Last week Fairbanks hosted the 2008 Arctic Science conference. At this annual symposium, scientists, educators, policymakers and others tried to find ways to achieve sustainable development of northern territories. UAF researchers and students actively participated in the conference’s sessions.
This year’s meeting’s theme was “Growing Sustainability Science in the North: The Resilience of the People in the Arctic.” The complexity of this issue brought together people from completely different and, at first glance, independent fields of knowledge.
Scientists, artists and historians approached the topic from different points of view. They discussed issues like the newest scientific findings into schools, food security in rural areas, secure construction in northern areas, cultural heritage and change of cultural patterns, different aspects of sustainable development, and ubiquitous climate change.
Janet Warburton spoke about the often missed link between researchers and teachers, especially K-12 teachers. She emphasized the importance of breaking scientific knowledge to a K-12 audience.
This issue becomes very important because even here, in Fairbanks, where facilities such as the Permafrost Tunnel exist; not every student knows about what lays right under his or her feet.
The conference provided many UAF students an opportunity to make oral or poster presentations, to participate in discussions, to get a better understanding of who does what, and to broaden their professional network.
“This meeting is mainly focused on the human part. I enjoy it even though I’m closer to physics. I can learn what is important,” says Anna Liljedahl, a UAF graduate student. “It’s great to find together people from different disciplines. I like to communicate with people with different perspectives. It helps to establish connections not only within UAF. We are here for networking.”
“It’s really important for students, to be a part of this conference,” says Matthew Dillon, who is pursuing a Master’s degree in engineering. “They were a big part of research here.”
Dillon also thinks that the conference should draw more public attention. “It should be more of a public event than a scientific event,” he said. “It’s really important to have more people from the community be involved.”
He also sees good networking opportunities: “It’s a good conference, so many different disciplines. It’s up to [students] to take advantage of it.”
Many presentations at the multi-approach forum expressed different approaches to Alaska’s problems, concerns, and possibilities. Dan White, the director of the Institute of Northern Engineering said, “But [the conference] is more important because many issues are not just about Alaska. Conference like this draws attention to issues that are globally important.”