Speaker Bios

Day 1 - An introduction to Iceland: Land, History & Language

Oddur Sigurðsson - Iceland

Oddur is a geologist who worked with the National Energy Authority for three decades and the Icelandic Meteorological Office for one decade. He is a frequent lecturer for the general public as well as in schools on all stages from elementary to university. Oddur is a co-author of a few books on geology, glaciology, history, and entomology and is an amateur photographer.

Ramcharan Vijayaraghavan (PEI Council) - India

Ram has been in the field of education for the last 16 years leading content development, teaching and training as well as creating/managing a portfolio of education programs and children’s websites. Over the last ten years his focus has been towards the environment, climate change and the polar regions. His passion for nature and wildlife and the need to observe/document them has taken him to over 90 countries, where he observed pedagogy across regions and cultures. His focus has been on contextual learning (outside) and effective use of innovation and technology (inside the classroom) and he hopes to continue to do so.

Kolbrún Hjaltadóttir - Iceland

Kolbrún Svala Hjaltadóttir is a teacher with a master's degree in open education with an emphasis on computer and information technology. She has been teaching in primary- and secondary schools for decades, now mainly working as an ambassador for eTwinning, a community for schools in Europe that offers a platform to communicate, collaborate and develop projects. She has initiated many projects with eTwinning, with emphasis on polar science. She has travelled around the world and hiked on glaciers. She attended the PEI-workshop in Coimbra, Portugal in 2013 and has attended all PEI-workshops since then. Her husband, Oddur Sigurðsson, is a glaciologist and they have collaborated in educating school classes in Iceland about the Arctic/Antarctic and maintain an Icelandic website with information related to polar science.

Day 2 - Our Cryosphere: Why is a frozen world necessary?

Sophie Weeks (PEI Vice President) - UK

Sophie Weeks is a science communicator based in Cambridge, UK. Having originally trained in both science and art she enjoyed a 20-year career in Museum and Gallery Education working for the British Library, London Borough of Camden and several University of Cambridge museums. Her passion for the polar regions grew while developing and managing the education and outreach programmes at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), engaging a wide range of audiences through the Polar Museum and working directly with polar researchers. She participated in IPY2012 Montreal and co-ordinated the PEI 2019 conference in Cambridge, working with colleagues from PEI, SPRI and British Antarctic Survey.  She is a member of her local Makerspace and an advocate for Making and constructionist learning. Her passion for engaging people in research and ideas has driven her to produce the Art and Science Soiree, a vehicle for encouraging collaboration between creative thinkers in both the arts and science.

Betsy Wilkening (PEI President) - US

Betsy is a learner, engineer, educator, environmentalist, volunteer, wife, mom and activist. Her career has spanned jobs in industry, preK-12 classroom teaching, teacher professional development, outreach education, and community engagement. As a teacher, she had the opportunity to work and visit the Arctic, which led to becoming a founding member and now president of Polar Educators International. Betsy is a 5th generation Arizonan. Her ancestors first occupied lands of the Tohono O’Odham and Yaqui people in Tucson under the Mexican flag. Betsy’s hispanic roots run deep in the Sonoran Desert, and as members of her community are disproportionately affected by extreme heat, persistent drought and extreme storm events, she is passionate about empowering all to take action to build a more resilient community.

Snævarr Guðmundsson - Iceland

Snævarr is a glaciologist/physical geographer at South East Iceland Nature Research Center - Photometry at Nes Observatory.

Hjördís Skírnisdóttir - Iceland

Hjördís is a teacher of geology, meteorology, oceanography and German at the upper secondary school of Austur-Skaftafellssýsla or FAS.

Inga Beck (PEI Vice President) - Germany

Inga studied physical Geography at the University of Munich and did her PhD about permafrost in Northern Quebec, Canada. Afterwards she was employed by the Alfred-Wegener Institute for polar and marine research as executive director for the international permafrost association. In the following she was involved in different Post-Doc projects with studies in the Arctic regions. She now works at the environmental research station Schneefernerhaus – Germany’s highest research station at 2650 m. At the station Inga is also running a laboratory for children with different experiments related to snow, ice and climate change. Besides her studies Inga got a certificate in environmental education and she is frequently performing events for classes or teachers about climate change and environment. Since her PhD (starting in 2008) she was an active APECS member and from 2010 – 2012 member of the APECS Council. Later she was also involved in PEI activities.

