Paul Berkman – United States
Professor Berkman is a professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an internationally-renown scientist, explorer, educator and author who has made significant contributions to the sustainable development of our world during the past three decades. He is especially motivated to establish connections between science, policy and information technology to promote cooperation and prevent discord for good governance of regions beyond sovereign jurisdictions – which account for nearly 70% of the Earth.
Jean-Claude Gascard – France
Professor Gascard is a senior scientist for the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and a Professor of Oceanography at University Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC). He has contributed to several major polar programs funded by the European Union. He is past chairman of the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB) and was member of the IASC steering committee in charge of the preparation of the International Conference for Arctic Research Program ICARP II in 2005. His main interest concerns the interactions between subtropical and polar water masses leading to the formation of deep and abyssal waters (deep convection), thermohaline circulation, air-sea-ice interactions and the implication of the Arctic Ocean in Climate variability and Global Changes.
Olivia Lee – United States
Professor Lee is a Research Assistant Professor at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was a NOAA Knauss marine policy fellow at the National Science Foundation and currently studies marine mammal ecology and sea ice habitat use. She was the PI for the North Slope Science Initiative Scenarios Project investigating scenarios of energy development and supporting activities on the North Slope of Alaska. She is also involved with the Northern Alaska Scenarios Project (NASP) and the scenarios work for the Arctic Council’s Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic Bering/Chukchi/ Beaufort Sea region.
Christine Provost – France
Dr. Provost is leading the Austral Boreal Carbon research team in the Laboratory of Oceanography and Climate (LOCEAN), a joint research unit of UPMC, CNRS, IRD and MNHN. She is the coordinator of Ice Atmosphere, Arctic Ocean Observing System (iAOOS) project to install climate change observation platforms throughout the Arctic Ocean. Her research focus is on the polar and sub-polar regions of both hemispheres. She is interested in developing tools for instrumental data analysis (in situ, satellite data, modeling). In particularly she has studied the dynamics of the ocean at high latitudes in connection with climate change. She has led several expeditions including the Drake Passage, Antarctic Ocean, and more recently the Arctic Ocean and North Pole.
Peter Pulsifer – Canada
Dr. Pulsifer is a geographic information scientist with a focus on the user-centered application of geographic information technology for the polar regions. Specifically, his research contributes to theory, methods and tools that inform and support information sharing and system interoperability. For more than six years Dr. Pulsifer has worked with Arctic communities to facilitate the sharing of local observations and traditional knowledge.
Kai Sun – China
Professor Sun is an associate professor at School of Law and Politics, Ocean University of China. His main research interests are global governance, Arctic politics, and Chinese foreign policy. He received PhD in international relations at Nanjing University and had been a visiting scholar at University of Massachusetts Amherst during 2009-2010.
Fraser Taylor – Canada
Professor Taylor received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Edinburgh and did postgraduate work at the University of London and Harvard University. Currently he is Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies, and in International Affairs. As well, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2013 he was awarded the Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal by the International Cartographic Association and in 2014 he was the recipient of the Killam Prize in the Social Sciences. The Killam prizes are the most prestigious academic awards in Canada.
Alexander Vylegzhanin – Russia
Professor Vylegzhanin is a Head of the Program of International Law, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University). He is currently elected as a Vice-president of the Russian Association of International Law and a Vice-President of the Russian Association of the Law of the Sea. He is nominated by the Russian Federation to the list of arbitrators according to Annex VII of the UNCLOS. He is also elected as a Member of the Presidium of the Committee of Experts on the Arctic and Antarctic of the Council of Federation (the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament). Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal “JUS GENTIUM”.
Jan-Gunnar Winther – Norway
Dr. Jan-Gunnar Winther gained a PhD in polar hydrology at the Norwegian Institute of Technology the same institution in 1993. He began working at the Norwegian Polar Institute in 1994, and has been its director since 2005. Winther has published 60 scientific articles and several books, mostly about climate. He has been deputy head of the government-appointed “group of experts for the northern regions”. He has had a number of international positions, among them lead author in the UN Climate panel, member of the World Economic Forum, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, and Norwegian expert in the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty.
Oran Young – United States
Professor Young is a research professor and co-director of the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on theories of environmental governance with applications to issues relating to climate change, marine systems, and the polar regions. Young served for six years as founding chair of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change of the US National Academy of Sciences. An expert on Arctic issues, Young chaired the Steering Committee of the Arctic Governance Project and is the science advisor to the North Pacific Arctic Conferences. Past service in this realm includes co-chair of the Working Group on Arctic International Relations, vice-president of the International Arctic Science Committee, and chair of the Board of Governors of the University of the Arctic. He is the author of more than 20 books.