra of Baffin Island and in the extreme Arctic of Nunavut. She is very interested in community-based environmental monitoring, issues of diversity and inclusion in science, as well as science communication and outreach.

C. K. Madsen

Greenland National Museum & Archives

Dr. C.K. Madsen is curator/archaeologist at the Greenland National Museum and Archives and a postdoctoral researcher at the National Museum of Denmark. He has worked on medieval Norse farming and land use strategies–with special emphasis on agricultural adaptation to environmental margins–in South Greenland for more than a decade. To cast new light on Norse adaptive strategies, Madsen in his 2014 dissertation also did a comparative study of the 20th century Inuit reintroduction of pastoral farming by the Inuit. Most recently, he has participated in getting the core farming areas of both Norse and Inuit on the UNESCO-World Heritage List.

Harri Mäki-Reinikka

Ambassador

Northern Policies

Harri Mäki-Reinikka is currently Secretary General of Finland's Advisory Board on Arctic Affairs and since September 2016 Ambassador and Special Adviser on northern policies at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland’s Arctic Team. Previously Mäki-Reinikka has worked as Ambassador of Finland to six countries. During the years 2013 to 2016 Mäki-Reinikka was Ambassador to Lithuania and Belarus and before that to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan between the years 2008 and 2012. Mäki-Reinikka was Deputy to the Minister and Chief of the Secretariat for Nordic Cooperation at the MFA 2005-2008. He has gained experience on arctic issues already through his involvement in the Northern Dimension process in 1996- 1998. Ambassador Mäki-Reinikka holds a Master's Degree in Social Sciences (International Politics) from the University of Helsinki.

Sveinn Margeirsson

CEO

Matís

Born and raised on a farm in Skagafjordur, Iceland. BSc in Food Science and PhD in Industrial Engineering. CEO of Matis since 2010 and finished the Harvard Business School General Management Program in 2015. Research experience includes working with several seafood companies, IT companies and universities, in Iceland and internationally. Has supervised MSc and PhD students and plays an active role in science and innovation policy making in Iceland and Bioeconomy policy making in Europe.

Pål Markusson

Vice-President Mobility

University of the Arctic

Mr Pål Markusson has since 2016 been Vice-President Mobility in the University of the Arctic (UArctic) He has for many years been working with the UArctic as institutional representative to the Council of Uarctic, and later as Vice Chair and Chair of the Council of Uarctic. He was for 6 years the elected Rector of Finnmark University College, later college director, and since the merger between UiT the Arctic University of Norway and Finnmark University College, faculty director at campus Alta. He has throughout the time in different leadership positions been active and interested in issues related to cooperation in the North.

Michael Mauer

2017 Arctic Summer College Fellow

Michael was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and is a second-year graduate student at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is passionate about economic and human development in the Arctic, and recently organized a student-led conference addressing these issues, as well as the security implications of the region. He has also spent time living and working in China and speaks conversational Mandarin. Michael enjoys fishing, skiing, and running in his free time.

John Fraser Mckenzie

Chief Adviser

Economics and Sustainability, WWF Global Science

John Fraser Mckenzie - The Flying Farmer - is a former Army Air Corps helicopter pilot and the founder and managing director of GlenWyvis Distillery Community Benefit Society.
John’s livestock farm sits at the edge of his home town of Dingwall. A range of renewable energy projects have been completed at the farm and these energy systems are now being used to power GlenWyvis Distillery.
Following extensive research into local whisky history, a record breaking Community Business Ownership share offer was launched in 2016.
GlenWyvis Distillery Community Benefit Society starts whisky production on 30th November 2017 - St Andrews Day.

Hon. Robert R. McLeod

Premier

the Northwest Territories Madeleine Redfern,

Robert R. McLeod was re-elected to the 18th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories on November 23, 2015, his third consecutive term representing the constituents of Yellowknife South.

During the 17th Legislative Assembly, Mr. McLeod served as Premier, Minister of Executive, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations, Minister Responsible for Women and Minister Responsible for New Energy Initiatives. During the 16th Legislative Assembly, Mr. McLeod served as Minister of Human Resources, Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Minister Responsible for the Public Utilities Board, Lead Minister on New Energy Initiatives and Lead Minister for the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline Project.

Mr. McLeod was born and raised in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories. Mr. McLeod holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Alberta and an Honours Diploma in Administrative Management from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton. In 1989, Mr. McLeod also completed a program of national and international studies at the National Defense College in Kingston, Ontario. As part of that program, Mr. McLeod traveled to 25 countries and completed a thesis on Aboriginal Self Government and the Possibilities for Constitutional Reform.

Mr. McLeod is an active member of the Yellowknife community serving and participating in several community organizations. He has served as president of the Yellowknife recreational hockey league, president of the Yellowknife golf club (led the expansion to 18 holes), member of the Yellowknife Elks club and as Senator for the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre.

Mr. McLeod has served on numerous boards and agencies. He served as the co-chair of the Northern River Basin study, Director for the Canadian Tourism Commission and chaired the Canadian Diamond Strategy Working Group and the Mackenzie River Basin Committee. At the national level he served as vice president for the Fur Institute of Canada and chair of the Canadian Wildlife Coalition.

Mr. McLeod and his wife, Melody, have one son, Warren (Shannon) and two beautiful grandsons, Carter and Cooper.

John McNairney

Chief Planner

Scottish Government

John is Chief Planner at the Scottish Government where he leads the planning and architecture division. Over the last thirty years he has practiced as a chartered town planner in local and central government and in consultancy.

He joined central government in 1999 when the Scottish Parliament was established and has led a range of policy and modernizing initiatives related to planning and place. He was appointed Chief Planner in 2012. His team has since delivered Scotland’s third National Planning Framework - the spatial plan for Scotland - and the first full review of Scottish Planning Policy. These were awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute’s award for excellence in infrastructure delivery in 2015. His team also support the Scottish Government’s wider policy initiatives, including on climate change, environment, place, health, planning reform and inclusive growth.

Lorenz Meire

PostDoc

Greenland Climate Research Centre

Lorenz Meire is postdoctoral researcher at the Greenland Climate Research Centre. His main research area is the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and its impact on the coastal areas. By combining physical, chemical and biological measurements, his research aims to understand how a changing ocean impacts melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and what the impact is on the oceanography, carbon cycling and productivity of Greenland fjord systems. Dr Meire address these topics by oceanographic fieldwork in Greenland’s fjord.

Dwayne Ryan Menezes

Director

Polar Research and Policy Initiative (UK)

Dr Dwayne Menezes is the Founder and Director of Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI) and Human Security Centre (HSC). He is also the Head of the Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Yemen in the UK Parliament; Honorary Fellow at the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London; and Associate Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Formerly, he served as Consultant to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth; Principal Consultant to the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief; Research Associate to a UN Special Rapporteur; and on the Managing Committee of the UK Polar Network. Dr Menezes read History at the LSE and University of Cambridge, graduating from the latter with a PhD in History. He also served as Research Associate at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR), University of Cambridge; Visiting Academic at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), University of Oxford; and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London. He is the Director of Think-Film Impact Production (TFIP) and Associate Producer of four films: My Enemy, My Brother (2015, 2017); La Soledad (2016); Complicit (2017); and The Number (2017).

Jennifer Mercer

Infrastructure

Scientific Research in Greenland

Dr. Jennifer Mercer focuses primarily on infrastructure, facilities and operations to support scientific research in Greenland. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO).
Dr. Mercer has been leading projects in remote locations for nearly two decades and has conducted research on all seven continents as well as on four ocean research vessels. She previously served as a program manager for polar engineering, facilities and operations at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).
She has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Physical Science from Black Hills State University and a doctorate in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College.

Jean-Philippe L. Messier

Uapishka Station Executive Secretary

Baie-Comeau

Jean-Philippe L. Messier is the founder and current director of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of Manicouagan-Uapishka, known to work closely with academia, First Nations, NGOs, different levels of government and private sector. He is also chairing the Canadian Association of Biosphere Reserves and regularly called upon to represent his region, Québec or Canada on UNESCO bodies. Current leader of NordMAB network, he did numerous capacity-building missions in Greenland, Scandinavia and Russia, among many other places around the world, which made him awarded by his government in 2015 for achievements that have been recognized beyond the borders of Québec (Alphonse-Desjardins Award).

Admiral Charles D. Michel

Vice Commandant

U.S. Coast Guard

Admiral Charles Michel assumed the duties as the 30th Vice Commandant on August 6, 2015. As the Vice Service Chief and Chief Operating Officer, Admiral Michel executes the Commandant's Strategic Intent, manages internal organizational governance and serves as the Component Acquisition Executive. Prior to this appointment, Admiral Michel served as the Deputy Commandant for Operations, responsible for establishing and providing operational strategy, policy, guidance and resources to meet national priorities for U.S. Coast Guard missions, programs and services. His previous flag officer assignments include Deputy Commander, U. S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area; Director, Joint Interagency Task Force South; Military Advisor to the Secretary of Homeland Security; and Director for Governmental and Public Affairs, U. S. Coast Guard. Tours of duty afloat included serving as Commanding Officer, USCGC RESOLUTE; as Executive Officer, USCGC DAUNTLESS; as commanding Officer, USCGC CAPE CURRENT; and as Deck Watch Officer, USCGC DECISIVE. Admiral Michel also served as Chief of the Office of Maritime and International Law, Washington, DC; Staff Attorney, Eighth Coast Guard District, New Orleans, Louisiana; head of the Operations Division, Office of Maritime and International Law, Washington, DC; and as Legislative Counsel for the Office of Congressional and Governmental Affairs, Washington, DC. A native of Brandon, Florida, he graduated from the U. S. Coast Guard Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering (with high honors) in 1985. In 1992, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law as the salutatorian, receiving membership in the Order of the Coif. Admiral Michel has been awarded the Coast Guard Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal and also the Distinguished Service Medal of the Colombian Navy. Admiral Michel was the American Bar Association Young Lawyer of the Year for the Coast Guard in 1995, the Judge Advocate’s Association Career Armed Services Attorney of the Year for the Coast Guard in 2000, and is currently a member of the Florida Bar. On May 24, 2016, he became the first four-star Vice Commandant in Coast Guard history and also the first career judge advocate in any of the Armed Forces to achieve four-star rank.

Alexandra Middleton

Assistant Professor

University of Oulu

Alexandra Middleton is Assistant Professor with a concentration in Accounting at Oulu Business School, University of Oulu. She conducts research on corporate social responsibility, environmental impacts and circular economy. She is a contributing author of the Business Index North report.

Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen

Lead Coordinator

Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Greenland

Mr. Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen is an author and Greenland specialist affiliated with leading Arctic centers and initiatives within the Kingdom of Denmark and internationally, including ISAAFFIK Arctic Gateway, Arctic Research Centre, Arctic Science Partnership and Greenland Climate Research Centre.
He is a former member of the Danish military SIRIUS dog sledge patrol and founder and managing director of the NANOK company. He holds a degree in electronics engineering. He has lived over ten years in Greenland and travelled thousands of kilometers by dog sledge, kayak, and boat. He visits Greenland regularly. He is a fellow of The Explorers Club.

Andrzej Misztal

Director

the Legal and Treaty Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Lawyer (specialized in Public International Law), diplomat and Titular Ambassador, Director of the Legal and Treaty Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has worked on the international law, legal and treaty matters since 1992.
He has served the following international functions: Ambassador for the Legal Affairs of the Arctic and the Antarctic; Legal Adviser of Poland to the United Nations and representative of Poland in the 6th Committee of the United Nations General Assembly; representative of Poland in the Committee of Legal Advisers on Public International Law of the Council of Europe as well as Head of Delegation of Poland for the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (Brussels, Brasilia, Sofia, Santiago de Chile) and Delegate of Poland to the Legal Subcommittee of COPUOS (UN).

Christopher Mitchelmore

Christopher Mitchelmore was first elected to Newfoundland and Labrador’s House of Assembly in 2011 and was re-elected in November 2015.
Mr. Mitchelmore has a Bachelor of Commerce Honours (Co-op) degree from Memorial University, with international study experience in the United Kingdom and at the University of Economics in the Czech Republic. He worked with the Department of Innovation, Business, and Rural Development; the Newfoundland and Labrador Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities (PUB); and London Offshore Consultants.

Prior to entering politics, Mr. Mitchelmore worked as a client services officer and a youth ventures coordinator with the Community Business Development Corporation (CBDC) Nortip. He has an extensive track record of community involvement, including time as vice president of the Straits – St. Barbe Chronic Care Corporation and director and member of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network.

Alexander Moiseev

WWF-Russia Marine Program

Mr. Alexander Moiseev has been an integral part of the WWF Russia team since 2009. He is a coordinator of WWF Russia’s marine program, based in Moscow. He coordinates work on sustainable fishing, and identifying and mitigating the negative impacts of shipping to the environment of Arctic seas in Russia.

Raphael Moura

PhD Student

Institute for Risk and Uncertainty University of Liverpool’s

Raphael Moura is a Safety, Risk & Uncertainty Specialist on leave from the Brazilian Regulator for the Oil & Gas Industry (ANP) since October 2013, when he joined the University of Liverpool’s Institute for Risk and Uncertainty as a PhD candidate. Former (2007-2013) General Manager for Safety & Environment at the ANP.

James Movick

Director General

Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency

James Movick - Director-General, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA)
The Pacific Islands Forum leaders established the Fisheries Agency (FFA) in 1979 to strengthen national capacity and regional solidarity so its 17 members can manage, control and develop their tuna fisheries now and in the future.
James is a national of the Federated States of Micronesia, and has had a long and varied career in fisheries policy and development at the state and national levels in his home country as well as in the Pacific Islands region. In addition to representing FSM Government on fisheries diplomacy issues he has managed national and state government commercial fisheries entities, managed his own fishing company, undertaken consultancy work and has been a strong advocate for the private sector in the region, being the first chairman of both the Pacific Islands Tuna Industry Association (PITIA) as well as of the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organization (PIPSO). He has been with

Gert Mulvad

Doctor of Health Research

Institute of Nursing and Health Science, Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland)

Gert Mulvad is a family physician at the Centre for Primary Health Care in Nuuk, Greenland. He has been working in Nuuk since 1986. His research fields is Traditional Food Risk/Benefit and Family Health.
He serves on many committees involved in health care delivery, research and education in Greenland.
Chair of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
Doctor PhD honoris causa 2015 Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland,
Internationally he is active in AMAP Human Health working group, Committee for Inuit Circumpolar Health, Vice Chair of the Arctic Health and well-being network under the University of the Arctic.

Lisa Murkowski

US Senator

United States Senate

Senator Lisa Murkowski is the first Alaskan-born Senator and only the sixth United States Senator to serve the state. The state’s senior Senator, Lisa Murkowski is a third-generation Alaskan, born in Ketchikan and raised in towns across the state: Wrangell, Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage. Since joining the Senate in 2002, Senator Murkowski has been a strong advocate for Alaska on the important issues facing the state, including energy, health care, education, military/veterans’ affairs and infrastructure development.

