Atmospheric Sciences Professor Nicole Mölders was re-elected as a member of the Membership Committee for UCAR -- the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Additionally, the membership of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in UCAR was renewed for the next eight years.

UCAR serves as a hub for research, education and public outreach for the atmospheric and related Earth sciences community. For more information, visit http://www2.ucar.edu/.

Don't forget, next week will be full of fun Halloween activities for everyone:

Now: Nominations are being accepted for the much-coveted title of “coffin victim” at the annual GI Halloween Party. If you’d like to be ghouled out, put your name in the running – or nominate a peer – by Monday, Oct. 24. 

By Ned Rozell

In Alan Weisman’s book, “The World Without Us,” the author ponders “a world from which we all suddenly vanished. Tomorrow.”

Design Services and Computer Resources Center staff are hosting two Drupal training sessions next week. Drupal is the content management system the GI website is created in. Come to one session or both -- it's up to you! The first session will take place on Tuesday, October 25 from 2 to 4 p.m. The second session will be on Wednesday, October 26 from 10 a.m. to noon. Both events take place in the Globe Room.

A scientific book by GI Professor Nicole Mölders titled "Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes: Impact on Climate and Air Quality" was published by Springer as 
Volume 44 of the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences Library.

Professors Bernard Coakley and Hajo Eicken are included in a special feature titled "Scientific challenges in the Arctic: Open water" in this week's edition of Nature. The publication is an international weekly journal of science.

Read the detailed report here.

The U.S. Permafrost Association will provide six $500 travel grants for U.S.-based students and post-graduate researchers to attend the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in 2011. Applicants must be first author on a permafrost-related research presentation at AGU. Preference will be given to applicants who possess both U.S.P.A. and P.Y.R.N. memberships. Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply.

The application is due midnight on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011.

By Ned Rozell

As Alaska cools and hardens, many scientists are reacquainting themselves with their offices. Such is the case for Derek Sikes, the curator of insects at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. This summer, he traveled across Alaska, from Sagwon Bluffs to Sitka and many places between, including a trip to the Aleutians for good lateral coverage.

Orders can be placed now for “North by 2020: Perspectives on Alaska’s Changing Social-Ecological Systems,” a 736-page book edited by Associate Professor of Political Science Amy Lauren Lovecraft and Geophysical Institute Professor Hajo Eicken and available through the University of Alaska Press.