Louise Huffman (PEI Council) - US

  Louise is currently the Director of Education and Outreach for the US Ice Drilling Program, a National Science Foundation facility located at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH USA. She retired from teaching in 2007 and took on the role of ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) Coordinator of Education and Outreach from 2007-2013. Besides teaching children, Louise enjoys delivering professional development workshops based on science inquiry teaching, climate change, and polar science for teachers. In the 2002-03 Antarctic research season, Louise was a TEA (Teacher Experiencing Antarctica) on the “Stream Team” in the Dry Valleys.  She also spent the 2007 research season at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, coordinating the ANDRILL/ARISE educator program. She served as the Chair of the Formal Education Subcommittee of the International Polar Year EO Committee, and the Chair of Theme 6 of the IPY Oslo Science Conference. She was a founding member of PEI, served as president, Executive Committee member, and is currently a member of the Council again. She was one of the original creators of the Master Class series of professional development for the dual audience of polar educators and researchers and hopes to continue helping PEI grow as a recognized international leader of polar education.

Agata Goździk (PEI Council) - Poland

Dr Agata Goździk is the coordinator of EDU-ARCTIC, ERIS, ODYSSEY and BRITEC educational projects. She works in the Science Communication and Education Unit in the Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences.

She  worked as coordinator of big educational initiatives both at national and European level. She also worked as deputy director of the Department of Environmental Education in the Polish Ministry of Environment and as Director of the Science Promotion and Dissemination Department in the Polish Academy of Sciences. Currently she leads two European projects in STEM education: BRITEC, EDU-ARCTIC2 and national project EDU-ARCTIC.PL. She coordinates Scientix National Contact Point in Poland.

Julia Dooley (PEI Council) - US

Julia’s polar experience began as an ARISE Educator with ANDRILL in 2007 on the Southern McMurdo Sound project and on the Mackay Sea Valley Seismic Survey Team. She has presented at many Polar Science and Education conferences including: Olso and Montreal International Polar Year (IPY), AGU, Polar2018, National Science Teachers Association, and National Association of the Gifted Child. She has been a member of PEI since its inception and was on the first Council. Julia is in her 20th year as a public school teacher, the first six years in fifth grade classrooms, the remainder as a teacher of Gifted/Talented elementary students. She brings her love of science into the classroom as often as possible; projects have included local stream watershed health, polar explorations and interactions with researchers, and virtual travel to Mars and beyond. In addition to her Masters in Education, Julia earned her BFA in Photography. She is an artist when time allows (beyond school and PEI responsibilities). Recent work has branched out from photography to include a variety of mediums, centered on Sci-Art that engages the greater community in Polar research findings with correlations between local and global climate change.

Peter Neff - US

Peter is a glaciologist and climate scientist working primarily to develop glacier ice core records of past climate, environmental conditions, and atmospheric chemistry. Peter’s current research focuses on better understanding recent climate of changing coastal regions in West Antarctica, areas which play a large role in uncertainty for future projections of sea level rise. Peter is also working to capture the last 200-500 years of hydroclimate variability in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, through recovering and developing the southernmost annually-resolved ice core record in North America, from Mount Waddington in the Coast Mountains. Peter is also the Director of Field Research and Data for the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center that seeks to find the oldest possible ice core records of past climate preserved in Antarctica. Peter shares widely about ice core climate science via Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

Heidi Roop - US

Heidi's professional mission is to improve the reach and impact of climate science in order to engage, motivate and catalyze action around climate change. Heidi combines climate science and science communication to connect climate change information to decision-makers and communities across the Midwest, U.S., and abroad. By producing actionable, relevant climate science, Heidi helps diverse stakeholders prepare for a changing climate. Heidi aspires to be a scientist who changes how the world engages in science, with scientists. Heidi’s climate science career has led her around the world where she has participated in research in Greenland and Antarctica to the mountains of Vietnam and New Zealand. Heidi was the Lead Scientist for Science Communication at the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and she worked as Physical Scientist at the United States Geological Survey’s Colorado Water Science Center. Heidi has used her science communication expertise to help organizations like NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Exploratorium, and the Washington State Department of Ecology more effectively communicate their work. In addition to her appointment at the University of Minnesota, she holds an Affiliate Assistant Professorship at the University of Washington School of Public Health and is an Adjunct Researcher at the Center for Science and Society at Victoria University of Wellington. She also serves as an editor for the journal Geoscience Communication.

