APECS International Art group is searching for people who are interested in boosting art-science collaborations in Australia and New Zealand. If you have a passion for communicating polar science through art we need you!

We are hoping to build a team to help plan, foster and organise such collaborations with potential spaces available for event/exhibitions in Hobart June – August 2020 around the Australian Antarctic Festival and SCAR 2020.

If you are keen to help plan and organises such collaborations and events, please message us (apecs.oceania@gmail.com).

The Institute of Australian Geographers Conference for 2019 was held in Hobart at the Wrest Point Convention and Entertainment Center from the 9th to the 12th of July. Thanks to the generosity of the conference organisers, APECS Oceania was represented very well through the assistance of Nathaniel Young, a National Representative of APECS Oceania:

• A small stall was set up with the APECS flag, flyers and pins, free of charge;

Photos: Nathaniel Young

• At the end of the Antarctic Connections sessions, APECS Oceania was promoted in a talk to approximately 20 attendees.

Photos: Nathaniel Young

During the first day, APECS Oceania was also plugged by Nathaniel Young at the end of his talk on “Time series of crustal motion using GNSS: Exploring the expression of systematic errors“, highlighting the positive support the APECS Oceania and its members have offered during the span of his project.

Hopefully, through this exposure, more people become aware of this unique group, and its possibilities.

Winter is finally here (… and we didn’t have to wait eight seasons for it)!

APECS Oceania is hosting a local social catch-up for those living in or visiting Hobart in Tasmania on Friday the 5th of July 2019 from 5pm to 7pm. The evening will be spent by a fireplace at The Whaler (39 Salamanca Place, Hobart) with mulled cider available on tap. The table is booked under APECS Oceania and the warm glasses of mulled cider are $10 per glass – of course there are other options.

Come by and meet other APECS Oceania members, get warm, and enjoy the company. You are more-than-welcome to bring a guest, who may be interested in becoming a members of APECS and APECS Oceania.

For further information click here

APECS Oceania is looking for early career scientists to give a seminar talk during the September APECS International Polar Week! The seminar will be about one polar topic (free to choose!) with three speakers to represent different perspectives, finishing with a panel discussion plus questions from the audience. The seminar will be at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Hobart, limited travel funding is available for speakers and video link can also be arranged.

We are open for ideas about seminar topics and for suggestions of presenters! We also encourage you to organise your own event if you have enough interest locally but get in touch and we can cover different topics on different days.

For further information, please contact apecs.oceania@gmail.com or find us on social media – Facebook or Twitter.

APECS Oceania Stats at a glance (as of March, 2019):

• 74% female members and 26% male members (globally APECS is 58% female, 41% male and 1% prefer to not say);
• ~5% of all global APECS members!;
• 56% PhD Students, 14% Post-doctoral, 12% Master Students;     
• 128 members (82 from Australia and 46 from New Zealand).

What APECS Oceania is doing to celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion:

This year APECS Oceania will be joining up with @PolarPride and @500QS (500 Queer scientists) to help promote diversity, equity and inclusion throughout APECS Oceania from events, online news and social media output as well as at talks, symposiums, workshops and conferences.

APECS Oceania also wants to get more members connected to polar events. If there is a talk, lecture or another public event that you want to participate in, but you cannot attend due to logistics (an event in New Zealand, meanwhile you live in Broome, for instance), please contact us and we will try organise a Zoom meeting so that you can have an online presence. Please keep in mind this is not a guarantee nor may it apply to paid conferences.

This Polar Week (March, 2019), reach out to your known members to celebrate not only polar research, but also diversity, equity and inclusion. In Hobart, we are encouraging all members who can make it to attend a local catch-up that will be held at the Hobart waterfront. It will be a “bring a plate” style picnic, celebrating diversity in people, culture and food requirements, equity in contribution, and inclusion of all members (of course logistics can restrict participation). The picnic will be on Saturday the 23rd of March at 3pm. Please contact us with any enquiries.

If you have any ideas on how to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in APECS Oceania please Contact Us, jump on our website or visit our Facebook page .

Membership:

Don’t forget membership to APECS and APECS Oceania is free, so tell all your fellow budding polar science peeps to join in! We encourage researchers of all three poles to join (North, South and Himalayas). To join, visit our Join Us page or go to the APECS International website.

APECS Affiliates:

APECS is affiliated with SCAR, IASC, CliC, Antarctic Science Ltd., the Alfred Wegner Institute, The Norwegian Polar Institute, and many more! Visit the APECS International website for a full list of partners and sponsors globally as well as to find job opportunities, scholarships, conferences and much, much more!!

It is the first Polar Week of the year, aligning with the planet’s equinox, between the 17th and 23rd of March, 2019. Because of this special occasion, we are promoting a few things to have a little fun.

First and foremost, because it is polar week, we are encouraging members to wear polar themed clothing to try get conversations going about polar research and APECS Oceania going. As early career scientists and members of APECS Oceania, we are hoping that you can help spread the word about APECS, APECS Oceania and our founding organisation SCAR.

Secondly, we are aware that there are almost 50 members across New Zealand and almost 130 members spread across Australia, making up 5% of the APECS International membership base! We are aware that logistics and travel can be difficult in such a large geography, but we are encouraging local social catch-ups between members to promote a collegial atmosphere within the group.

For those interested, in Hobart between the 17th and 23rd of March, 2019, we are organising a catch-up (be it you live here or you are visiting during polar week). To help us plan an event and to find out what you would like to do, please click on this link and begin voting.

If you are not near, in nor visiting Hobart, we encourage you to contact and reach out to other members in your area to meet-up safely and enjoy the equinox, come Polar Week, together.

Happy voting and have an enjoyable Polar Week.

PhD students Angelique Ray and Alyce Hancock were presented the FEMS Microbiology Ecology Presentations Prizes at the recent 8^th International Conference on Polar and Alpine Microbiology, 4-8^th February Hamilton New Zealand, for the best ECR oral and poster presentation.

Angelique Ray, PhD student in the Ferrari Lab, University of New South Wales, was presented the best oral presentation for her captivating talk on bacterial chemoautotrophy in East Antarctic soils.  Angelique’s is working on mapping the distribution of genes association with a novel form of carbon fixation recently discovered in Antarctic microbes.

Alyce Hancock is a PhD student with Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania.  She was presented the best poster presentation for a great summary of the effect of ocean acidification on Antarctic marine microbes using meta-analytic techniques.  Alyce’s PhD is working on the effect of ocean acidification on the diversity, abundance and interactions within a nearshore Antarctic marine microbial community.

Congratulations to Angelique and Alyce for their great presentations!  It is fantastic to see our Polar APECS Oceania ECRs recognised!