Only the 32nd female to serve in the United States Senate since its founding in 1789, Senator Murkowski has assumed leadership roles quickly. She is the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and also serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, where she is the Chairman of the Interior and Environment Subcommittee. Senator Murkowski is a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – the first Alaskan to serve on that panel – and also is a senior member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

She earned a B.A. in economics from Georgetown University in 1980 and a law degree from Willamette University in 1985. Prior to her appointment to the United States Senate, Senator Murkowski practiced commercial law in Anchorage and was elected to three terms in the Alaska State House of Representatives. She was elected to a full six-year U.S. Senate term in 2004, and was re-elected in 2010 in a historic write-in campaign, the first successful write-in effort to the Senate since 1954.

Senator Murkowski is married to Verne Martell and they have two sons. She enjoys spending time with her family in the Alaska outdoors.

Maribeth Murray

Executive Director

Arctic Institute of North America

Maribeth Murray is the Executive Director of the Arctic Institute of North America and a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary. Her research is focused on the human dimensions of climate change, and human and marine system dynamics in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Prior to coming to the University of Calgary in July 2013, Dr. Murray was with the International Arctic Research Center and Northern Studies Program of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She has also held the position of executive director of the International Study of Arctic Change.

Kai Mykkänen

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development

Finland

Kai Mykkänen was appointed Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in June 2016. He is a Member of Parliament since 2015.
Minister Mykkänen is known for his expertise on energy, Russia and the economics. He was the first chairman of the Parliament’s informal and interpartisan working group called "the energy renovation group", which brings together parliamentarians, academics and entrepreneurs to define and lead a new narrative on energy politics.
Prior to his political career, Mr. Mykkänen worked as Director for Russian Affairs at the Confederation of Finnish Industries, as investment banker in St. Petersburg, and as political advisor to the Minister for Economic Affairs and Employment.
Minister Mykkänen holds a Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Helsinki. He is fluent in English and Russian. He is married with two children.

Henri Myrttinen

Head

Gender with International Alert, a London-based peacebuilding organisation

Dr. Henri Myrttinen is the Head of Gender with International Alert, a London-based peacebuilding organization. He has around 15 years of experience of working on gender, peace and security, with a focus on critically engaging with masculinities. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies.

Mélissande Nagati

PhD student in environmental science

UQAT

Mélissande Nagati is a PhD student in Forest Ecology at Université du Québec en AbitibiTémiscamingue in Québec, Canada, under a joint supervision arrangement with the French university Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. She has completed a MsC grade in Ecology and Evolutionnary Biology in 2014. She specializes in Fungal Ecology and interactions between plants and fungi. Her thesis focuses on the effect of such interactions in balsam fir northern migration.

Asii Chemnitz Narup

Mayor

Sermersooq

Asii Chemnitz Narup has been the mayor of Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq since 2009. She has previously served as both a Member of the Parliament of Greenland and of the Government of Greenland.

Social policy, children's wellbeing and good educational opportunities belong to Asii's core values, and she’s continuously working towards unlocking social and economic growth potentials for the benefit of both the citizens of Sermersooq and Greenland as a whole.
Asii believes that business development and education is the way to increased welfare and a strong society. Recently the Municipal Council in Sermersooq decided to plan 3 new schools, 10 new day care centres, and 2500 housing units in the capital Nuuk in order to strengthen both the growth of the capital and the opportunities of citizens.

Bill Nasogaluak

Artist

Canada

Bill Nasogaluak, Contemporary Artist, Tuktoyatuk NWT/ Toronto, ON. Bill Nasogaluak is a self-taught sculptor and painter originally from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. Now living in Toronto, his work explores his Inuvialuit culture through its changing culture.Bill explores the mythology and traditions of his people, and the relationship between land and wildlife. He brings the landscape and wildlife of his land alive through his painting and drawing. Issues such as climate change, addictions, violence, resilience are powerfully interpreted in stone.
As a contemporary artist, living in a major city, he uses metaphors and symbolism in his work. His sculptures are multifaceted, complex pieces. His work has been featured in many publications, and is collected by prominent collectors throughout North, Central and South Americas, and Europe.

Divya Nawale

Fellow

2017 Arctic Summer College

Divya's fascination with the polar regions began in 2009 when she was chosen as a young environmental leader to represent India on the International Antarctic Treaty Expedition. Since then, she has worked with 2041 Foundation vigorously to advocate preservation of the Antarctic and pursued a global career with varied roles in environmental conservation, sustainability strategy and data management, corporate social responsibility, renewable technology implementation, and disaster management. Divya has traveled to all seven continents and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently serves as Sustainability Fellow at the Mayor’s office in Pittsburgh.

Jay Nelson

, Professor of Biological Sciences

Towson University

Nelson began studying fish physiology as an undergraduate at the University of Washington where he received degrees in Zoology and Chemistry. He continued with a Ph.D. on fish from naturally acidic lakes at the University of Wisconsin followed by an Alexander von Humbolt and NATO Post-Doctoral Fellowships at the Max Planck Institute and Dalhousie University researching environmental influences on fish physiology. Nelson’s professorial career has been spent at Towson University where he has continued his focus on how environmental factors influence the biology of fishes, primarily a couple of local species, but also loricariid catfish in Brazil and European sea bass in France. He has published over 40 scientific papers and book chapters and edited a number of works.

Mariia Nesterenko 

PHd student in Sociology

Northern Arctic Federal University, Arkhangelsk, Russia

Maria is working on the dissertation “Human health in the Arctic as social value”. The work is aimed at studying the problems of preserving the health of the population in remote areas of the Arkhangelsk region. The topic is interdisciplinary and covers such areas of knowledge as climatology, epidemiology and sociology. She is currently a participant in the project “CLINF: Climate-change effects on the epidemiology of infectious diseases and the impacts on Northern societies” (financed by Nordforsk), has an experience of participation in an Arctic expedition to Novaya Zemlya where she has carried out a pilot study with local population. Currently the data is being proceeded. The results expected will be used as recommendations to the local authorities and communities.

Helmut Neukirchen

Professor

Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science University of Iceland

Helmut Neukirchen is a Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Iceland. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Göttingen, Germany. One of his research fields is eScience: the application of computer technology to the undertaking of modern scientific investigation that would not be possible without computers such as climate simulations. He represents the University of Iceland in the NordForsk funded research project "eScience Tools for Investigating Climate Change a High Northern Latitudes" (eSTICC)

Juliet Newson

Director

Iceland School of Energy

Juliet has been involved in many aspects of the geothermal industry, including geology, geothermal surface feature mapping, monitoring and modelling, reservoir and wellbore simulation, geological modelling and resource evaluation. From 2007 to 2011 she was the co-organizer of the Postgraduate Certificate in Geothermal Energy Technology for the University of Auckland, New Zealand. In 2011 she joined Contact Energy Ltd to work as a geothermal reservoir engineer, working in close co-operation with reservoir modeling researchers at the University of Auckland.
Juliet also served the international geothermal industry as a Board member of the International Geothermal Association; where she was Chair of the Education Committee from 2010 to 2013 and was President for the 2013 to 2016 Board term.
In November 2016 Juliet took up the position of Director of the Iceland School of Energy, Reykjavik University, Iceland. She believes that education is the key to progress both in a social and technological sense. She prefers close collaboration with industry to find innovative solutions to meet industry and social needs.

Heather Nicol

Professor

Trent University

Dr. Heather Nicol is Professor in the School of the Environment at Trent University, Canada. She received her BA from the University of Toronto, her MES from York University and her Ph.D. from Queen’s University. Her research and teaching interests lie in political and regional studies emphasizing borders and borderlands and the circumpolar North. Her research is focused on exploring the dynamics which structure the political geography of the circumpolar North, with a specific focus on the North American Arctic and Canada-US relations. Her work deals with cross-border relations, tensions, geopolitical narratives and mappings of power and sovereignty. Dr. Nicol is also involved in the Thematic Network on Geopolitical and Security through the University of the Arctic and the Northern Research Foundation, and she is the Associate Editor for the Northern Series at Athabasca University. She was the 2015-16 Visiting Fulbright Chair to the University of Washington, at the Centre for Canadian Studies and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. She is also a member of the Advisory Board at Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI).

Egill Thor Nielsson

Executive Secretary and Visiting Scholar

CNARC, , Polar Research Institute of China

Mr. Egill Thor Nielsson is Executive Secretary of the China-Nordic Arctic Research Center (CNARC) and Visiting Scholar at Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC). Nielsson joined the Strategic Studies Division of PRIC in 2011 working on a project titled “Arctic Development Index” and actively contributed to the establishment of CNARC. He has advised various Arctic stakeholders, including the Icelandic Center for Research and the West Nordic Council, and is the founder of Arctic Bridge Consulting (ABC). In 2012 he participated in the 5th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE5), when R/V Xuelong became the first Chinese-flagged ship to transit the Arctic Ocean.

Gabriel Nirlungayuk

Inuit Programs and Services Division, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc

Director

Gabe Nirlungayuk is Director of Inuit Programs and Services with Corporate Services with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI). He lives in Rankin Inlet with his family. NTI settled the biggest lands claims in history in 1993. NTI’s mission is to promote Economic and Social wellbeing of Nunavut Inuit. Programs and Services includes hunter support and marine monitoring. Gabe was a weather man by training, and has served as wildlife director and in the Nunavut Minister of Environment. He promotes traditional knowledge and seeks both western science and Inuit Qujimajatunkangiit (IQ). Gabe loves the outdoors and is a hunter and fisherman.

Charles Norchi

Professor of Law

the University of Maine Schoo

Charles Norchi is Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law where he directs the Center for Oceans & Coastal Law and the Graduate Law Programs. His current research is devoted to the Arctic and law of the sea, jurisprudence, and international development. Professor Norchi is co-chair of Arctic Futures Institute (Maine) the Institute for Law & Development Policy (Geneva, Switzerland) and is a member of the Institute of Directors (London), a contributing editor to Global Geneva, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, and Fulbright-Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland Arctic Scholar.  Dr. Norchi holds an A.B. from Harvard College, a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University Law School and an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.

Holly Mititquq Nordlum

artist

Alaska, USA

Holly Mititquq Nordlum is an Inuipiaq visual artist and activist. Nordlum’s work reflects where she comes from but also who she is now--an urban woman, a mother, and a working Inuit woman. She was born and raised outside the Alaskan village of Kotzebue, a small hub of eleven other native villages in the Northwest Coast of Alaska. She is a printmaker, painter, filmmaker and sculptor and uses those skills to express her ideas about life and social issues of native people in today’s world.  She received a BFA in graphic design and photography from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and studied as many artistic avenues as she could. Since then she has worked with master artists and continues to learn. In 2015 Nordlum was awarded an Alaska Native Visionary Award and in 2014 was also named to the Smithsonian’s Nation Museum of The American Indian’s Artist Leadership Program. Most recently she has focused on researching traditional tattooing techniques and with a partnership with Maya Sialuk Jacobsen they worked to reintroduce traditional tattooing to Alaska. The training program has partnered with the Anchorage Museum’s Polar Lab and is has trained a three Alaskan Native Artists. She has also gathered an all Alaskan team on the production of the film about this revitalization and with the assistance of the TimeWarner Fellowship has begun filming the documentary.

Leslie North

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies

Western Kentucky University

Dr. Leslie North is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Western Kentucky University. She serves as the Associate Director for Education and Outreach for the Center for Human GeoEnvironmental Studies (CHNGES) at WKU. The focus of her career has been the development of effective informal learning materials and techniques, particularly those related to water resources, climate change, ecotourism, karst landscapes, and sustainability. Her research also centers on the use of eye-tracking for the development of visualizations and tourism destinations. In recent years, she has served as the project leader for multiple groundwater education campaigns aimed at teaching local populations about the importance of freshwater resources and the role of individual actions in maintaining the quality and quantity of valuable water resources.

Brendan O’Donnell

Editor

Arctic Summer College Yearbook, Ecologic Institute – Washington, DC

Brendan O’Donnell is a research fellow, writer, and editor at Ecologic Institute in Washington, DC. His publications with the institute include research on next generation sustainable finance, low-carbon energy security, urban sustainability, the German energy transition, citizen engagement, the urban Arctic, environmental regulations and international trade, and the role of art in environmental discourse. He has lived, studied, and worked in Berlin, Germany; Venice, Italy; and throughout the United States.

Michael Obersteiner

Ecosystem Services and Management (ESM) Program

IIASA

Michael Obersteiner is Program Director of the Ecosystems Services and Management (ESM) Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. His research experience stretches from biophysical modeling in the areas of ecosystems, forestry and agriculture to economics, finance and integrated assessment, climate mitigation and adaptation, nutrient management, biodiversity conservation, water management, and food security. Dr. Obersteiner has been a consultant giving science-based policy advice using quantitative modelling techniques to a number of national and international organizations, including inter alia the European Commission, WWF, OECD, and other national and international institutions. He is author of over 250 scientific papers covering many disciplinary science fields.

Embla Eir Oddsdóttir

Director

Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network

Embla Eir Oddsdottir leads the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network (IACN) in facilitating cooperation among Icelandic public and private organizations in research, education, monitoring, innovation, and other activities related to the Arctic region. Her educational background is interdisciplinary, including socio-economic developement, anthropology, cultural geography, international relations, international law and governance, indigenous studies, gender studies, rural development, political science, etc
Embla holds an MSc in Law, Anthropology and Society from The London School of Economics and Political Science, London. Her undergraduate studies include socio-economic development at the University of Akureyri and interdisciplinary studies at the University of Northern British Columbia in Canada. Further, Embla has completed Masters level courses in Polar Law at the University of Akureyri

Astrid Ogilvie

Senior Scientist

Stefansson Arctic Institute

Astrid Ogilvie is a climate historian and human ecologist. Her overarching career goal is to build bridges between the arts, humanities, and the natural sciences in order to foster interdisciplinary cross-fertilization. Her current research interests focus primarily on climatic and socio-economic changes in Arctic coastal communities and she co-leads the Nordic Centre of Excellence project Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH). She is the author of some 100 scientific papers and two edited books. She is a Senior Affiliate Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute and a Fellow of INSTAAR at the University of Colorado.

Elizabeth Ogilvie

Environmental Artist

Elizabeth Ogilvie is one of the foremost Scottish artists of her generation. Her work fuses art, architecture, science and water/ice as a medium. Working internationally, she highlights one of the world’s most challenging problems through large-scale solo projects. She has been working on the project Out of Ice for several years, conducting field research and collaborating with residents in northwest Greenland. The associated book will be published shortly by Black Dog Publishing. She has also taught at the University of Edinburgh and has the rare distinction of simultaneously being acknowledged for her academic credentials, interdisciplinary networks, and research.