Knut Christiansen - US

Knut is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He is responsible for collection, analysis, and presentation/publication of GPS, ice-penetrating radar, seismic, hydrographic, and satellite data. Knut is also responsible for ice-sheet/ocean modeling with incorporation of field data. He is an instructor for undergraduate and graduate courses in glaciology and geophysics, and an advisor for undergraduate (summer and academic year) and graduate students in earth and space sciences.

Ed Brooke - US

Ed studies climate history to understand how the earth system responds to climate change. His work uses polar ice cores as recorders of past climate change, and focuses on the relationship between greenhouse gases and climate change, on time scales of decades to hundreds of thousands of years. One clear outcome of ice core studies is the recognition that human activities have radically altered the levels and cycles of major greenhouse gases, pushing the atmosphere toward a state it has not seen for at least 50 million years. Ed’s work has also contributed to our understanding of how quickly climate can change. For example, during the last ice age climate in many parts of the world shifted from cold to warm conditions over just several decades, and sometimes faster. The mechanisms behind these abrupt shifts are only partly understood. Ed’s research group is involved in further studies of their timing and impact, to better understand the probability of similar events in the future.

From 1996 to 2004 Ed was a faculty member at Washington State University before moving to his current position at Oregon State University. Ed has conducted field research in Antarctica, Greenland, Scandinavia, northern Canada, and the western U.S. and runs one of a handful of analytical laboratories devoted to trace gases in polar ice cores. His research group is currently involved in projects at both poles, including the WAIS Divide Drilling project in Antarctica and the NEEM ice core in Greenland.

Ed is a Leopold Leadership Fellow (2008), a Google Science Communication Fellow (2011), and a fellow of AAAS and AGU. Ed is now also the director of the new Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (www.coldex.org). 

Peter Wadhams - UK

Emeritus Professor of Ocean Physics Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University

Peter Wadhams is one of the world’s most experienced sea ice scientists, having spent the past half century leading research programs on sea ice and ocean processes in the Arctic and the Antarctic, involving 56 field operations. He recently retired as Professor of Ocean Physics at DAMTP (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge), and before that was Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute. He is the author of more than 330 papers on sea ice, waves in ice, icebergs, ocean convection and similar topics. His work on ice thickness, carried out from submarines and autonomous vehicles, led him to discover the thinning of Arctic sea ice in 1990, and since then he has focused on climate change, why it is so rapid in the Arctic, and what we must do to save the world from its accelerating impacts. His book “A Farewell to Ice” (Allen Lane 2016; Oxford University Press NY, 2017; 8 languages) deals with this question of how Arctic change leads to global impacts, and strongly advocates carbon dioxide removal. He has also published the first textbook on sea ice (“Ice in the Ocean”, Taylor and Francis, 2000).

As well as field expeditions to polar seas, he has been coordinator of nine European Union research projects in the Arctic, and from 2004-2012 was on the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency. In 1990 he received the Italgas Prize for Environmental Sciences, and he has also been awarded the Polar Medal (HM The Queen, UK) and the W.S. Bruce Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1994 he was awarded an Sc.D (Doctor of Science) by the University of Cambridge, UK for published work. For the last ten years he has been teaching a course on Climate Risk at the Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. At present he is Visiting Professor at the Politecnico of Turin, Italy, running a climate change program there.

 Ásta Margrét Ásmundsdóttir - Iceland

Ásta is an adjunct professor at the University of Akureyri: Chemistry, Analytical chemistry, Microplastics and food chemistry.

Enooyaq Sudlovenick

Tungasugiit. I am an Inuk from Nunavut. My mother’s side are Inuit from the North Baffin region, stretching from Pond Inlet, Somerset Island, and to present day Taloyoak. I am also German, through my great grandfather on my mother’s side, who was a whaler and married my great grandmother. My father’s side are Inuit from Inukjuaq, Nunavik. I am Enooyaq for my late aunt, and I grew up in Iqaluit and Pond Inlet.

I am currently a PhD Student at University of Manitoba studying beluga whale health in the Eastern Beaufort Sea and Western Hudson Bay. My research interests include marine mammal health in the Arctic, pathology, and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.

