Please join us for a webinar on Antarctic uncertainties with Professor Kimberley Norris on the 9th November.
Professor Kimberley Norris is a psychological scientist and clinical psychologist who works across academic, research and clinical practice settings. Primarily based at the University of Tasmania, her overarching research and academic interests are focused on maximising human health, wellbeing and performance in both normal and extreme environments. Her research interests include adaptation and resilience in both extreme (e.g., forensic contexts, climate distress, Antarctica, space and FIFO) and more normative (e.g., academic, life events) environments. Through her work, Kimberley develops new and innovative ways to provide psychological support for individuals in remote, rural, maritime and extreme environments at an individual, organisational and relationship level.
This session will focus on the impacts of uncertainty on individuals and organisations, and provide understanding and management strategies to navigate the challenges that come with an ever changing research and work landscape.
The new APECS Oceania Executive Committee and Council will be announced. You can nominate yourself until 15th October. Voting closes 18th October. We will vote prior to the AGM for the main positions within APECS Oceania (president, secretary, treasurer and national representative) and nominations are open to everyone! Role Descriptions available here and we invite self nominations for all APECS Oceania Executive Committee and Council positions via this form.
What you can get out of a role in APECS Oceania for career or personal development? Check out the experiences of former and current members here.
In celebration of March Polar Week 2020 (15-31st), we will be holding a field work photo competition!
Send us your favourite photos taken whilst on field work. These can be landscape, wildlife or science in action…or a mix of it all! You can make as many submissions as you like. And be in the running for a fun prize pack sponsored by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania.
We are accepting submissions now until 8th March, 11:59pm AEST when a short list will be selected and uploaded to the APECS Oceania Facebook page. A public vote, in which one like = one vote, will decide the final winner!
Please send all submissions to apecso.comms@gmail.com.
(Note: By submitting a photo, you are consenting to have it shared on APECS Oceania social media platforms with full credit to you as the photographer).
Find our December 2019 APECS Oceania Bulletin here.
The December Bulletin covers:
The APECS Oceania AGM and election of the APECS Oceania Executive Committee – congratulations to President Alyce Hancock, Secretary Katie Marx, National Representative Natalia Ribeiro!
APECS Oceania opportunities for 2020 – March Polar Week, September Polar Week, Antarctica Day
Send your work / field work / onshore / offshore photos to APECSO.comms@gmail.com for us to share with the community – also recent publications and successes!
Find our November 2019 APECS Oceania Bulletin here.
The November Bulletin covers:
The upcoming APECS Oceania AGM (December 4th via Zoom link – don’t forget to nominate yourself via this form – nominations close November 27th; voting closes December 3rd.
Our new Social Media email address (APECSO.comms@gmail.com) – send us your field pics, polar-related conferences / workshops, recent publications and successes so we can share with the APECS community!
Find our September 2019 APECS Oceania Bulletin here.
The current Bulletin covers upcoming conferences, Polar Week activities, the Antarctic Futures games (here), and the upcoming AGM (December 4th; Zoom link) – don’t forget to nominate yourself via this form! Nominations close November 27th; voting closes December 3rd.
The APECS International community celebrated September Polar Week 2019 from the 23 to the 29 of September, and APECS Oceania collaborated with very popular events during this equinox celebration!
The festivities commenced with a Marine and Antarctic Seminar Series (MASS) held at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania in Hobart on the 24th September. The seminar series focussed on the “Human perspectives of Antarctica” with three talks providing different perspectives on this topic. Dr Hanne Nielsen (UTas) gave a summary of the “60 years of the Antarctic Treaty system), Shaun Brooks (AAD) provided an “understanding the human footprint on Antarctica” and are we “too big for our boots?”, and the series was culminated with a talk by Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas (CSIRO) on the “Southern Ocean ecosystem conservation and management”. This event was well attended and even promoted by Dr Hanne Nielsen on ABC Hobart! If you miss the event, a recording is available here.
APECS Oceania thanks the MASS Seminar Series organisers for allowing APECS to conduct this event as part of their program, and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies for the support of the venue and afternoon tea that was provided.
Svenja Halfter introducing APECS, APECS Oceania and how to get involved (photo: Alyce Hancock).
