The world’s foremost experts on sea ice are gathered at UNIS to participate in the International Sea-Ice Summer School. 92 participants from all over the world are going to take part in the two week long summer school in Svalbard that started today.

Text and photo: Eva Therese Jenssen

92 participants from 16 nations and 23 lecturers from 11 countries, representing all the continents, are gathered now at UNIS to follow this two week long intensive course. This is the third time in history such a gathering is taking place; and it is for the first time in Svalbard.

Educating tomorrow’s experts
- The aim is to gather all the expertise in the field in the world today, and educate tomorrow’s sea ice experts, says Dirk Notz, one of the organizers of the summer school. The students will get all available information about sea ice and its behavior in relation to climate.

– The Arctic sea ice is poorly represented in global climate models, co-organizer Peter Haugan, from the University in Bergen, said to the audience when the summer school started at UNIS Monday morning.

– You will learn more about sea ice than most people who are talking about climate change. You will be the leaders of Polar research in the coming years and your networking here in Svalbard will make a difference in the future research on sea ice, he said.

The four co-organizers of the International Sea-Ice Summer School are very happy to have gathered the world's foremost expertise on sea ice to meet in Svalbard and educate tomorrow's sea ice experts.From left: Frank Nilsen, Dirk Notz, Karolina Widell and Peter Haugan.

Overwhelming response
The idea of arranging the summer school came up in 2004. The two former UNIS-students, Dirk Notz and Karolina Widell sat one evening after fieldwork and realized that they did not really know too much about sea ice. So why not gather the foremost expertise in the field at Svalbard to educate students about sea ice and global climate change?

The idea was borne and it was clear from the start that the ideal place for such a summer school would be Svalbard.

- The year after we all met in New Zealand for a conference on sea-ice and that’s when the snow ball started rolling, says co-organizer and UNIS associate professor Frank Nilsen.

- The international group of sea ice scientists is rather small, so it was easy to get everyone gathered here in Svalbard, co-organizer Karolina Widell says.

Haugan says that they were overwhelmed at the response among scientists. – Every one who was asked to come said immediately yes, and they were also impressed by the number of applications.

There were 170 applications and out of those 92 students were offered a place on the summer school. – What amazes me is that everyone is so positive and enthusiastic, and everyone offered a place accepted at once, Widell says.

New text book on sea ice
Updates and networking are not the only planned outcomes of the sea ice summer school. - We are planning to gather all the presentations given here and produce a text book that we hope will become the text book of choice for all who study sea ice and related issues, Notz says.

The International Sea-Ice Summer School is part of the International Polar Year (IPY). The summer school has been made possible by funding from the EU research project DAMOCLES and the Norwegian Research Council through two IPY projects, iAOOS Norway and BIAC. In addition the summer school has received funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers and both Norwegian and international research institutions.

Read more about the International Sea-Ice Summer School