Jørgen E. Olesen

Professor

AU AGRO

Professor in climate and agriculture at Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University. The areas of research cover adaptation of agricultural production systems to climate change, emission of greenhouse gases from agriculture, organic and integrated crop production systems, modelling of the soil-plant-atmosphere system and at the farm scale. Research is undertaken across the world and encompassing many studies undertaken in Europe, Asia and Africa, and also at the global scale. He has contributed to assessment reports of IPCC as well as reports of World Bank and FAO. Further he has contributed through Danish governmental commissions to the development of policies with climate and agriculture.

Ryan Oliver

Director

Pinnguaq Association

Ryan Oliver is the director of the Pinnguaq Association, a not for profit technology advocate with locations now in Nunavut, Ontario and British Columbia. Pinnguaq means “Play” in Inuktitut and has a mandate to create interactive experiences that push both the limits of technology and cultural expression. Whether focused on film, virtual reality, gaming, education or application development we combine a passion for culture and technology to both stimulate and entertain.

Anders Oskal

Director

International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry Executive

Anders Oskal is the Executive Director of International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR), Kautokeino, Norway. He is a reindeer herding Sámi from Arctic Norway, with a Masters Degree in Business (Siv.øk). Throughout his professional career, Oskal has worked with indigenous issues, reindeer herding, policy, innovation and business development, both on the international and national levels. Oskal represents the Association of World Reindeer Herders in the Arctic Council, has led several Arctic Council endorsed projects, was a Co-Author of the 5th Assessment Report of IPCC on adaptation, and is a Member of the Governing Committee of the Arctic Economic Council. While engaged in reindeer herding policy issues on the international level, Oskal also takes part in his family's reindeer herding.

Natsuhiko Otsuka

Professor

Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University

Natsuhiko Otsuka is Professor at the Hokkaido University Arctic Research Center in Japan. His research areas are on integrated engineering, naval and maritime engineering, seismic and ice engineering, maritime logistics, including seismic design of port facilities, maritime transport, ice and ocean engineering in the Arctic. Prof. Otsuka attended Civil Engineering Course of the Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University (1981) and received his Doctor of Engineering degree from the Graduate School of Engineering at Hokkaido University in 2001. His previous positions were with TOA Corporation, Tokyo, Japan (1981-1991), North Japan Port Consultants Ltd., Sapporo, Japan (1991-2016).

Indra Overland

Head

Energy Program, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Indra Overland is head of the Energy Program at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). He did his PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge and has since published extensively on Arctic, post-Soviet and global energy issues. He has been awarded the Toby Jackman Prize, the Marcel Cadieux Prize, the Stuland Prize and co-authored the most cited article published by the Journal of Eurasian Studies. In 2017 he is publishing the edited volume Public Brainpower with Palgrave MacMilllan, on the role of civil society and public debate in natural resource governance, with case studies of 18 countries including Canada, Norway and Russia.

Jón Ólafsson

professor emeritus

the University of Iceland

Jón Ólafsson is professor emeritus at the University of Iceland, Institute of Earth Sciences and the Marine Research Institute. He has decades of experience in bio- and geochemistry of freshwater and marine environments. Since the early 1980s has been involved in measuring ocean-atmosphere carbon fluxes in the ocean near Iceland, and is a leading authority on ocean acidification. He was a contributing author to the chapter on ocean observations in the IPCC fifth assessment report, and is the author of the chapter on ocean acidification in CCIAI.

Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir

Adjunct Lecturer

University of Iceland

Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir is adjunct lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Iceland. Her research focuses on Icelandic society and politics, Iceland’s foreign and security policy and feminism in international relations. She holds BA and MA degrees in international relations, post-graduate certificates in methodology and university teaching, and is completing her PhD at University College Cork in Ireland. She serves on the board of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland and the board of advisors of Höfði – Reykjavik Peace Centre."

James E. Pass

Senior Managing Director

Guggenheim Partners

Mr. Pass joined Guggenheim in 2009 and is responsible for the research, development and implementation of investment strategies for the firm’s efforts in the municipal, project finance and infrastructure arena. He is also responsible for building and managing the firm’s military housing and municipal hybrid activities, including infrastructure investing, making the firm a leader in those sectors among institutional investors. Mr. Pass and his Investment Team successfully grew municipal holdings and were instrumental in launching multiple funds. Prior to joining Guggenheim, Mr. Pass was Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets where he headed the firm’s Midwest Region. He earned his B.A in Diplomatic History and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania. Due to the breath of his industry knowledge, Mr. Pass has been featured in multiple publications and spoke to various associations in the industry, including the White House Business Council, Bloomberg Press, Bloomberg Live, The Bond Buyer, National Federation of Municipal Analysts and National Association of State Treasurers. He has been involved in the municipal and project finance industry since 1986.

Mark Payne

Senior Researcher

Danish Technical University

Mark R. Payne is a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU-Aqua) (part of the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen, Denmark) whose research examines the impacts of climate change and climate variability on life in the ocean. His work is pioneering the development of Climate Services for monitoring and managing life in the ocean in Europe and involves coupling biological knowledge to climate models to produce predictions that are of direct relevance to end-users. He is currently developing forecast systems for the distribution and productivity of key marine species in Arctic waters, including blue whiting and bluefin tuna. Payne has published over 40 articles in a wide range of scientific journals including Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is the leader the Climate Services work package within the Horizon 2020 project “Blue Action”.

Cécile Pelaudeix

Associate Professor and Research Associate

Aarhus University and Sciences Po Grenoble

Cécile Pelaudeix is Associate Professor at the Law Department of Aarhus University and research associate at PACTE, Sciences Po Grenoble. Her research focuses on governance, normative foreign policy, international relations and international law with a focus on the Arctic region, Greenland politics, the EU Arctic policy, China’s foreign policy, ocean and energy resources governance. She is co-editor of the book Governance of Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas, Routledge. She is the work package leader in a research project on Arctic security for the European Defence Agency. She has been teaching at Sciences Po Lyon and Sciences Po Grenoble and has been a member of the French Scientific Committee of the “Chantier Arctique”, INSU-CNRS, Paris.

Alexander Pelyaso

Director

the Center for the Arctic and Northern economies

Alexander Pelyasov was born and raised in the Russian Far North, in the city of Magadan. He defended has Candidate degree (1987) and Doctor's degree (1995) in Economic Geography, on the issues of the Northern economic development in Russia and globally at Saint Petersburg State University. Professor in Economic Geography (1998). He has worked as researcher at the Magadan North-East Comprehensive Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences for 10 years, then was invited to become head of the Arctic department at the Federal Ministry for the North (Goskomsever Russia) in mid-1990-s. As the federal employee, he has elaborated several officially adopted concepts and reports on the Northern economic development in Russia. Since 2000-s he has returned to research at the Council for the Study of Productive Sources (SOPS), being the Director of the Center for the Arctic and Northern economies. He is the author of 20 books and more than 180 articles devoted to the Northern and Arctic economic development, coauthor of many programs and strategies for the Arctic regions, cities, and municipalities

Tony Penikett

Former Governor

The Yukon (1985-1992)

Tony Penikett has spent 25 years in public life, including two years at the House of Commons (Canada) as chief of staff to federal New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent, five terms in the Yukon Legislative Assembly, and two terms as Premier of Canada’s Yukon Territory. His government negotiated settlements of Yukon First Nation land claims and passed pioneering legislation in education, health, language. It also organised Yukon 2000, a unique, bottom-up economic planning process. Between 1997 and 2001, Penikett served first as Deputy Minister of Negotiations and later as Deputy Minister of Labour for the British Columbia Government. In 2006, Douglas & McIntyre published his book Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making. Penikett has also worked on two films: The Mad Trapper for BBC TV/Time Life Films and La Patrouille Perdue, for ORTF France. As a mediator and negotiator, Penikett has worked on devolution in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. He has lectured on the history of aboriginal treaty negotiations at Simon Fraser University, Queen’s University, and the University of Washington. In 2013, Penikett became Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Arctic Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. In September 2014, Simon Fraser University’s Public Policy School appointed him visiting professor. Penikett serves as a mentor for the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation’s Glassco Fellows. The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation appointed him a Trudeau mentor in 2016. In the same year, he was one of the three members appointed to serve on the Ministerial Panel on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project. He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI).

Eduardo G Pereira

Professor of Natural Resources and Energy Law

Externado U, Colombia

Eduardo G Pereira has been active in the oil and gas industry for several years and is an international expert on joint operating agreements. His experience in this area – both academic and practical – is extensive. He played a key role in assisting Petra Energia in becoming Brazil’s leading onshore oil and gas company and developing its international business throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. He has practical experience in over 40 jurisdictions covering America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Dr Pereira concluded his doctoral thesis on oil and gas joint ventures at the University of Aberdeen. He is a professor of natural resources and energy law at the Externado University of Colombia Law School (Colombia), an adjunct professor of energy law at the University of Eastern Finland Law School (Finland) and a research fellow at the Scandinavian Institute for Maritime Law – University of Oslo (Norway). He is also a managing editor for UEF Energy Law Review and an associate editor of OGEL. He is also the author and editor of several leading oil and gas textbooks.

Andrey N. Petrov

Associate Professor

Geography and Geospatial Technology, University of Northern Iowa

Andrey N. Petrov is the Director of the ARCTICenter at the University of Northern Iowa, USA. Dr. Petrov is an economic and social geographer who specializes in Arctic economy, sustainable development and demography. His current research is focused on regions of the Russian and Canadian North and concerns regional development, spatial organization, and restructuring of peripheral economies. Dr. Petrov is the President of the International Arctic Sciences Association and leads the Research Coordination Networks in Arctic Sustainability (Arctic-FROST) and Arctic Coastal Resilience (Arctic-COAST).

Laura Petrovich-Cheney

Sculptor and Educator

Laura Petrovich-Cheney’s work is a dialogue that exists between environmental and individual concerns, a conversation whose central metaphor emerges from the found and repurposed materials. The imperfections of the material reveal an aesthetic promise in the discarded remnants of daily life. Her story unfolds at the intersection of preservation and exploration. She is a sculptor, adjunct professor, a fashion designer, and a National Board Certified elementary art teacher.

Duncan W. Phillips

Vice President

Strategic Enterprises, Mitacs

Duncan is a Vice President at Mitacs, a Canadian not-for-profit research network that has designed and delivered research and training programs in Canada for 17 years. He leads the Mitacs “Indigenous Communities Engagement” initiative, which aims to contribute towards reconciliation in Canada by building bridges between Indigenous communities and academia to undertake projects, driven by community-identified priorities, that combine traditional knowledge with academic research in collaborative research, capacity-building and knowledge mobilization. A member of the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples and an Arctic Inspiration Prize Ambassador, Duncan also serves as Vice-President of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge Management Society.

Jaakko Pietarinen

PhD student, Department of Agricultural Sciences

University of Helsinki

Jaakko Pietarinen is a PhD student in the faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki. There he studies reindeer husbandry carried out in the northern areas of Fennoscandia. His goal is to find methods that can identify and select good reindeer fathers and mothers. He would also like to find out more about how natural selection of reindeer in the extreme northern conditions would interfere with human made selection. Before his PhD studies in Helsinki, Jaakko did his master’s degree at the University of Oulu where he studied genetics and physiology. In his free time, Jaakko likes to exercise or go biking around Helsinki.

Rebecca Pincus

United States Coast Guard

Center for Arctic Study and Policy

Dr. Rebecca Pincus leads research at the Center for Arctic Study and Policy (CASP) at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where she also teaches government courses in the Humanities Department. She holds an MS and PhD in environment and natural resources from the University of Vermont, as well as an MS in environmental law from the Vermont Law School. Her primary interests are in the nexus of climate change and national security, with a focus on the Arctic region. Dr. Pincus teaches maritime and public policy, as well as Arctic and Russian politics at the Coast Guard Academy, and supervises cadet research projects in these areas.

Ida Maria Pinnerød

Mayor

Bodø Municipality

Ida Pinnerød is the Mayor of Bodø, as well as an active member of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP). Ida has attained both a Master of Arts in Language and Literature, and a Cand. Mag in Sociology from the University of Tromsø.

Terzah Tippin Poe

Lecturer

Harvard University

Terzah Tippin Poe is an international environmental science and policy lecturer at Harvard University, a corporate sustainability practitioner and a published author. She has worked as a project leader and change agent for over 20 years with global, national and regional development and policy organisations in the Americas, the Arctic and Europe. She led sustainability programs for TransCanada and Royal Dutch Shell for over 10 years. Her work focuses on delivering economic benefits by advising corporations and communities on how to progress business objectives using a mutual gains approach. As part of her portfolio in her international roles, Terzah resolved complex project challenges ranging from negotiating agreements with communities, to working with multi-national organisations including the IFC (World Bank), WWF, First Peoples Worldwide, Living Earth, the Nature Conservancy and others to progress development projects successfully. Terzah holds a Bachelorʼs in Journalism and Public Communications and a Masterʼs in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University. She is also a member of the Advisory Board at Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI).

Gert Polet

Head of Forests & Wildlife Unit

WWF

Gert Polet is head of WWF-Netherlands’ Forests & Wildlife Unit. He is trained as a geographer-biologist and worked for many years in conservation in tropical countries and now head of a small unit in the WWF Netherlands office working with WWF’s partners across the globe on species & habitat conservation. Gert has a special interest in the Arctic region which he was lucky to visit first when visiting his family in Nunavut.

Jason S. Polk

Associate Professor of Geography and Geology

Western Kentucky University

Jason S. Polk, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Geography and Geology at Western Kentucky University. He also is the Director of the Center for Human GeoEnvironmental Studies (CHNGES) and HydroAnlaytical Lab. Dr. Polk earned his doctorate Degree from the University of South Florida in Geography and Environmental Science and Policy. His current research investigates climate change, water resources and sustainability, isotope hydrology and geochemistry, karst resource management,and global climate dynamics. Dr. Polk has expertise in paleoclimate reconstruction, climate teleconnection dynamics, multi-proxy climate record analytics, hydrologic monitoring, water quality and quantity assessment, and isotope geochemistry. He has won several teaching and research awards, is a Fellow of the National Speleological Society, co-Director of the North Atlantic Climate Change Collaboration Project (NAC3), and conducts research in various places all over the world, including the Caribbean, China, Iceland, South America, and Europe.

Rafe Pomerance

Chairman

Arctic 21

Rafe Pomerance is Chairman of Arctic 21, a network of organizations focused on communicating issues of Arctic climate change to policy makers and the general public. Arctic 21, which operates under the auspices of WHRC, seeks to establish a framework for Arctic policy based on the question, “what is the Arctic we have to have?” Rafe is a member of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences and an independent climate strategies consultant. Rafe has spent much of his career on global warming including his work with Friends of the Earth where he served as President from 1980 to 1984, the World Resources Institute as a senior associate for climate change and ozone depletion policy and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Development (1993-99) and climate negotiator and as President of the Climate Policy Center (CPC). Rafe was a founder and Chairman of the Board of American Rivers, Chairman of the Board of the League of Conservation Voters and of the Potomac Conservancy.