On 25 September, Gabby O’Connor is an artist, educator and interdisciplinary researcher based at NIWA in Wellington (New Zealand) gave a webinar titled “Art, Data, Audience and Disruption. Embedding Art in Antarctic Field Research”where she shared her experience in collaborating with an Antarctic science team from New Zealand and how her art communicated the research findings. In her talk, Gabby gives excellent tips and suggestions for early career researchers to engage art as a platform for science communication. You can watch her webinar here.
Follow Gabby on Instagram: @studioantarctica and @theunseen_by_gabbyo and Twitter: @o_gabbyo
Gabby O’Connor.
We interviewed Adele Jackson, an environmental artist based at Gateway Antarctica, Christchurch (New Zealand) for the Polar Art weblog. Adele shared with us why the Polar Regions inspire her artwork, and also what artists inspire her! Read more about Adele’s interview here.
Follow Adele on Twitter: @antarcticartist and Instagram @adelejackson
Adele JacksonArt-piece by Adele shown in the first of a series of Antarctic Sun Lines solar-powered artworks will be displayed at Christchurch Art Gallery / Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Aotearoa / New Zealand from 1st – 6th October 2019 as part of the city’s Antarctic season opening programme.
On the Friday of Polar Week, APECS Oceania worked with the Bottom of the Earth Society (BOTES) to organise a Polar Week Quiz at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Hobart, Australia. 6 quiz teams tackled 4 rounds of questions on oceans, Antarctica, general knowledge and real news/fake news as well as a not so easy a bonus of name the Antarctic icebreaker. The even ended with much excitement as the winning quiz team was announcement (through a series of funny comments, additions and subtractions) as the “APECS Predators” who marginally beat “The Featherstars”, “Sea Cucumbers and Hummus” and “Salty Sea Dawgs”. This team included winners of the 2018 APECS Oceania and BOTES Polar Week Quiz making us wonder if they should be handicapped next year!!! A big thank to BOTES for working with APECS Oceania to organise and run this fun evening, IMAS for supporting the event and donating prizes to the winning team and runner-up team. We look forward to teaming up again next year with BOTES for another fun filled quiz!
The quiz teams ready to tackle 4 rounds of questions and bonus “Name the Antarctic Icebreaker” round (Photo: Alyce Hancock).The winning team, “APECS Predators” (Photo: Joshua Foster).
The Polar Week celebrated continued into the following week with APECS Oceania collaborated with DataTas to organise an Antarctic Mapping Workshop at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Hobart, 2nd October. The workshop was run by Dale Maschette, Australian Antarctic Division, and focused on basic mapping theory, why mapping Antarctica in R is hard, how to do mapping in base R, and a new tool that has been developed by Dale and others for mapping Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in R (Somap). This workshop was a mixture of theory and large sections of practical application, with a focus on practical examples of R mapping techniques. If you missed the workshop a recording is available here and all the materials required for the workshop are available here.
We thank Dale Maschette, who without his hard work preparing and running the workshop, this would not have been the success it was. Also thank you to Ben Raymond for assisting during the workshop, and to DataTas for teaming up with APECS Oceania to run this event.
Presenter Dale Maschette (Photos by Alyce Hancock)
As part of International Polar Week, APECS Oceania (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) collaborated with Datatas to provide a workshop tackling all the difficulties of producing a good map. Specifically, the workshop was a mixture of the theory behind Antarctic Mapping in A with hands on practical examples using R mapping techniques including SOmap.
Presenters – Dale Maschette (AAD)
An audio and the slides for this workshop are available below;
*If you wish to follow along with the examples then please make sure you have R installed already on your laptop (preferably the latest version of R studio – R v 3.6.1 for software).
Additional packages required include: tidyverse, sf, maps, sp, maptools, and raster which are all available on cran and some from github such as:
As part of International Polar Week, APECS Oceania (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) presents a MASS on our impact on the icy continent. Our speakers will cover three perspectives starting with an overview of 60 years of the Antarctic treaty, then looking at the human footprint on the continent and finally considering conservation and management of marine ecosystems. Please come along to hear about the human side of Antarctica as well as learning more about APECS Oceania!
Presenters – Dr Hanne Nielsen (UTAS), Shaun Brooks (AAD), Dr Jessica Melbourne-Thomas (CSIRO)
APECS Oceania 
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