BE-POLES:
the Belgian Polar Research cluster
Complementary
resources
BE-POLES
participates in the ‘Congrès pluraliste des Sciences’.
23 August 2006
During the annual Congrès Pluraliste
des Sciences (www.congres-des-sciences.be/)
BE-POLES will present an info stand on polar science in Belgium
. The focus will be put on the polar work performed at the
Center for Protein Engineering at the Université de
Liège (ULg)
by the group of Dr Annick Wilmotte. Teachers will be shown how to envisage
the microscopic, pigment, and genetic diversity of polar cyanobacteria.
The ‘congrès pluraliste des sciences’is
an umbrella organisation that covers three associations of
scientific teachers : la Fédération des
Professeurs de Géographie (FEGEPRO asbl),
l'Association des professeurs de biologie (PROBIO asbl),
and l'Association Belge des Professeurs de Physique et de Chimie
(ABPPC asbl, w3.umh.ac.be/abppc/).
This organisation aims to inform scientific teachers about
education tools, methods, subjects and activities to be used
in secondary schools. Prior to the school year they organize
annually a symposium to inform teachers about latest teaching
aids.
This year the congres will take place from 22
until 24 August at the university Louvain-la-Neuve. The main
theme of the programme (www.congres-des-sciences.be/pdf/programme.pdf)
is focused on ‘education and health’.
Last
BE-POLES travel scholarship awarded
3 July 2006
BE-POLES granted Anouk de Brauwere for her
submission to the last BE-POLES fellowship. Being presently
a PhD-student at the department
of Analytical and Environmentaly Chemistry of the Vrije Uiversiteit
Brussel her oceanographic research focuses on optimalization
of a computer model for evaluating the relative contributions
of different source waters in a mixed water mass. For that
purpose she uses a Southern Ocean data base (e.g. WOCE SR3
and CIVA 1&2). Time has now come for her to discuss model
results with experts in physical oceanography and familiar
with the Southern Ocean database. Anouk is invited by S. Rintoul
at the CSIRO Marine
and Atmospheric Research and the Antarctic
Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre to discuss
and learn more about Southern Ocean Physical Oceanography,
thereby improving further her modeling approach.
BE-POLES cluster
provides travel scholarships
Third call is open
Deadline 31 May 2006
BE-POLES offers a last fellowship to a young
researcher allowing to undertake a short term visit to a major
international laboratories or field facility.
The award will be up to 1250 euro providing a modest subsistence allowance
for a fellowship period of minimum three weeks and before the end of 2006.
The young researcher will work in a research group different from that of
the applicant's origin so as to become acquainted with recent advances in
research and/or to develop long-term scientific links and partnerships.
The submission deadline is 31 may 2006. An asset
will be the originality of the submitted proposal. Preference
is given to MSc students and young researchers who have not
yet obtained a doctoral degree.
Applications should be written in English and
should contain the following:
- A project proposal of maximum 2 pages including
the context of the project and the planned activities
- A letter (1/2 page) explaining personal motivation
- A recommendation letter from the receiving organization, or from your home
supervisor/promoter (obligatory); the supervisor/promoter should be affiliated
with a Belgian Research group
- An acceptance letter from the receiving organization (recommended)
- A Curriculum Vitae
The winner will have to report on his/her activities
through the BE-POLES website ‘The Belgian Polar Platform’,
thus strengthening the links between scientists and society.
For more information, please contact Ann
Vanreusel or Sandra
Vanhove.
BE-POLES
cluster provides travel scholarships
Four new scholarships awarded to young
researches
After a second call four new BE-POLES fellowships
have been awarded to young researchers from a Belgian Research
Group performing polar science. The awards allow young researchers
to undertake short term visits to major international laboratories,
field facilities or educational authorities on polar subjects.
Delphine Lannuzel, PhD student at the Université Libre
de Bruxelles (Laboratoire d’Océanographie Chimique
et Géochimie des Eaux) (http://www.ulb.ac.be),
will use the grant for spending a training course at the University
of Tasmania (Dr Andrew Bowie, Hobart, Australia) in order to
learn analytical techniques of trace metals at the end of 2006.
These will be investigated in the frame of the BELCANTO project
along the course of SAZ-SENSE Antarctic cruise in 2007 in the
Southern Ocean.
Ann Huyghe, PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit
Brussel (http://www.vub.ac.be/DGGF/)
will participate in the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology
of the USSP consortium in 2006. This summer school will focus
on major climate changes of the Cenozoic Era. Experts will
provide the knowledge on how the paleoclimate data is collected,
how to interpret and integrate it in models. The subjects of
the courses are closely linked with the theme of her PhD thesis
on modeling the Antarctic ice sheet and its interaction with
the climate system.
Florence Piette, PhD student at the University
de Liège (http://www.ulg.ac.be/biochlab/)
will collaborate during 3 to 4 weeks with the Laboratory of
Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (Prof. Gennaro Marino, University “Frederico
II, Napoli, Italy). This laboratory is specialized on bacterial
expression systems at low temperature and generation of knock-out
mutants of Pseudoalteromonas haloplanctis TAC125. These techniques
will help Florence to over-express genes involved in cold adaptation
and to create deficient mutants.
Finally, also Denis Samyn, who has recently
defended his PhD at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
(http://www.ulb.ac.be/rech/inventaire/unites/ULB182.html)
will take the advantages of the BePoles Travel Scholarship.