Laurene Powell Jobs

President

Emerson Collective

Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and president of Emerson Collective, an organization that supports social entrepreneurs who are committed to the ideal that everyone ought to have the chance to live to their full potential.

Most of the work of Emerson Collective is anchored around ways to open doors to opportunity – focus areas include improving our nation’s schools, advocating for common sense immigration reform, and collaborating with partners who are innovating ways to create durable avenues for social and economic mobility.

Powell Jobs shapes the vision of Emerson Collective, reviews impact, amplifies the momentum of its partners, and sets the operational direction of the organization.

Many of the priorities championed by Emerson Collective are formed by the work of College Track, a program Powell Jobs founded in 1997 to prepare disadvantaged high school students for success in college. Today Powell Jobs is president of College Track’s board of directors, which now works with more than 2,000 students from Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Aurora, Colorado. More than 90 percent of College Track high school graduates go on to college (many of them are first generation students), and the program’s college graduation rate is more than double to that of low-income students.

In addition to her work with Emerson Collective and College Track, she serves on the boards of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, Teach for All, OZY Media, Conservation International and Stanford University. She also is a member of the Chairman’s advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Powell Jobs holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded a natural foods company in California.

Cristelle Pratt

Deputy Secretary General

Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat

Cristelle Pratt - Deputy Secretary General, Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PILFS)
Cristelle has extensive experience in the public and private sectors working for national government and in various regional roles with the most senior being that of CEO of SOPAC (the Pacific Applied Science Geoscience Commission) which is now the known as Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of the SPC from 2004 to 2010.
She has also provided policy, technical and strategical advice, in the areas of ocean governance and in climate and disaster risk resilient development to various regional and international organisations, including the World Bank and AusAid.
Ms. Pratt holds tertiary qualifications in marine law and policy and geosciences from Dalhousie University, Canada and the Australian University in Canberra, Australia, respectively.
Ocean governance sustainable use remain a deep passion and commitment for Ms Pratt who believes that the ocean that connects us as a region offers many opportunities for us all and deserves increased attention and efforts at all levels.

David Prieto

independent research

Columbia University,

David Prieto is a 2017 Fulbright – National Science Foundation Arctic Research Fellow based in Iceland with academic residencies at the Stefansson Arctic Institute and University of Reykjavik. As a Fulbright-NSF Fellow, he is conducting research on the benefits and costs of establishing a marine protected area over the Central Arctic Ocean, particularly focusing on natural resource development, shipping, geopolitics and climate change. Prior to his Fulbright, David worked as a management consultant in New York City, where he advised clients regarding energy and environmental issues. He holds a MSc from Columbia University and BA from the University of London and is a member of The Explorers Club.

Peter Pulsifer

Research Scientist

National Snow and Ice Data Center CIRES, University of Colorado

Peter Pulsifer s a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University of Colorado at Boulder where he leads the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic project (ELOKA, http://eloka-arctic.org). His research addresses questions related to the use of geographic information with a particular focus on supporting interoperability: the ability of information systems to readily share information and/or operations. For more than a decade, Dr. Pulsifer has been active in the coordination of international polar data activities. He has done this through participation in the GEO Cold Regions Initiative, and a number of other initiatives. At present, he chairs the Arctic Data Committee, and co-chairs the Arctic Data team of the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee.

Hon. Henry Puna

Prime Minister

Cook Island

Hon. Henry Puna - Prime Minister
Prime Minister Henry Puna has a degree in law from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Tasmania in Australia. He practiced law for several years before entering politics. As a public servant Prime Minister Puna has held the Head of Ministry position of Secretary of the Cook Islands Ministry of Transport.
The Prime Minister’s family is well known in Cook Islands politics. His father, Tuakeu Manuela, was a Member of the Legislative Assembly, and his older brothers William Estall and Ngereteina Puna both served as Cabinet Ministers. His brother Manuela Puna served as Clerk of the Cook Islands Parliament.
Prime Minister Puna won his seat in Parliament at a 2005 by-election in the constituency of Manihiki. In September 2006, following the retirement of party leader Sir Geoffrey Henry, he was elected leader of the Cook Islands Party. He was re-elected as MP for Manihiki during the 2010 election, in which his party won 16 of the 24 seats. On 30 November 2010 he was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Cook Islands.
It was under Prime Minister Puna's premiership in November 2011, that the Cook Islands became a founding member of the Polynesian Leaders Group, a regional grouping intended to cooperate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment. He has lead the region in climate change by creating the Cook Islands Marine Park, called Marae Moana, over the entire Cook Islands marine space of 1.9 million square kilometres as a resilience measure and also as a whole domain approach to integrated ocean governance. He has also achieved the auspicious goal of 50 percent of the Cook Islands generating renewable energy with the remaining 50 percent to be converted by 2020.

Jasmiini Pylkkänen

PhD student

Department for Cultural Anthropology, University of Oulu, Finland

Jasmiini Pylkkänen is a PhD student at a Nordic Centre of Excellence in Arctic research called REXSAC (Resource Extraction and Sustainable Arctic Communities). Based at the University of Oulu, her research zooms into past and present-day mining cases in the Circumpolar North and strives to build bridges between anthropology and political science. In particular, Pylkkänen explores how environmental risks and social justice are being dealt with in public claim-making and environmental governance. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Copenhagen and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Helsinki. Prior to REXSAC Pylkkänen has, among other things, worked as a research project assistant at Lund University, in a study dealing with climate finance and fossil fuel subsidies.

Yubao Qiu

Associate Professor

Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth

Yubao Qiu is working as an associate professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, where his research is focusing remote sensing of snow and ice changes in the High Mountain and Polar Cold Regions. He is the Point of Contact and co-lead to the GEO Cold Regions Initiative (GEOCRI) and is actively involved in Digital Belt and Road Program (DBAR), the International Science Program for Sustainable Development of the Belt and Road Region Using Big Earth Data, chairing the Task Force for the High Mountain and Polar Cold Regions.

Keld Qvistgaard

Senior Ice Advisor

Client Relations Manager

Ice Advisor including numerous aerial and shipbased campaigns for Royal Arctic Line, Danish Coast Guard and commercial clients. Has provided onboard ice advisory for coast Guard vessels in high Arctic waters (Greenland Waters up to 81N) Has participated in numerous reconnaissance flights both by helicopter and fixed wing airplane based at Ice Patrol Narsarsuaq, Greenland.

Expertice:
Expertise in operational handling and interpretation of high resolution satellite images, both SAR and non-SAR in high resolution
Expertise in Greenland/Arctic/Antarctic sea ice & icebergs.
One of the founders of the International Ice Charting Working Group
Member of the JCOMM Expert Team on Sea Ice.

Volker Rachold

Head,

German Arctic Office, Alfred Wegener Institute,

Dr. Volker Rachold is the Head of the German Arctic Office, which serves as an information and cooperation platform between German stakeholders from science, politics and industry. His functions include managing the dialogue between German Arctic players, supporting the federal ministries interested in Arctic matters, coordinating Germany´s scientific input to the Arctic Council and planning and implementing national and international Arctic-related events and projects. Before moving to the German Arctic Office in 2017, he served as the Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) since 2006.

David Ramsay

Former Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment,

Northwest Territories, Canada

David Ramsay, long-time resident of the North West Territories, Canada was first elected to public office in 1997 serving five years as a Yellowknife City Councillor. Mr. Ramsay was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2003 before becoming the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment in 2011 which included its mining portfolio - approximately 50% of private sector GDP in the jurisdiction. Mr. Ramsay has also served as Minister of Justice, Attorney General, Minister of Transportation and the Minister Responsible for the Public Utilities Board for the GNWT and was President of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) from 2014 and 2015. Currently, Mr. Ramsay is the CEO of Arctic Mineral Resources, a director of Fortune Minerals and co-owner of Northern Gateway Consulting, a Director of Denendeh Investment Incorporated, an advisory Board member for 92 Resources, and on the Board of Directors for Arctic 360.

Morten Rasch

Chief Consultant

University of Copenhagen

Morten Rasch is a physical geographer from University of Copenhagen. He has throughout his career been working with leadership of research stations and long-term ecosystem research programs in Greenland. He is currently the chairman of a station manager forum in the project INTERACT, a network of 79 arctic and northern alpine research stations. Morten Rasch has a long experience on arctic safety from 30 year of field experience in Greenland and elsewhere in the Arctic.

Øyvind Ravna

Professor of Law

University of Tromsø

Øyvind Ravna, Dr. juris, (eq. PhD in law) (2008) is Professor at the Faculty of Law, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Lapland, Finland. His fields of research are indigenous peoples’ law, property law and human rights. For publications in English.
Professor Ravna teaches Sámi and Indigenous Peoples’ Law, property law, legal history and human rights. Ravna is editor-in-chief of academic journal Arctic Review on Law and Politics and the head of the Arctic Law Thematic Network’s Indigenous law group under the University of Arctic. He is also a documentary author and a member of Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and Translators Association, having published several documentary books on Indigenous people in the High North, including life and livelihood in the Russian North. His last documentary book is Gjennom Sibir med Nansen [Through Siberia with Nansen].

Jasmin Raymond

Professor

INRS

Interested in geothermal energy, Professor Jasmin Raymond is conducting research work on low to medium temperature resources, including heat pump systems. The main objective of his projects, done in collaboration with geothermal designers, operators and manufacturers, is to improve the efficiency and profitability of systems by providing scientific and technological innovations. Field testing and numerical modeling are the main activities he carries out.
Mr Raymond is a hydrogeologist and he teaches geothermal energy basics at Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Quebec City. He is the coleader of an international research group on geothermal energy supported by UNESCO. Highly involved in the scientific community, Mr Raymond participates to a task group of the Canadian Standard Association on geothermal heat pumps and the geothermal advisory committee of Geoscience BC. He coauthored a report from the Geological Survey of Canada on the geothermal potential of the country and was awarded the Canadian Geotechnical Society Colloquium in order to complete a Canadian lecture series during 2016-2017.

Jeremy Rayner

University of Saskatchewan

Dr Jeremy Rayner is the Director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of British Columbia and Masters in Politics from the University of Durham as well as Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. His main areas of specialisation in public policy include theories of the policy process (especially policy learning and policy change), policy analysis, governance, resource policy, energy policy and environmental policy. His research currently focuses on governance arrangements for complex policy problems, especially at the intersection of forests, climate change and energy. As chair of the Global Forest Expert Panel on the International Forest Regime from 2009-2011, he was responsible for editing and contributing to the panel’s assessment report, and co-authoring and presenting the panel’s policy brief to the ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests in January 2011. Rayner continues to work in the area of international forest governance, including a capacity building project in south east Asia and a European-sponsored research group on “forests+”. In the Genome Canada funded VALGEN project, co-led by JSGS colleague Peter Phillips, he is the theme leader for “democratic engagement” research, working on the influence of public consultations around biofuels on policy development. With Kathleen McNutt (JSGS Regina campus) he is working on the concept of nodality in network governance.

Lars-Otto Reiersen

former Executive Secretary, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP)

Arctic Council Working Group

Lars-Otto Reiersen has been the Executive Secretary of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) since its formation in 1991. In his role he has been coordinating work of AMAP, including its major scientific assessments such as the “Arctic Pollution Issues”, seminal “Arctic Climate Impact Assessment” and “Arctic Ocean Acidification”. He contributed significantly to the founding and development of the Arctic Council through his commitment to the protection of the Arctic environment. For his outstanding work and the input AMAP provided to several international conventions and agreements Lars-Otto Reiersen was awarded in 2013 the prestigious SETAC Rachel Carson Award.

Anni Reissell

IIASA and University of Helsinki

Anni Reissell is Guest Research Scholar and Director of the Arctic Futures Initiative (AFI) International Project Office at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) located in Laxenburg, Austria, and Science Coordinator at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She holds a PhD in chemistry, with thesis on ambient air and chamber studies on biogenic volatile organic compounds linking emissions, chemistry, meteorology and topography in the Los Angeles Basin area. Her diverse background includes radiopharmaceuticals, natural radioactivity, air quality measurements of inorganic and organic compounds, aerosol particles, development of methods and quality control procedures for sampling and analysis. Previous positions include research scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, research chemist at the Air Pollution Research Center, University of California, Riverside, and Executive Director of the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS). Dr. Reissell’s interests are broad and encompass integrated land-ecosystem atmosphere processes in relation to climate change and global change, currently socio-economics as well. She has over 20 years’ experience in chemistry and measurements, as well as global change research, international global change research programs and policies. Her experience also encompasses, for example, reviews of proposals and scientific articles, academic lectures and courses, supervising MSc and PhD students as well as other scientific and technical personnel. During her career, Anni Reissell has brought together scientific communities to work on new lines of thinking, across disciplinary and community boundaries.

Gunn-Britt Retter

Head

Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council

Ms Gunn-Britt Retter lives in the coastal Saami community Unjárga-Nesseby in north-eastern Norway. She is a teacher of training from Sámi University of Applied Sciences and holds MA in Bilingual studies from the University of Wales. Since 2001, Retter has worked with Arctic Environmental issues, first at Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS) (Denmark) and since 2005 in the present position as Head of Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council. In her present position, Retter has been involved in issues related to indigenous peoples and knowledge associated with climate change, biodiversity, gender equality, languages, pollution and management of natural resources.

Bjarni Richter

Marketing- and Project Manager

Senior Geologist Iceland Geosurvey (ISOR)

Bjarni Richter is a Senior geologist and Project- and Marketing manager at Iceland GeoSurvey. Bjarni studied geology at the University of Iceland and at the University of Copenhagen, where he finished his Cand. Scient. diploma. Bjarni has been with Iceland GeoSurvey (2003) and its predecessor, National Energy Authority, Research Division, from 1998.
The main emphasis of Bjarni’s work since 1998 has been geothermal energy, mostly exploration of high temperature systems (both geosciences and technical aspects) as well as work in the fields of petroleum geology and marine geology for the National Energy Authority and ministry foreign affairs. Bjarni has international experience in geothermal exploration and project management.

Lesley Riddoch

Director

Nordic Horizons

Lesley is the director of Nordic Horizons and one of Scotland’s best-known newspaper commentators and broadcasters. She was assistant editor of The Scotsman in the 1990s and a contributing editor of the Sunday Herald. She is best known for broadcasting with programmes on BBC2, Channel 4, Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland, for which she has won two Sony speech broadcaster awards.

She wrote Blossom – comparing aspects of life in Scotland and the Nordic countries – in 2013, and co-edited McSmorgasbord - a book of essays on Nordic relationships with Europe in March 2017.