Angeliki Kapatza

Angeliki studied geology in Greece and did her Master of Science in Planetary Science in University College London (UCL). The master´s thesis focus was the mapping of the geology and geomorphology of the Oxia Planum landing site for the Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover. Through her master’s degree, she became a member of the Rover Science Operation Working Group (RSOWG) for the ESA 2022 ExoMars mission. Currently, she is working in the Geothermal Exhibition in Hellisheiði power plant, discovering more about Iceland´s fascinating geology.

Ragnar Axelsson

Ragnar (Rax) has specialized in photographing the peoples of the Arctic, circumpolar. Has had exhibitions all over the world.

Day 3 - Science, Indigenous Knowledge & the North: A Human Story

Vyacheslav Shadrin - Tuddis

Chief Shadrin is Chairperson of the Yukaghir Council of Elders of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, in Siberia, Russia. As leader of his own Yukaghir indigenous people and an Indigenous scholar he has systematically advanced the culture of the indigenous peoples and communities of the Far East of Russia since the last days of the Soviet Union.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Chief Shadrin has been instrumental in supporting Yukaghir’s traditional culture and language issues and, he has provided leadership to international projects that dealt with issues as diverse as conservation of biodiversity, traditional knowledge, adaptation to climate change, solar energy and reindeer herding. This included the UNEP-GEF ECORA project in Lower Kolyma.

The survival of Indigenous peoples of the Arctic hinges on a fine balance. Central to this survival is the idea of the preservation of traditional mindset and the nomadic lifestyle of reindeer herding. It still survives in the extremely remote Siberian communities – the homeland of mr. Shadrin. In all other parts of the North the Indigenous communities have switched, often due violent, imposed reasons, to a sedentary lifestyles and communities.

The nomads travelling in the tundra therefore are a remarkable testimony to the adaptation and survival capacities of the Indigenous peoples in one of the harshest climates of the world – often temperatures drop to -50 C in the camps mr. Shadrin visits and works in. These nomads of the Arctic can provide us with crucial new observations and traditional knowledge of the way the North changes if these lifestyles can survive the 21st century.

Chief Shadrin, who has published in international journals on the questions of traditional knowledge, is an accomplished historian and researcher with the Institute of Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  The work he does “that bonds communities together, makes life worth living and links peoples to their environment in positive and constructive ways. Vyacheslav was one of the six laureates of the 2015 Paul Karl Feyerabend Award a perstigious European.

The P.K. Feyerabend Award—“A World of Solidarity is Possible” is offered to mark exceptionally successful work favouring solidarity within or between communities. The prize, which comprises a plaque and a financial sum, acknowledges and encourages remarkable accomplishments that represent true sources of inspiration. The Paul Karl Feyerabend Foundation is based in Switzerland and has supported 40 community solidarity initiatives and offered the Award 21 times since 2006.

Alona Yefimenko - Russia

Coming from the Even/Chukchi reindeer herding family in Ayanka, Kamchatka, Russia, Alona received her Master's Degree in Philology from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and the Far Eastern State University. 

Alona has had considerable experience as a researcher. In 1988-1996, she worked as the Director of the Koryak Ethnography Museum in Palana, Kamchatka. Her research endeavors included fieldwork and archaeological excavations in the Koryak region of Kamchatka, training and research in Canada and at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University, Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg. After joining Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat in 1996, Alona’s role has been to support stronger voices of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic Council by facilitating communication between Arctic states and Indigenous Peoples as well as different stakeholders within the Arctic Council framework.

From 2011-2021 Ms. Yefimenko served as a Council member of International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA). In a decade on the Council, Alona worked tirelessly to elevate the voices of the Indigenous Peoples in IASSA. In recognition of outstanding contribution and service to IASSA as an organization, in June 2021 she received the inaugural Dr. Gabriela Nordin-Sköld Award.

Having worked for 25 years in the Arctic Council Alona will be leaving the Arctic Council Secretariat to pursue her research in Arctic related issues.

Shelly Elverum - Canada

Shelly Elverum (she/her) is engaging Inuit youth to reclaim their roles as the Arctic’s first scientists, capable of managing resources, determining their cultural and economic futures, and adapting to rapid climate and cultural change in the North.