The fellowhsip would allow Denis to follow an intensive training
in automated crystallographic techniques at the Niels Bohr
Geophysical Institute in Copenhagen, as well as to do analyses
of marine ice. The collaborative effort will be of prior importance
for the advancement of his research project on Antarctic Subglacial
Processes and Interactions.
More information can be obtained with
Ann.Vanreusel@UGent.be or svanhove@polarfoundation.org
Related website:
Winner
of the first BE-POLES fellowship reports on activities at
Spitsbergen University
BE-POLES 3-day
workshop devoted to Polar Science in Belgium (23-25 March
2006) : a genuine success
4 May 2006
Polar research can take all sorts of amazing
twists and turns. But as odd as it may seem, all of it involves
Belgian scientists directly and the study of the climate
changes our Earth has been going through for hundreds of
thousands of years. All this became clear during the BE-POLES
workshop (23-25 March).
A genuine success! There are truly no other
words to describe this three-day meeting about Belgian polar
research organised at the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences
by the Federal Scientific Policy and the International Polar
Foundation as part of BE-POLES.
Two main conclusions can be drawn from this
BE-POLES workshop. As far as scientists were concerned,
their satisfaction was obvious. Most of Belgium’s polar researchers
(slightly less than 100 in total) were on hand at some stage
of this inaugural event, with several of them attending all
three days of the meeting. There were many interesting speakers
who came to Brussels to address a high-calibre scientific
audience over the first two days of presentations. The polar
researchers seemed very much in favour of this “physical” networking,
which is very positive, as the forthcoming international
polar year will need to rely on their support.
Concerning the “public at large”,
one look inside the Institute’s conference room on
the Saturday showed just how many people had turned out
to see what was on offer. A total of 120 participants were
registered. There were plenty of questions at the end of
each presentation, and lots to talk about during the coffee
breaks.
Over the three days scientists had come from
across Belgium, Europe and from other parts of the world
to talk about the polar research they are involved in
and how Belgian scientific institutions are contributing to
advancing that research. A number of the speakers were interviewed
by SciencePoles, the IPF’s polar science website
(www.sciencepoles.org) and these interviews will be posted
progressively on the site in coming weeks. Interviews
with leading scientists on a range of topics include:
- What the ice-core record is revealing about
the climate over the last 800,000 years – adding to
well-known data about the last 400,000 – namely that
there was a different rhythm to glacials and interglacials
but that links between greenhouse gases and temperature
were just as strong.
- Neutrinos – possibly the key to our
finding out more about what brings about some of the
most cataclysmic astronomical events in the universe. Finding
out about them depends on a new telescope being built
beneath the Antarctic ice.
- Climate-induced biodiversity in polar macro-benthic
communities – there are big differences between
what is going on in the Arctic and Antarctic eco-systems
- and why it is important to consider the potential threat
to their value as global resources.
How gathering more data from Antarctic sediments
can help confirm (or not!) hypotheses about relationships
between Antarctic ice extent and sea levels.
The psychology of overwintering in Antarctica.
related media:
- final
programme of the BE-POLES workshop
- summaries of talks and
posters about polar science performed in Belgium
- participating polar scientists
and actors
- a few journalistic “clips” from
the public day
interviews:
SciencePoles attended the BEPOLES workshop
and took the opportunity to talk to a number of guest speakers:
- Interview with
Carlota Escutia, scientist at the Spanish Instituto Andaluz
de Ciencas de la Tierra of the Granada University. Carlota
gave a presentation on "Cenozoic history of the Antarctic
Ice Sheet and its links to global climate change and sea
level fluctuations – an IODP proposal for drilling
the Wilkes Land margin
- Interview with
Dominique Raynaud, scientist from France's Laboratoire
de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, and
invited speaker during the glaciology and climatology session
of the workshop.
- Interview with
Francis Halzen, scientist from the Department of Physics
at the University of Wisconsin, and invited speaker during
the public day to bring a conference on the neutrinos in
the ice.
- Interview with
Julian Gutt, scientist at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute.
He gave a presentation on "Climate-induced biodiversity
shift in polar benthic communities?", which looked
at how climate change might affect ecosystems on polar
sea floors.
- Interview with
Brendon Grunewald, who addressed the public session of the
BE-POLES workshop about the psychology of overwintering in
Antarctica. Brendon overwintered in 1993 in Antarctica at
South Africa's Sanae research station in Dronning Maud Land.
Since then he has worked ceaselessly to disseminate knowledge
about and stimulate interest in all things Antarctic - notably
through his website 70
South.
Article (French, Dutch)
from Du Brulle, journalist, Le Soir
BE-POLES at
the Printemps-des-Sciences
13-19 March 2006
BE-POLES took part into the Printemps-des-Sciences
During one week - from the 13 to March 19, 2006 - professors, researchers
and students mobilise themselves to put sciences at the range of all. By
an anthology of activities and playful experiments, the objective is to
stimulate the interest and the curiosity of the young people and to make
the world scientific more accessible and more alive. This free initiative
is made possible thanks to a close cooperation between the universities
and the high schools of the French Community, as well as many partners.
5 partners from the BE-POLES cluster invite
secondary school students to discover polar science in the
Walloon region and in Brussels.
Related media:
- Programme
of the BE-POLES contribution to Printemps-des-Sciences
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