Arne Riedel

Director,

Arctic Summer College

Arne Riedel is an environmental lawyer at Ecologic Institute in Berlin, where he coordinates the Institute’s activities on Arctic issues, serves as Director of the Arctic Summer College, and works on climate and energy laws and governance, including in collaboration with the German government, the European Union, and the WWF International Arctic Programme. He supports the German Ministry of the Environment in the negotiations on the UNFCC and the Paris Agreement and provides legal expertise on renewable energies for the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

Mika Riipi

County Governor

Lapland

Mr. Mika Riipi is the County Governor of the Regional Council of Lapland. The mission of the Regional Council of Lapland is to operate for the good of the region, its municipalities and inhabitants of Lapland in all issues regarding development, planning, research and the representation of interests of the region. He started in the position on March 1st, 2013. Previously, he has been the Mayor in Posio, town secretary in Haapavesi and senior adviser in the Municipality department at the Ministry of the Interior. Mr. Riipi holds a Master´s degree in Administrative Sciences, majoring in municipality jurisdiction. He graduated from the University of Tampere in 2002.

Thierry Rodon

Associate Professor

Université Laval

Mr Thierry Rodon is an associate professor in the Political Science Department at Université Laval and holds a Research Chair in Northern Sustainable Development. He is also the director of the Interuniversity Centre for Aboriginal Studies and Research (CIERA). He specializes in northern policies and Arctic governance and has extensive experience working with Indigenous communities and northern institutions and leads MinErAL, an international research project on extractive industries and Indigenous livelihood.

James I. Rogers

Associate Lecturer in International Politics

University of York.

Dr James Rogers is Associate Lecturer in International Politics at the University of York and Visiting Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. His research focuses on drones, technology, and conflict.

Raymond Rousselot

Uapishka Station Treasurer

Pessamit (Québec), Canada Uapishka Station

Raymond Rousselot is the Pessamit Innu Community Vice-Chief.
Born in the fifties in a hunter family, he learned from his grandfather that practiced traditional lifestyle until he was 90 years old.
After his studies in wildlife management, Mr. Rousselot soon devoted himself to indigenous entrepreneurship and community development, what he still does and have been doing for more than 40 years. He also evolved within the forestry sector.
He is now the Vice-Chief and elder of the Innu Council of Pessamit.

Elena Rovenskaya

Director

Advanced Systems Analysis

Elena Rovenskaya is the Director of the Advanced Systems Analysis (ASA) Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria. ASA focuses on novel approaches, methods and tools to enable solving problems that cannot be addressed by existing tools or solving problems more efficiently. Dr. Rovenskaya is also a Research Scholar at the Optimal Control Department, Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia. She has a background in physics and applied mathematics. Her current scientific interests lie in the fields of optimization and simulation methods, and their application to modeling coupled human-earth systems.

Elana Wilson Rowe

Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Elana Wilson Rowe holds a PhD (2006) from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUP), where she leads the research group on Emerging Powers and Global Development, and an adjunct professor at the High North Centre for Business and Governance at Nord University (Bodø, Norway). Wilson Rowe’s research areas include Arctic governance, Russia’s Arctic and foreign policymaking, and the politics of climate change. These research topics are connected by Wilson Rowe’s broader interest in the practice of diplomacy and the role of experts and expert knowledge in shaping the premises for global governance. She is the author of Russian Climate Politics: When Science Meets Policy (Palgrave, 2013) and has a new book on Arctic politics forthcoming with University of Manchester Press (2017).

Ségolène Royal

Ambassador

the Arctic and Antarctic Poles, former Minister of Climate and Environment, France

Ségolène Royal, Ambassador for the Arctic and Antarctic Poles, former Minister of Climate and Environment. She was previously the Minister of Climate and Environment from April 2014 until June 2017. She was nominated as President of the 21 st session of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change by French President François Hollande in February 2016 and held that post until CoP 22 in November 2016 in Marrakech. She was Minister Delegate for Family Affairs, Childhood and Disability (March 2000 - May 2002), Minister Delegate for School Education (June 1997 - March 2000), and Minister for the Environment (April 1992 - March 1993). She was President of the Poitou-Charentes Region from April 2004 to May 2014 and was a member of the French Parliament for the Deux-Sèvres department numerous times between 1988 and 2007. She was the runner-up for the 2007 presidential election, the first woman in France to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major party. Minister Royal was also Vice-President and Spokeswoman for the Banque publique d’investissement (French Public Investment Bank), Vice President of Socialist International, and was an advisor to French President François Mitterrand from 1982-1988.

Barbara J. Ryan

Secretariat Director

Group on Earth Observations

Barbara J Ryan is the Secretariat Director at the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a partnership of governments and organizations established in 2005. GEO envisions “a future wherein decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations and information”. As of 2016, GEO’s 103 Members include 102 countries and the European Commission, and there are 103 GEO Participating Organizations. All Arctic States and many organizations active in the far north are represented in GEO. Together, the GEO community is creating a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) that will link Earth observation resources world-wide across multiple Societal Benefit Areas and make those resources available for better informed decision-making.

After graduating from State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland in 1974, Barbara joined the US Geological Survey (USGS). At the USGS she was instrumental in the introduction of full and open data policies for Landsat imagery, resulting in upwards of 41 million data downloads around the world to date. Barbara has served as chair of the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and in 2008 became director of the World Meteorological Organization’s space programme, before joining GEO in 2012.

Søren Rysgaard

Professor, PhD.

Arctic Research Centre at Aarhus University; Greenland Institute of Natural Resources; Centre for Earth Observation Science at University of Manitoba

Professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Arctic geomicrobiology and climate change. Research interests: Marine microbiology and biogeochemistry in Arctic sea ice, ocean and sediments. Understanding carbon and nutrient cycling in Arctic marine ecosystems, sea ice processes and glacier-fjord-ocean interactions. Global change. Scientific leader - Arctic Science Partnership (ASP). Founding Director – Greenland Climate Research Centre (Greenland), Arctic Research Centre (Denmark). Led several large science projects in the arctic (NOG, CAMP, Anoxia, Sea Ice dynamics, FreshLink, GCRC, ASP campaigns) and initiated two long-term marine monitoring programs (High- and Sub-arctic). Authored/co-authored 180 publications on arctic marine systems.

Kristin Røymo

Mayor

the City of Tromsø

Kristin Røymo is the mayor of the City of Tromsø, the capital of Troms County. Røymo represents the Labour Party. She was elected to the city board for the first time in 1999 and has in recent years served as group leader of the Labour Party in the city board. Røymo has also worked as a political adviser in Norway’s Foreign Ministry.

Røymo holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Transformation from the University of Tromsø. She currently is on leave of absence from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration while serving as a full-time politician.

Stein Sandven

Research Director

Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center

Prof. Stein Sandven is research director at Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and Professor II at University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). He has more than 30 years’ experience in polar research. His main fields of expertise include marine and cryosphere remote sensing, polar oceanography and sea ice research. He has been coordinator of many research projects funded by EU, ESA, Norwegian Space center, Norwegian Research Council and industry over the last 25 years. At present he is the coordinator of the Arctic EU project INTAROS with 50 partners from 20 countries.

Hilde Sandvik

board member

Amedia

After ten year as writer and editor in Bergens Tidende, Hilde Sandvik quit her job as culture editor last year to found Broen.xyz, a new Nordic media company. She is currently a board member of Amedia, she also sits on the board of Cubus Architect Group and Foreningen Norden. She works frequently as moderator and she host events and conferences in the Nordic countries. She has written books, amongst them the Norwegian bestseller ”Hersketeknikk” – and has also edited several books.

Robert Sauvé

President

Société du Plan Nord

Robert Sauvé was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Société du Plan Nord on April 1, 2015, after acting since May 2014 as the Associate Secretary General responsible for the Secrétariat au Plan Nord. He has held several senior positions within the Québec public service, which he joined in 1987. His career as a public administrator has been influenced, among other things, by his in-depth knowledge of Québec's territory and regions. His positions have included Associate Secretary General for Aboriginal affairs, Deputy Minister at the Ministère des Régions, and Associate Deputy Minister for regional and municipal affairs. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Deputy Minister at the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, with responsibility for the Plan Nord. From August 2012 to October 2012, he was Associate Secretary General at the Bureau de transition du Plan Nord, and from October 2012 to May 2014, Associate General Secretary with responsibility for the Secrétariat des comités ministériels.
Robert Sauvé was born in Beauharnois and holds a Bachelor's degree in architecture from Université de Montréal and a Master's degree in urban and regional planning from Oxford Polytechnic in England.
He also pursued doctoral-level studies in land planning and regional development at Université de Montréal.

Hannele Savela

Research Coordinator

Thule Institute, University of Oulu and Kirsi Latola

Hannele Savela works as the Transnational Access Coordinator for INTERACT, the International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic. In the field of international and arctic research collaboration and science policy, her activities include representation of INTERACT in the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Cold Regions Initiative (GEOCRI), where she is one of the co-leads. Hannele is also the co-chair of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) Committee of Observations and Networks (SAON CON). Co-operation in the University of the Arctic (UArctic) network and in the EU-PolarNet project are also close to her heart.

Demian Schane

Attorney-Advisor

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of General Counsel

Demian Schane is based at the University of Akureyri this Fall thanks to a Fulbright Scholar Grant. He is an Attorney-Advisor for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of General Counsel, in Juneau, Alaska. He has been with NOAA since 2007 and is responsible for providing legal advice to the National Marine Fisheries Service on requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and other substantive and procedural statutes applicable to federal agencies. Prior to joining NOAA, Mr. Schane was an attorney with Earthjustice in Juneau. Mr. Schane received his B.A. in history from the Dartmouth College, J.D. from the College of William & Mary, and LL.M from Georgetown University.

Julia Schmale

PhD, Researcher

Paul Scherrer Institute

Julia Schmale obtained her PhD in atmospheric sciences in 2011 from the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry and Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. She held positions with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Edinburgh (UK), the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam (Germany) and is currently a scientist at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen (Switzerland). Her research focuses on atmospheric fine particulate matter and specifically its effects on climate in the Polar Regions. She has been active at the science-policy interface for several years, is currently representing Switzerland in the International Arctic Science Committee Atmosphere Working Group and is a member of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme Expert Group on short-lived climate-forcing pollutants.

Katharina Schneider-Roos

CEO

Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB) Foundation

Katharina Schneider-Roos is CEO of the non-profit foundation Global Infrastructure Basel (GIB). Katharina’s team has assessed over one hundred infrastructure projects across the world applying the GIB Grading for Sustainable Infrastructure. This tool helped to highlight the environmental, social and economic risks and potential impacts of projects and provided investors and project owners a framework for decision-making. Katharina was responsible for organizing an annual investment forum during GIB Summits, and led the publication of the Sustainable Infrastructure Capacity Building Handbook and a Scoping Study for the Early Stage Project Preparation Stage. She co-chairs the Cities Climate Leadership Alliance’s (CCFLA) Working Group on Project Preparation Facilities, is member of the CCFLA Steering Board and a member of the ICLEI Resilient Cities Conference Program Committee. In support of the Swiss Government and international experts, she is currently working with a project team to establish SuRe – The Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure. Katharina is member of the Steering Board of the Resilience Measurement, Evidence and Learning Community of Practice funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dario Schwoerer

Climatologist

explorer and climate activist

 For 17 years, Dario Schwoerer has led the “TOPtoTOP Global Climate Expedition” conducting field-based research for universities, scientists and research organizations, visiting the world’s remote regions and sharing examples of innovative solutions to protect and conserve our planet. It’s the first expedition connecting all climates, traversing seven seas, reaching the highest peaks of all seven continents, powered only by nature and the human spirit. After 100,000 nautical miles covering over 100 countries, more than 100,000 students got inspired to act. Schwoerer contributed to the 2010 IPCC report about the impact of climate change on mountain guiding in the Swiss Alps.

Erik van Sebille

Associate Professor

Utrecht University

Erik is an oceanographer and climate scientist, investigating how ocean currents move plastic litter and other floating objects between different regions of the ocean. He currently leads the "Tracking Of Plastic In Our Seas" project, funded by a 5-year (2017-2022) European Research Council Starting Grant. Recently, he was part of the scientific team reporting on the origin of plastic in the Arctic. Erik is a strong science communicator, with appearances on international television, radio and newspapers, and was the winner of the 2016 European Geosciences Union (EGU) Ocean Division Outstanding Young Scientist Award.

Peter Seligmann

Chairman of the Board

Conservation International

Peter Seligmann has a vision and a mission. The vision is an environmentally healthy world that will provide economic opportunities and security for all people.

Peter A. Seligmann is the Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Conservation International, a global nonprofit organization that he co-founded in 1987. Under Peter's leadership, Conservation International has become a cutting edge leader in valuing and sustainably caring for nature for the well-being of people. Peter, a dynamic communicator and thought leader, has been an influential and inspiring voice in conservation for nearly 40 years. He works in partnership with governments, communities, and businesses to find solutions to ensure the sustainability of our natural resources.

Peter serves on the advisory council for the Jackson Hole Land Trust and is a Director at First Eagle Holdings, Inc. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Coca-Cola Company's International Advisory Committee from 2011-2014. Peter was also named to the Enterprise for the Americas ​Board by President Clinton in 2000.

Peter began his career in 1976 with The Nature Conservancy, serving as the organization's western region land steward, and later became the director of the California Nature Conservancy. He holds a Master of Science in Forestry and Environmental Science from Yale University and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology from Rutgers University. Peter has Honorary Doctorates in Science from Michigan State University and Rutgers University.

A world traveler, avid fisherman, and diver, Peter is based in Seattle, Washington.

Alexander Sergunin

Professor

Saint-Petersburg State University

Alexander Sergunin is Professor of International Relations at the St. Petersburg State University, Russia. His fields of research and teaching include International Relations Theory, Russian foreign policy thinking and making, and Arctic politics. His most recent book-length publications include: Russia in the Arctic. Hard or Soft Power? (Stuttgart, 2016) (with Valery Konyshev); Explaining Russian Foreign Policy Behavior: Theory and Practice (Stuttgart, 2016); U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System: Past, Present, Future (St. Petersburg, 2015) (with Valery Konyshev and Valeria Shatzkaya); Russian Strategies in the Arctic: Avoiding a New Cold War (Moscow, 2014) (with Lassi Heininen and Gleb Yarovoy); Contemporary Military Strategy (Moscow, 2014) (with Valery Konyshev); and Contemporary International Relations Theories (Moscow, 2013) (with Valery Konyshev et al.).