Shelly is a Fellow of the RCGS and an Ashoka Changemaker, a recipient of the Governor’s General for Innovation, and a double laureate of the Arctic Inspiration Prize (Ikaarvik 2013, SmartICE 2016). She has lived in the Canadian Arctic community of Pond Inlet, Nunavut for the past 20+ years.

Gillian Davidge - Canada

Gillian Davidge is the Inclusive Workforce Project Lead at SmartICE, where she is working to co-design with communities a holistic, culturally contextualized training program that is delivered by Inuit for Inuit. Inspired by her curiosity for natural and cultural spaces, Gillian has worked as an educational facilitator, program developer and leader for over twenty years. Following the completion of her MSc (Physical Geography) from Queen’s University, she taught as a sessional lecturer in the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Given her interest in education, Gillian returned to school and earned her BEd (Secondary), after which she found her passion for place-based, experiential education in both formal and informal educational settings. As the Outreach Coordinator with the Newfoundland & Labrador Science Centre, Gillian developed and delivered a range of province-wide science education programs, including the Science to Go program for rural schools. This innovative program paired interactive, live-streaming video sessions with hands-on classroom activities using materials sent to the schools. Gillian continued to work with teachers and students as a Project Coordinator at The Rooms Provincial Archives, Art Gallery and Museum, where she facilitated a number of new initiatives, such as the Chevron Open Minds program, based on similar place-based learning programs delivered at the Calgary Zoo and Glenbow Museum, among other locations. While still developing and delivering education programs, Gillian moved into leadership roles, first as the Manager of Education and Public Programming at The Rooms and then as Education Manager at the Manuels River Hibernian Interpretation Centre. Manuels River offered Gillian the opportunity to foster a team of outstanding environmental and outdoor educators and in 2019 she was recognized with an individual CASCADE Award for Outstanding Program Development from the Canadian Association of Science Centres.

Trevor Bell - Canada

Trevor Bell, University Research Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, is a champion of issues surrounding climate change and Indigenous people in the Arctic, and whose extraordinary creativity, drive, and concern has had a substantial impact on the wellbeing of Canadians across the North. He has merged natural and social sciences with Indigenous knowledge and expertise to create a truly multi-disciplinary approach to his research on climate variability and change. In recognition of the significance of his research to his discipline, policy change, and the community, Dr. Bell was named a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He has twice received the Arctic Inspiration Prize, in collaboration with the Nunatsiavut Government, for knowledge-to-action plans that benefit Arctic Peoples. His most recent partnership—SmartlCE—has transformed into a social enterprise recognized by the United Nations (2017) for its novel climate solution, and the Governor General’s Innovation Award (2019) for its “truly exceptional, transformative, and positive impact on quality of life in Canada”. In 2021, Trevor received the inaugural Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award and the Martin Bergmann Medal for Excellence in Arctic Leadership for his ground-breaking achievements on climate change adaptation.

Justin Milton  (IKAARVIK) - Canada

Justin Sigluk Milton is an Inuk from Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), Nunavut, and he is the new manager of Ikaarvik, a new non-profit Inuit-run organization. Justin currently lives in Ottawa, and he is passionate about Inuit and the world of science and research. His career background includes working in the federal government as an indigenous outreach worker, as well as working in indigenous, not-for-profit organizations.

Justin’s current role as manager (among others) is to identify gaps in Arctic research with the context of Inuit in the North. Building meaningful connections with Inuit and addressing community priorities is key to better research and Inuit engagement in the Arctic.

Þorvarður Árnason - Iceland

(Þorri) Thorvardur Arnason has a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary environmental studies, focusing primarily on environmental philosophy and politics and is the Director of the University of Iceland's Research Centre in Hornafjörður. His main research interests concern landscape and wilderness, nature conservation, climate change, sustainable tourism and sustainable rural development. Thorvardur has been the Director of the University of Iceland’s Hornafjörður Research Centre since 2006. He is also an assistant research professor in environmental studies at the University of Iceland and has supervised more than 20 graduate students. His previous work experience includes three years as Managing Director of the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee and seven years as researcher at the Centre for Ethical Studies, University of Iceland. Since 1998 Thorvardur has taught university level courses in e.g. management of protected areas, environmental ethics, sustainable tourism and philosophy of science. He has been the project leader of several large-scale research projects in Iceland and has also taken part in numerous multi-national research and/or development projects. Thorvardur Arnason has been a board member of the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies since 2010.