Young scientists experience Arctic research on the North Slope

July 14, 2015

Photo by Erika Zell.. IARC summer school participants enjoy themselves despite challenging conditions.

The 2015 International Arctic Research Center summer school brought together 16 participants from the U.S., Canada and Japan for an adventurous scientific experience in Alaska.

Held every year since 2003 with funding from the National Science Foundation and other agencies, the IARC summer school has provided early-career scientists and graduate students an opportunity to learn from and interact with Arctic scientists of great caliber from around the world.

This year, the two-week-long school was held in Fairbanks and at the Toolik Lake field station, a long-term observational base on Alaska's North Slope. Through lectures and fieldwork, the participants learned about the ecosystem variability in northern Alaska, from Alaska’s Interior to the Arctic, with a focus on permafrost, vegetation and hydrologic sciences; how they are connected; and research gaps in those fields. They also gained an understanding of interplay between data collection and modeling. They also presented findings of various miniprojects they had worked on in collaboration with their instructors.

Photo by Mary Tardona.. IARC summer school participants present findings from their projects.

Vladimir Alexeev, IARC researcher and director of the IARC summer school, noted a high productivity in the participants’ projects, which he believes will result in a few scientific papers.

Alexeev also observed a special camaraderie among the participants that developed partially due to rather unusual harsh conditions caused by Mother Nature — snow in the Toolik research area in June and no shower due to a road closure, which forced them to wash themselves in an ice-covered lake.

Photo by SJ Shu.. IARC summer school participants face snowy weather during their fieldwork.

Participants left after the intensive two weeks, carrying with them new inspiration and energy gained through the rare experience of researching in the landscapes along one of the most remote and scenic highways in North America.

“The 2015 IARC summer school offered me a greater understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of Arctic systems and the difficulty in modeling them. It also gave me the chance to meet and hang out with scientists from all over the world who I can now kibitz with on challenging issues,” a participant reflected.

Learn more about the IARC summer school.