Mike Sfraga

Wilson Center

Polar Initiative Director

Dr. Mike Sfraga is the Director of the Polar Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Sfraga is a geographer with a focus on the geography of Arctic landscapes, Arctic policy, and the impacts and implications of a changing climate on the social and political regimes in the Arctic. Sfraga previously served as Vice Chancellor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), faculty member, department chair, and Associate Dean in the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension.
Sfraga served as Co-Lead Scholar for the inaugural Fulbright Arctic Initiative 2015-2017; a complementary program to the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Sfraga serves as Co-Director of the University of the Arctic’s Institute for Arctic Policy and is Affiliate Faculty, International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Sfraga serves as Chairman of the Institute of the North, University of the Arctic’s Head of Delegation to the Arctic Council, member of the Governor’s Alaska Arctic Policy Committee, and Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee.
Sfraga holds a Ph.D. in Northern Studies and Geography from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Jessica Shadian

Distinguished Senior Fellow

Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, U. of Toronto

Dr. Jessica M. Shadian is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History (BGCCIH) and Director of Arctic360, a BGCCIH collaboration with the University of Toronto and the Wilson Polar Institute. Shadian has spent the past 15 years living and working throughout the European and North American Arctic. Her research focuses on Arctic and indigenous governance and law and her 2014 book entitled: The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice, and Inuit Governance is the first in-depth history of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and Inuit sovereignty in global politics reaching back to pre-European discovery.

Lin Shanqing

Deputy Administrator

State Oceanic Administration, P. R. China

Date of Birth 1963.05
Place of Birth P.R．China
2016— Deputy Administrator, State Oceanic Administration, P. R. China
2015—2016 Mayor, Beihai City, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
2012—2015 Executive vice-mayor, Beihai City, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
2010—2012 Country Party Secretary, Heng County, Nanning City, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
2008—2010 Director General, Department of Marine Forecast and Disaster
2000—2008 Deputy Director General, Department of Eco-Environment Protection
1993—2000 Senior Engineer, Director of Environmental Protection Department, Director of Monitoring Center, North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration
1985—1993 Assistant Engineer, North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration
1981—1985 Department of Law, Shandong University

Melaina Sheldon

B.A.

Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship Alumna

Melaina Sheldon is Inland Tlingit of the Deisheetaan (Beaver) Clan hailing from Teslin, Yukon Territory. Ms. Sheldon is a newly appointed member of the Yukon Police Council and sits as clan representative on the Teslin Tlingit Justice Council where she is playing a key role in the development and implementation of a Peacemaker Court within her First Nation. She is an alumna of the Gordon Foundation’s prestigious Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship where her policy research focused on integrating popular theatre techniques with workshop teachings in a new training initiative focused on crime prevention and breaking stereotypes between First Nation youth and RCMP. As of August 2017 Ms. Sheldon leads the Jane Glassco Northern Fellows program for the Gordon Foundation and looks forward to promoting policy and leadership development in Canada’s North.

Alexander Shestakov

Director

WWF Arctic Programme

Alexander Shestakov is the director of the WWF Global Arctic Programme based in Ottawa, Canada. His diverse background includes working for academia, NGOs, government and industry. MSc in physical geography and MA in law (land and environmental law), and a PhD focused on environmental management and conservation, giving him a broad understanding of conservation and international environmental issues. For several years he was working for the Russian Academy of Sciences with a focus in environmental and resource management, environmental mapping and geoecology. He has been an expert to the Russian Parliament on environmental law, member of official Russian delegations to the Convention on Biodiversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Alexander spent number of years with international environmental consultancies specializing on environmental audits and EIA. He also runs Health, Safety and Environment department for BP Russia.

Mingming Shi

Project manager

China's Economic Diplomacy in Greenland

Growing up in Southern China, Mingming Shi moved to Iceland and started her career in the Arctic region three years ago. She has worked extensively in the tourism sector in Iceland and is registered as a graduate student in West Nordic Studies at the University of Iceland. Her interest in the Arctic covers Arctic political economy, fishing, tourism, and trans-regional cooperation. In 2017, she spent two months in Nuuk, Greenland, researching on the economic relationship between Greenland and China.

Hyoung Chul Shin

Director

Division of Strategy and Cooperation, Korean Arctic Research Consortium

Dr. Hyoung Chul Shin, a biological oceanographer by training, participated in and coordinated numerous expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic. He dedicates much of his time to science as well as science support. His activities and interests include the management of marine living resources in polar waters. He is one of the Vice Chair of the Forum of Arctic Research Operators (FARO).
Dr. Shin is currently the director of KOPRI’s Division of Strategy and Cooperation, where he is in charge of strategic planning and developing cooperation with partners. He also serves as the Secretary of the Korea Arctic Research Consortium (Ko-ARC).

Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson

Director General

Innovation Centre Iceland

Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson was born in Iceland in 1954. He studied at the University of Copenhagen and University of Cambridge UK where he obtained PhD from the Cavendish Laboratory in 1983. He was elected Research Fellow of Darwin College Cambridge. He is Director General at the Innovation Centre Iceland and professor of Physics at the University of Iceland. He has published over a hundred refereed papers and articles as well as two books. He was awarded the Presidential Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 2004 and is Laureate of the Global Energy Prize (2007).

Gylfi Sigfússon

CEO

Eimskip

Gylfi Sigfússon has been in a management role for Eimskip and related companies in Iceland and USA since 1990. Before taking on the position of the CEO and President of the Eimskip Group, Gylfi managed Eimskip Americas. Between 2008 to 2009 he led the restructuring of the Eimskip group with the aim of being the leading container carrier in the North Atlantic. Gylfi is the vice chairman and an executive board member of the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, is on the board of the Greenland-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, the American-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, and the Icelandic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir

Director

Snæfellsnes Regional Park

Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir – Director of Snæfellsnes Regional Park In 2014, Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir became the Director of the Snæfellsnes Regional Park but she has been working and living in the area for a long time. In addition to her work as Director of the Park, she also manages a sheep farm and has been involved in several developmental and innovation projects in Iceland and abroad, focusing among other things on education, environment and economic development in rural areas. She holds a degree as an environmental specialist from the Norwegian Agricultural University, where she also worked for 14 years as an assistant professor. She holds
a degree as an environmental specialist and worked as an assistant professor at the
Agricultural University of Iceland for 14 years.

Guðmundur Haukur Sigurðarson

CEO

Vistorka Company

 Guðmundur Haukur Sigurðarson is General Manager of Vistorka ehf. (Akureyri CleanTech). For the last ten years he has been involved in the waste to value projects in Akureyri. He was Project Manager for the design of the composting plant, the biodiesel plant, and the bio-methane (from landfill) plant in Akureyri. He has been a board member of the biodiesel company Orkey for the last three years. Guðmundur has served as the CEO of Vistorka since mid-year 2015. Previous to joining Vistorka he was employed by Mannvit , Iceland´s largest engineering company.

Árni Þór Sigurðsson

Ambassador

Arctic Affairs

Árni Þór Sigurðsson is an Icelandic diplomat and has been Ambassador for Arctic Affairs and Senior Arctic Official since early 2015. Before entering the Foreign Service Ambassador Sigurðsson was a member of the Icelandic Parliament, Alþingi, and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. In his political career, he mainly dealt with international and foreign affairs, external trade, international development aid, Nordic cooperation, and defence and security issues. Previously, he was a City Councillor in the Capital City of Reykjavik for three consecutive electoral terms. Ambassador Sigurðsson holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and another Master’s degree in Economics and Russian. He studied in Oslo, Stockholm, Moscow, London and Reykjavik.

Fiona Simpson

Assistant Chief Planner,

Scottish Government

Dr. Fiona Simpson MRTPI is Assistant Chief Planner and Head of the Spatial Planning and Environment Team within Planning and Architecture Division of the Scottish Government. Fiona led the preparation of Scotland’s Third National Planning Framework and has recently played a key role in the ongoing review of the Scottish planning system. Having gained a PhD in planning from Heriot Watt University in 1997, Fiona has twenty years’ experience in planning and environmental assessment in the public and private sector. Her doctoral thesis was a comparative study of planning in Edinburgh and Prague.

Eirik Sivertsen

Chair

the Standing Committee of Arctic Parliamentarians, Member of the Norwegian Parliament

Mr. Eirik Sivertsen is a Norwegian Member of Parliament representing the Labor Party and the County of Nordland. Mr. Sivertsen was elected to parliament the first time in 2009 and was re-elected in 2013. Since 2013 Eirik Sivertsen has been the Chair of the Norwegian parliament’s delegation to the Arctic Parliamentary Cooperation. Since 2014 he has also chaired the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region, and was re-elected to this position at the Arctic parliamentary conference in Russia in June 2016. In the Norwegian parliament he serves as the First Vice-Chair of the Committee on Transport and Communication.

Sjúrðrur Skaale

Member

the Danish Parliament from the Faroe Islands

Sjúrður Skaale – Member of the Danish Parliament and Chairman of the Arctic Working Group Sjúrður Skaale is a former Journalist, Teacher and Political advisor with a degree in Political Science and Spanish Language from the University of Copenhagen. He is a member of the Faroese Social Democrats, elected to the Danish Parliament where he also is Chairman of the Parliament’s Arctic Working Group. He has published several books on political matters in the Faroe Islands.

Össur Skarphéðinsson

Former Member of Parliament and Minister

Alþingi (the Icelandic Parliament)

Össur Skarphéðinsson is an Icelandic politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from February 2009 to May 2013.

Össur matriculated from the Reykjavík Grammar School in 1973, and gained a BS in Biology from the University of Iceland in 1979, and a doctorate from the University of East Anglia in 1983. He was a member of the parliament (Althing) for the Reykjavík Constituency from 1991 to 2003, and for Reykjavík North Constituency from 2003 to 2016. He was Chairman of the Social Democratic Party parliamentary group from 1991 to 1993, Minister for the Environment from 1993 to 1995, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Alliance from 2000 to 2005.

Össur was appointed Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism for the Social Democratic Alliance in May 2007. He was also Minister for Nordic Cooperation from 24 May 2007 to 10 June 2008. In February 2009 he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Árni Snorrason

Director General

Iceland Met Office

Árni Snorrason is the Director General of the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) in Reykjavik. IMO is responsible for the monitoring, research and warnings of meteorology, hydrology, snow and ice, earthquakes and volcanoes, often covered by glaciers. In his position, he cooperates with many agencies in related fields, both within and outside Iceland, and also with international organizations, including several WMO activities such as EC-PHORS, Arctic-HYCOS and Arctic-HYDRA and is the chair of the steering group for GCW (Global Cryosphere Watch). He is also active in collaboration within the Nordic community and the Arctic Community including IASC, AMAP and SAON.

Ekaterina Sokolova

Head

East Arctic Research Center

Ekaterina Sokolova. Ph.D. studied at the Tomsk Polytechnic University by specialty of the atomic nucleus and particles physics and the Far Eastern State University by specialty of the molecular spectroscopy from 2002 to 2008. She worked at the Institute of Automation and Control Processes of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science. She received her Ph.D. of the specialization in laser physics in 2013 and worked at the Arctic scientific expedition like the scientific secretary. Since 2015 she is CEO of the East Arctic Research Centre and researcher of the Center for maritime international studies of Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University. Ekaterina is the expert at the information Polar Ocean Portal and the member of the Association of Polar Explorers.

The main interests are the development of multilateral relations with Asia-Pacific countries and strengthening of international relations at the field of the marine transport in the Arctic. She leads the active lifestyle and has awards for sporting achievements on the Pacific Fleet 2014 - 2016.

Piotr Stankiewicz

Educational methodological expert

Institute of Geophysics PAS, Poland

Piotr Stankiewicz is a methodological expert in STEM education in the Department of Polar and Marine Research at Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences. He collaborates on two international educational projects: “Exploitation of Polar Research results In School practice – ERIS” and “Engaging students in STEM education through Arctic research – EDU-ARCTIC”. The leading author of publication “Moving school closer to the world of science – innovative solutions for educational from the EDUSCIENCE project”; geography and science teacher, co-author of Geography school books in Poland.

Aurian Stark

Assistant Deputy Minister

Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Nunavut

Assistant Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Nunavut
Aurian Stark is the Assistant Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. Aurian has held various senior roles within the Government of Nunavut, including Deputy Chief Negotiator and Senior Advisor to the Premier. Prior to working for the Government of Nunavut, Aurian served in the Canadian Armed forces as a Maritime Surface Officer. Aurian has a bachelor of science in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, as well as a master of business administration specializing in intercultural negotiations from the University of Victoria. Aurian was raised on a farm in the lower mainland of British Columbia and now lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut with his wife, Leah and son Silas.

Konrad Steffen

Director

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

Dr. Konrad (Koni) Steffen is the Director of the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and a Professor in Climate and Cryosphere at ETH-Zurich and EPF-Lausanne in Switzerland. He is responsible for instrumentation deployed in the Arctic to help us monitor the significant changes taking place on the Greenland Ice Sheet showing the melting dynamics of the sheet. He has led field expeditions to the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctica for the past 40 years to measure the dynamic response of ice masses under a warming climate. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers and 15 book chapters.

Lars Stemmler

Head of International Projects

bremenports GmbH & Co. KG

Lars took over the position as Head of International Projects at bremenports in 2014. Previously, he worked for HSH Nordbank AG contributing to building up its port finance portfolio and for BLG Consult GmbH, the in-house consultancy of BLG Logistics Group. In the latter role he was involved in international assignments in port privatization and development. For these projects he traveled widely, mainly focusing on Europe, East Asia and the Middle East. Lars holds a master´s degree in logistics of Cranfield University. His Ph.D. focused on European seaport law. Lars is a visiting professor at the World Maritime University and with University of Applied Sciences Wismar.

Thomas Stocker

Professor

University of Bern

Thomas Stocker obtained a PhD in Natural Sciences at ETH Zürich in 1987. He held research positions at University College London, McGill University (Montreal), Columbia University (New York) and University of Hawai'i (Honolulu). Since 1993 he is Professor of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern. From 2008 to 2015 he co-chaired the Working Group I "The Physical Science Basis" of the IPCC, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Thomas Stocker has co-authored more than 200 publications. He holds honorary doctorates of the University of Versailles and of ETH Zürich. Moreover, he is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a Foreign Member of the “Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei” (Italy) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Olav Schram Stokke

University of Oslo and Fridtjof Nansen Institute

Dr. Olav Schram Stokke is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo, the Director of the University’s cross-disciplinary Bachelor Program on International Relations, and a Research Professor at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), where he also served as Research Director for many years. Previous affiliations include the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). His area of expertise is international relations with special emphasis on institutional analysis, resource and environmental management, and regional cooperation in Polar regions.

Wouter Jan Strietman

Project Manager and Researcher

Wageningen University and Research

Wouter Jan works at Wageningen Economic Research as an expert on marine litter, fisheries and the Arctic. His work is positioned on the interface between the (marine) environment, economy and society. Since 2010, Wouter has been coordinating projects aimed at reducing the amount of litter at sea, working in cooperation with fishermen, governments and NGO’s, both in the Netherlands and abroad. Since 2016, he is working on the Arctic Marine Litter project, which aims to investigate the exact sources of marine litter found on the beaches Jan Mayen and Svalbard and setting the stage for source-based strategies in collaboration with regional and international stakeholders.  

Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s first female First Minister.
Born in Irvine in 1970 and educated at Greenwood Academy, she studied law at the University of Glasgow where she graduated with LLB (Hons) and Diploma in Legal Practice. Before entering the Scottish Parliament as a regional MSP for Glasgow in 1999, Ms Sturgeon worked as a solicitor in the Drumchapel Law and Money Advice Centre in Glasgow. She is currently MSP for Glasgow Southside.
She served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing between May 2007 and September 2012 and then Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities with responsibility for government strategy and the constitution until November 2014. Throughout this period she also served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland.
She became Leader of the Scottish National Party in November 2014 and was first sworn in as First Minister on November 20, 2014.  She was re-elected First Minister in May 2016.

Tara MacLean Sweeney

Vice-Chair

Arctic Economic Council

Tara Sweeney is the Executive Vice President of External Affairs for Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), the largest locally-owned and operated business in Alaska, with approximately 13,000 shareholders and 12,000 employees worldwide. Sweeney served as chair of the Arctic Economic Council from 2015-2017 and currently serves as one of the organization’s vice-chairs. She also represents the Iñuit Circumpolar Council. In 2003 Sweeney served as special assistant for rural affairs and education in Governor Frank Murkowski’s administration and she also served as co-chair for Senator Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) successful 2014 Senate campaign. Sweeney is actively engaged in state and national public policy focused on energy, broadband, the Arctic and Native American self-determination.

Łukasz Szumowski

Under-Secretary of State

Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland

Cardiologist and professor of medical sciences, under-secretary of state for science policy in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. He is an author or co-author of over 150 national and internationalworks.
He has managed the Department of Arrhythmia in the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw where he has been a member of the Scientific Council for many years. He has performed numerous duties in the European and Polish Scientific Societies. He has been a member of among others: European Heart Rhythm Association Training Fellowships Committee, Innovation Committee as well as the Heart Rhythm Section in the Polish Society for Cardiology Board. He belongs to the European and Polish Society of Cardiology.
He has cooperated with the Kresy w Potrzebie – Polacy Polakom [the Borderlands in need - Poles for Poles] Foundation which takes care of Polish citizens left outside the eastern Polish border, particularly children from Grodno and Wołkowysk. He has also cooperated with the Serce dla Arytmii [Heart for Arrhythmia] Foundation which promotes knowledge among patients and doctors in the scope of arrhythmia prevention, diagnostics and treatment as well as with the Serce dla Arytmii Patient Association. He lives in Warsaw with his wife and four children. He is engaged in sailing and skiing for pleasure. In his free time he plays the piano and guitar.

Petteri Taalas

Secretary General

World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)

Petteri Taalas has been the Secretary-General of WMO since 1 January 2016. He was elected by the World Meteorological Congress in 2015 for a four-year term.

Hiroki Takakura

Professor

Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University

Hiroki Takakura
1998 Research Associate, Faculty of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University
1999 Ph.D (social anthropology), Tokyo Metropolitan University
2000 Associate professor, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University
2013 Professor, Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University (co-affiliated to the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University)

Yewlin Tay

Director

Arctic Wonderland Tours

Yewlin Tay – Director of Sales & Marketing at Arctic Wonderland Tours  Mr. Yewlin Tay is the Director of Sales & Marketing at Arctic Wonderland Tours and has been working with the company since 1977. Arctic Wonderland Tours is one of the most experienced tour providers in Greenland and the company also runs two hotels in Tasiilaq and Kulusuk located on the sparsely populated eastern shore of Greenland.  The company has utilized the past decades’ increased tourism in Iceland and offers visiting tourists from Iceland unique experiences on land, sea and in the sky.   

Anna Temp

PhD student of psychology

University of Edinburgh

Anna Temp, Anna is a final-year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Her project is inspired by the work of Peter Suedfeld and Lawrence Palinkas. For her research, she collaborated with the Polish Polar Station Hornsund where she accompanied the 38th expedition. She investigated their emotional well-being, cognitive functions and interviewed them about their experience. Her research can inform us about what makes someone a good polar explorer and how people cope with Arctic exploration.

Ásdís Hlökk Theodórsdóttir

Director

National Planning Agency

Ásdís Hlökk Theodórsdóttir is the Director of the Icelandic National Planning Agency. Ásdís Hlökk has M.Phil degree in Environmental Planning from Reading University. She has worked in the field of spatial planning, urban design and environmental assessment for over two decades – as a consultant, teacher and researcher and public official. Her work has spanned local and national-level planning, urban and rural planning and environmental assessment of plans and projects. Since 2013, she has led the Icelandic National Planning Agency.

Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson

Glaciologist

Icelandic Meteorological Office

Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson is a glaciologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. He studies the mass balance of glaciers and ice caps in Iceland and participates in monitoring of hazards related to flooding from subglacial lakes. He is involved in the development of the Global Cryosphere Watch, a WMO programme to monitor changes in all components of the cryosphere: Glaciers and ice caps, ice sheets, snow cover, sea ice, lake and river ice and frozen ground.

Saemundur E. Thorsteinsson

University of Iceland

Saemundur E. Thorsteinsson (Dipl.-Ing.) graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Iceland in 1982 and in telecommunications engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany in 1987. He worked at the University of Iceland, and at Iceland Telecom (Síminn hf.) frwhere he was director of the company’s research department. Since 2015, he has been a lecturer for telecommunications at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty of the University of Iceland. He has participated in research projects in various frameworks, including the EU RACE, ACTS and IST programmes, local Icelandic programmes and Eurescom, the European Institute for research and strategic studies in telecommunications.

Rachel Tiller

Research Scientist

SINTEF

Rachel Tiller holds a PhD in Political Science from NTNU, with a focus on marine and coastal interdisciplinary research at all levels of analysis, from local stakeholder perceptions to international management regimes. Her expertise is in regime interplay, governance, policy mitigation and stakeholder driven future scenario building and adaptive capacity. Her background also includes participating in and leading national and international inter-disciplinary projects. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of the Leiv Eirksson Mobility Fund. She is also the Norwegian representative on the Management Committee of the COST Action: CA15217 - Ocean Governance for Sustainability.

Daniela Tommasini

Senior Researcher

the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

Daniela Tommasini is a Senior Researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.
PhD in Geography, Tommasini academic and professional activity focuses on tourism, societies, cultures and indigenous knowledge in peripheral, remote and sparsely populated areas in the Arctic and in the Alps. She studies tourism as an adaptation strategy, part of alternative socio-cultural and economic possibilities in local resources development.
Tommasini research interests focus also on Chinese Tourism: Chinese Tourist flows; Images and representations of Place and Cultural Issues. She conducted fieldwork, consultancy and research projects on these topics in the Arctic, especially in Greenland, for over 20 years

Sergio C. Trindade

President

SE2T International, Ltd. sustainable business consultants

Sergio C. Trindade is a Brazilian/American global consultant on sustainable business with an accent on energy, environment and technology management with a vast international experience. He is a former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Science and Technology. He contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -MIT he earned a PhD, ChE, MSc, in chemical engineering, with minors in energy economics, technology management and international business. He has been a resident of the USA for over 30 years.

Enrique Troncoso

Engineering Consultant / Project leader

Boeing Research & Technology

Dr Troncoso has worked in technology & product development of sustainable and low carbon technologies for over 15 years, including 7 years as a project leader with Boeing Research & Technology, as well as technical and business development work in the European renewables & power generation sector. Ongoing work with Boeing includes project management of advanced technology programs on UAS, microgrids and onboard energy storage. He has also participated in several technology development projects with leading EU companies (including EON, Air Liquide, Iberdrola, Endesa, and Acciona). Dr Troncoso’s technical expertise includes technology & product development, systems engineering & integration, technical due diligence, technology assessments and techno-economic feasibility analyses

Felix Tschudi

Chairman and Owner

Tschudi Group

Felix Tschudi is the Chairman and Owner of the Tschudi Group, a shipping and logistics group focusing on cargo flows between North-West Europe, Russia, and the Central Asian Republics including logistics in the High North. He attended the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy and served as Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Navy. Tschudi is also the Chairman of the Centre for High North Logistics, a non-profit research foundation focusing on transportation solutions in the Arctic.

Apostolos Tsiouvalas

LL.M. Polar law candidate

University of Akureyri

Apostolos Tsiouvalas is an LLM Polar Law candidate at the University of Akureyri. He holds a bachelor's degree in law from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and has also taken courses in human rights, public international law and European Union law at the University of Trier in Germany. Apostolos has worked as a trainee lawyer in Greece. His main research interests revolve around the rights of indigenous peoples, human rights in general, and public international law issues.

Diane Tuft

Mixed-Media Artist

The Arctic Melt

Since 1998, Diane Tuft has traveled the world photographing the effects that the environment has had on the Earth’s landscape. Through her images, Diane hopes to stimulate a discussion surrounding the issues of climate change and global warming, and the importance of paying attention to the climate challenges that our planet is facing.

Jesse Tungilik

Director

Nunavut Arts and Crafts

Jesse Tungilik is a multi-disciplinary artist and Executive Director of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association (NACA) based in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Jesse recently joined NACA after more than three years as Intern Manager of Cultural Industries with the Government of Nunavut Department of Economic Development and Transportation in Pangnirtung. He is a life-long artist starting off working in ceramics when he was 8 years old at the Matchbox Gallery in Rankin Inlet. Later, he also worked as a jewelry artist at Mathew Nuqinqaq’s Aayuraa Studio in Iqaluit. As an artist, he has designed and painted public murals, his mixed-media contemporary sculpture has been exhibited at the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco, the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, and the Nunavut Arts Festival in Iqaluit. The grandson of celebrated Naujaat carver Marc Tungilik, Jesse spent his youth admiring the skill and creativity of his grandfather, and sought to create art that challenged the preconceptions of what Inuit art is traditionally thought of and which reflected the contemporary reality of his surroundings.

Toril Utvik

Manager

Arctic unit, Statoil

Toril Utvik holds a PhD within environmental chemistry from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She has a broad background from twenty-five years in Statoil, within R&D, Operations, and Safety and Sustainability Risk management and Strategy. She has been member of the Norwegian Research Council steering committee for the research program "Ocean and Coastal Areas" in the period 2007 to 2016. She is currently in the position as Manager of Statoil's Artic Unit, responsible for risk management, coordination of technology development needs across the Arctic region, and giving strategic advice on Arctic issues to top management in Statoil.

Peter Vangsbo

Nordic Business Developer

Climate-KIC

Peter Vangsbo is the Nordic Development Lead at the EU Commission Knowledge Centre for Climate, Climate KIC. Mr. Vangsbo background is within environmental health with more than 15 years of experience working as a researcher and consultant within sustainable urban development, urban climate change adaptation and mitigation and strategic sustainable development for industries. Working focus has been centred on innovative urban environmental management and how sustainability can be linked to urban development in order to reduce environmental impact, energy consumption, improve urban life quality and economic development.

Vladimir Vasilyev

Deputy Director

Central Marine Research & Design Institute of the Russian Federation

Dr. Vladimir Vasilyev is the Deputy Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Central Marine Research and Design Institute (CNIIMF) of the Russian Federation. His area of responsibility is safety of navigation, maritime law, navigation and communication aids. He holds a PhD in system engineering. He actively participates in international cooperation on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Transport, where he is a member of the Scientific Council. He has been a member of the Russian delegation to IMO for 20 years, and a member of the IMO STCW Convention panel of competent persons since 1998.

Tero Vauraste

President and CEO

Arctia Ltd

Mr. Tero Vauraste is the President and CEO of Arctia Ltd, a Finnish company that provides icebreaking, ice management, oil recovery and specialized multipurpose vessel services. He has long experience in senior executive positions within the traffic service cluster including safety and security, aviation and car rental.
Mr. Vauraste has a MSc in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management from Leicester University and he has completed the naval officer exam at the Finnish Naval Academy. He has also served as vessel master and SAR instructor in the Finnish Coast Guard. His military rank is Lieutenant Commander.
Mr. Vauraste holds various positions of trust both in Finland and internationally. Since the creation of the organization in September 2014, he has served as Vice Chair of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC) and took over the position of the Chair of the Council when the Finnish business community assumed the AEC Chairmanship in May 2017.

Florian Vidal

PhD Candidate

University of Paris Descartes

Florian Vidal is a PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations at University of Paris Descartes (France). He is currently leading a research on the prospective relations between Norway and Russia in the Barents region. After completion of his studies (MA in Contemporary History and MA in International Affairs), he served for the French cultural delegation in Russia during several years (2008-2010) before to spend some time in South America (NGO activities). Nowadays based in Paris, he works as a Senior Business Analyst specialized in strategic investments in industry value chain industry and emerging technologies (transportation, energy and infrastructure).

Virginia J. Vitzthum

Professor

Indiana University

Dr. Virginia J. Vitzthum is a Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Senior Scientist at the Kinsey Institute. She directs the Evolutionary Anthropology (EVA) Laboratory, which is dedicated to developing field and bench methods for measuring biomarkers in community-based studies of human physiology and behaviors. Her research focuses on women's reproductive functioning and how it differs between individuals and across populations around the world. This work has direct implications for improving women's health including reducing breast cancer, depression, autoimmune diseases, and other hormone related disorders; treating infertility and preventing early pregnancy loss; and developing more effective contraceptives with fewer side effects. In 2012, Vitzthum was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her contributions to understanding the causes and consequences of female reproductive variation.

Barbara Vuillaume

PhD student

biology, Université Laval

Ph.D. candidate in the Department of biology at Laval University, Barbara Vuillaume works on the determinants of caribou annual survival for two herds in the north of Quebec and Labrador, using, among others, camera collars to study calf survival. She graduated from a French engineering agricultural school in 2012, and obtained her Master’s degree working on the population genetics of iguanas in Lesser Antilles. She then spent 3 years teaching livestock production at an agricultural school in France. In 2015, she arrived in Quebec to work under the direction of Steeve Côté for the Caribou Ungava research program.

Mjöll Waldorff

ICI and XRG

Mjöll Waldorff is a project manager at Innovation Center Iceland, where her work focuses on assisting SMEs and Start-ups that are on the path to internationalisation.
During her work at the Innovation Center Iceland she became one of the co-founders and CEO of the company XRG–Power, an SME working on creating micro binary generators that can produce electricity from low temperature geothermal water.

Before coming to the Innovation Center Iceland Mjöll worked at UK Trade and Investment as a Senior Market adviser. Mjöll has a MSc. degree in marketing and international business. She has experience in advising and working with entrepreneurs, start-ups and more mature businesses in most sectors.

Ólafur Wallevik

ICI and University of Reykjavik

Head of basic research (forstöðumaður) Innovation Centre Iceland (Nýsköpunarmiðstöð Íslands) from 2007 to 2016
Professor at Reykjavik University from March 2007.

Tomasz Wawrzyniak

Polar researcher

Institute of Geophysics PAS

Tomasz Wawrzyniak - polar researcher, meteorologist, climatologist, hydrologist, graduated geography and spatial management at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, works as a specialist geophysicist at the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Author of multiple scientific publications. Member of expeditions to Svalbard Archipelago (including overwintering), Asia, North and South America, and New Zealand. Responsible for meteorological data base from Polish Polar Station Hornsund on Spitsbergen (WMO 01003). Leader of grants for young scientists and participant of international projects AWAKE 2, SMACS, SatPerm. Exploits research results in educational process in projects: EDU-ARCTIC, ERIS, EDUSCIENCE.

J.M. Węsławski

Professor

Institute of Oceanology

Marine biologist, with over 40 years’ experience in polar research. Special interest in coastal and fjordic studies - with field work on Svalbard, Greenland, Ellesmere Island and Franz Josef Land. Participant in numerous international projects on marine biodiversity, leader of major national project GAME (Growing of Arctic Marine Ecosystem) and Norwegian- Polish GLAERE (Glaciers as Arctic Ecosystem Refugia). Coauthor of +100 peer reviewed papers cited over 2500 times, supervisor of 15 completed phD dissertations. Editorial board member of Polar Biology, Marine Biodiversity, Polish Polar Research and Oceanologia. Leader of Marine Ecology Department at Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot.

Mitchell White

Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship Alumni

Gordon Foundation (Canada)

An Inuk from Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Mitchell White has witnessed the birth of self-government in Canada’s most easterly Inuit region. He shared the progress Labrador Inuit have made as a reporter with OKalaKatiget Radio and The Labradorian. Now, he shares their stories alongside those from across Inuit Nunangat as Editor of Inuktitut Magazine. White completed a double major (honours) in Communications and Political Science at Carleton University. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Gordon Foundation’s Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship, where his policy research focused on the barriers faced by potential entrepreneurs in his home community and across northern Canada.

Gail Whiteman

Director

the Pentland Centre

Gail Whiteman is Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, and is the leader of the Work Package on global economic risks of Arctic change as part of the EU FP7 ICE-ARC project. Her research analyses how a range of actors including companies, civil society and local communities might make sense of ecological change and deal more effectively with sustainability challenges. Her publications have appeared in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Ecology & Society and Nature. Gail is also Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and a Research Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR). In 2011, she was a Global Finalist in the Aspen Institute’s high-profile ranking of Faculty Pioneers in sustainability.

Jakob Wichmann

CEO and Co-founder

Voluntas Advisory

Jakob Wichmann has extensive experience as manager on public and private projects and PPPs in the Nordic, MENA and sub-Saharan Africa regions for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, the United Nations and a range of private clients. Jakob is a trusted policy and strategy adviser, with a focus on political development, market entry, impact investing and labor market assessments. An entrepreneur at heart, Jakob has in-depth knowledge of the business environment in the Nordic countries as well as hands-on experience founding and growing several companies, including leading research and advisory company Epinion, green energy provider Natur-Energi and Voluntas Advisory.

Verónica Willmott

Project Manager

Arice

Dr Verónica Willmott, Project Manager ARICE is based since 2010 at the International Cooperation department of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, in Germany. She was the Scientific Coordinator of the European Project ERICON-AB “The European polar research icebreaker consortium Aurora Borealis” and coordinated the Evaluation Office of the European Project EUROFLEETS2 “New operational steps towards an alliance of European research fleets”. Verónica is the Project Manager of the new EU Horizon2020 project ARICE “Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium”, which aims at providing Europe with better capacities for marine-based research in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.

Emma Wilson

Director,

ECW Energy

Emma Wilson is an independent researcher and consultant, director of ECW Energy Ltd., and Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. She has over 20 years’ experience of researching and consulting on issues related to oil, gas, mining and renewable energy, community relations and corporate responsibility. This includes social impact assessment and social audit of industrial projects, company-community relations, anthropological and sociological field research methodologies. She speaks fluent Russian and has worked in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Norway, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Qatar. 

Elana Wilson Rowe

Senior Research Fellow

Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Elana Wilson Rowe holds a PhD (2006) from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUP), where she leads the research group on Emerging Powers and Global Development, and an adjunct professor at the High North Centre for Business and Governance at Nord University (Bodø, Norway). Wilson Rowe’s research areas include Arctic governance, Russia’s Arctic and foreign policymaking, and the politics of climate change. These research topics are connected by Wilson Rowe’s broader interest in the practice of diplomacy and the role of experts and expert knowledge in shaping the premises for global governance. She is the author of Russian Climate Politics: When Science Meets Policy (Palgrave, 2013) and has a new book on Arctic politics forthcoming with University of Manchester Press (2017).  

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
The Arctic as a Venue for U.S. and Asian Cooperation with Russia
Organized by: The RAND Corporation
Title: Network diplomacy and Arctic politics

Jan-Gunnar Winther

Specialist, Director

Norwegian Polar Institute

Ph.D. from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. Director of the Norwegian Polar Institute 2005-2017. Adjunct Professor at the University Centre in Svalbard from 2002-2007. Leader coarse at the Norwegian National Defence College in 2003 and 2013. Dr. Winther serves on a number of national and international committees and delegations including deputy chair of the Norwegian Government’s Expert Committee on Northern Regions Policies, national expert to the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, Lead Author on IPCC’s AR5, member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, the World Economic Forum, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, and the Explorers Club.

Shaleen Woodward

Deputy Secretary Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs

Government of the Northwest Territories

Deputy Secretary Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of the Northwest Territories

Shaleen spent many of her early years with the Government of the Northwest Territories focused on labour relations and equal pay, including several years as Director of Employee Relations and Human Resources Strategy. Shaleen received her first Premier’s Award of Excellence for work on the Equal Pay Team. Shaleen led System Reform and Innovation at the Department of Health and Social Services in 2009. In 2011, Shaleen was recruited to lead the implementation of the historic 2014 devolution of responsibilities around land and resources from the federal government to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Following devolution implementation, Shaleen moved to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations where she became the Assistant Deputy Minister. After a merger of departments, Shaleen is now the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet, Indigenous and Intergovernmental Affairs, in the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs.

Eva Wu

Co-Founder

Finance and Media Coordinator of North in Focus

Eva is the Co-Founder as well as the Finance and Media Coordinator of North in Focus, a youth-run and youth-centred organization focusing on mental health stigma reduction and suicide reduction in the Canadian North. Presently, she is one of two Parks Canada Youth Ambassadors during the program’s sixth year of operation. Her primary interests relate to stimulating dialogue by sharing stories using various forms of digital and written media. Eva is a student at McGill University pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Renewable Resource Management, and is also conducting research on phylogenetic analysis of Arctic flora at McGill University.

Paul Young

Associate Director

The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business

Paul Young is the Associate Director of The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, an affiliate of Lancaster University's Data Science Institute and a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the IGAC/SPARC Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI). He works with large environmental datasets from models and observations to understand climatic and atmospheric composition and changes, and how these intersect with society. Paul is currently working on projects with the EPSRC (‘Models in the Cloud’), and Lancaster Environment Centre (‘Quantifying and Reducing Uncertainty in the Processes Controlling Tropospheric Ozone and OH’). Forthcoming publications include the IGAC Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report and the 2018 WMO Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion.

Kim Young-jun

Ambassador for Arctic Affairs

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea

Currently he is serving as Ambassador for Arctic Affairs and has represented the Republic of Korea at the Arctic Council since February 2017.

He joined in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea 1990 and since then he has engaged in various issues of international relations but mostly in the trade and economic area during his career in the Ministry such as FTA, WTO, G20, APEC etc.

Formerly he served as Director-General for International Economic Affairs(2015-2017), Deputy Director-General for Bilateral Economic Affairs(2013-2017) in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And also he served as Senior Coordinator for Trade Policy and Planning(2011-2013), Director for European Trade Division(2006-2008) in the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Also he served at the Korean Mission to the European Union(6 years) and Korean Embassy in Ethiopia(2 years).

He graduated from Seoul National University majoring in international relations.

Yong Yu

Head

Polar Research Institute of China

Yong Yu, Head of Science and Technology Division (International Cooperation Division), Deputy Head of Polar Biology and Ecology Division, Polar Research Institute of China
Dr. Yong Yu, associate research fellow, is the head of Science and Technology Division (International Cooperation Division), and the deputy head of Polar Biology and Ecology Division of the Polar Research Institute of China. Yu served as the head of Great Wall Station during 2012 to 2013. Yu has participated in the second Chinese Arctic Research Expedition and the 23rd Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition. Yu mainly research the diversity of polar environmental microorganism and its protection. He has implemented three national projects including National Natural Science Foundation and Chinese Polar Environment Comprehensive investigation Programmes. Yu has published more than 50 papers in domestic and international journals over the past five years.

Dmitry Yumashev

Senior Research Associate

Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business of the Lancaster University

Dmitry Yumashev is a Senior Research Associate based at the Pentland Centre for Sustainability of Business, Lancaster University. He is currently working on the EU FP7 ICE-ARC project, which focuses on investigating regional and global impacts of climatic changes in the Arctic. He works with multiple partners from the UK (University of Cambridge, BAS, University of Edinburgh, UCL), the Netherlands (Ecorys, VU Amsterdam, PBL, CPB), Germany (AWI, OASys) and the US (University of Colorado), and is coordinating a wide range of R&D activities in the fields of Arctic science, economics of climate change and integrated assessment modelling of climate policy. 

Yuanyuan Zhang

PhD Candidate

Beijing Normal University

Yuanyuan Zhang (Ph.D) works on the retrieving and analysis of sea ice leads.

Chuanfeng Zhao

Professor

College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University

Professor Chuanfeng Zhao focuses on the cloud-aerosol-radiation interaction and has developed several ground-based retrieval algorithms for Arctic cloud and precipitation properties.

Shenghan Zhou

Doctoral Candidate

Multidimensional Tourism Institute, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland

Shenghan Zhou is a Doctoral Candidate at Multidimensional Tourism Institute, University of Lapland.
Zhou's research interests focus on Chinese tourists visit Europe, their images about the destinations and their experiences. Currently she is working on the cultural differences in destination imaging. Zhou has a multidisciplinary background. She studied Visual Communication Design at Fuzhou University, China and then worked as a graphic designer for many years. She was awarded the double degree of MA in International Service Management at Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands and at London Metropolitan University, UK. She has publications in design theory, visual research and the Arctic tourism fields.

Yuriy Zhuravel

Vice-rector

Maritime State University

Yuriy Zhuravel, MBA studied at the Red Banner Institute of the Ministry of Defense - USSR (Moscow) and got diploma of officer of higher military and political education, interpreter form 1979 to 1984. He had many foreign educational internships, namely at the 1997 on the Security Studies Center in Asia Pacific (Honolulu, Hawaii). From 1998 - to 1999 he got diploma on the Command College of US Navy (Newport, Rhode Island) and at the 2002 studied in the Salve Regina University (Newport, Rhode Island) and got diploma of general MBA.
Further, Yuri worked in administrative management at the Department of Shipping, Ports, Transport and Communications of the Primorsky Krai Administration. After that he start experience of work on telecom companies and he was Director of Primorsky Regional Department, 1st Deputy Director, Director of the Far Eastern Branch of OJSC "MegaFon" from 2005 to 2013. At the present time Yuriy is Vice-Rector for International Relations of Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University. From 2000 he is Captain 1st rank (reserve) of Armed Forces (Pacific Fleet).
His interests are cooperation with international partners and employers to improve the effectiveness of educational programs in the field of maritime education and training. Within the framework of the scientific work he is analyzing maritime transport strategy, and an important part of it is considered the Arctic application.
In his spare time he is active in walking, swimming and logic games, combining them with playing with his young little son.

Ágústa Ýr Þorbergsdóttir

Director

NAVIGO ehf

Passionate about direct use of geothermal for heating, industry and food production. Ágústa is an expert on EU Energy climate and energy policy programme management and international finance in climate and energy related investments. Ágústa has worked closely with Icelandic companies on strategy and funding of geothermal projects in Europe and internationally and provided advise on policy and legal framework.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
The Potential For Geothermal In The Arctic
Organized by the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association CanGea

Hilmar Ögmundsson

senior advisor

the Greenlandic Ministry of Finance

Hilmar Ögmundsson is a senior advisor in the Greenlandic Ministry of Finance, and has worked as a consultant in both the private and the government sector for a number of years. He has strong analyst skills as well competence in developing public policies and in international relations. The work Hilmar has done ranges from developing IT solutions for the financial sector, economic analysis of different government policies and participating international negations regarding, among others, fisheries agreement between the EU and Greenland. Hilmar participated in the Icelandic housing commission as well as in the Greenlandic Tax and Welfare commission that analysed future challenges for the Greenlandic society and economy. He has also been leading a reform group in Greenland that has the job to develop IT tools to analyse different suggested policy reforms regarding the tax and welfare system, the housing and energy market and the fisheries taxation. For the past 2 years, he has been working on analysing the resource rent in the Greenlandic fisheries and developing a new resource rent taxation model which is to be implemented in 2018. 

Willy Ørnebakk

Chair

Troms County Government

Willy Ørnebakk is chair of the Troms County Government. Ørnebakk has a long political experience.
He has been an Executive Councilor for health, culture and business development during two periods
in Troms County Council where he also served as a Councilor earlier. Ørnebakk has been a member
of the Sami Parliament for several years. Throughout his political carrier, Ørnebakk has always been
dedicated to the development of the Arctic region both in the national and international context.

Ólöf Örvarsdóttir

Head of Department

Environment and Planning, City of Reykjavik Council

Ólöf Örvarsdóttir is the director of Reykjavik Department of environment and planning. She finished a master's program at Arkitekthögskolen in Oslo in 1995 and worked after that as project manager for the City of Reykjavik's Department of Planning and Building. In the fall of 2009 she became Planning Director. In 2012 Ólöf became Director of the joint departments of planning, developments, transportation and environment of the City of Reykjavik to this date. Ólöf has spoken publicly on numerous occasions, both in Iceland and abroad. She has been appointed to a number of working groups for both city and state.

Valdimar Össurarson

Owner

Valorka

Valdimar Össurarson is the owner and director of Valorka, an Icelandic company founded in 2009 which has been developing a new kind of tidal turbine intended for slow currents where conventional turbines cannot be utilized.  Valdimar is an inventor and CEO of the Association of Icelandic Innovators and Inventors. His earlier inventions include lifesaving equipment for fishermen and an avalanche early warning device.  He is educated as an electrician yet has also worked in fishing, teaching and quality management.

Andreas Østhagen

Doctoral Research Fellow

Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway

Andreas Østhagen, from North Norway, is a Doctoral Research Fellow at Fridtjof Nansen Institute while he is obtaining his PhD at the University of British Columbia under Professor Michael Byers. He is also affiliated with the High North Center at Nord University in Bodø and the The Arctic Institute in Canada.

Arctic Circle Assembly 2016
Breakout Session Speaker:
Regions as Arctic developers – sustainable development through multilateral cooperation
Organized by: Troms County Council, Norway
title: The EU and the Arctic.