3:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28
Via Zoom only
Title: International science cooperation and diplomacy at the UAF Geophysical Institute, 1978-1992
Speaker: Juan Roederer, Professor of Physics and GI Director Emeritus, Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
Abstract
During the eighties and the first years after the end of the Cold War, an unusual number of major national and international scientific enterprises were conceived and launched at the GI in actions which now are called domestic and international science diplomacy.
After discussing the meaning of science diplomacy, I will describe — with many photographic illustrations and funny or not-so-funny anecdotes — the most important achievements: (i) the drafting of the US Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984 (work with Sen. Frank Murkowski); (ii) the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (initially with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences); (iii) the Space Weather Program (initially with the NSF Directorate); (iv) the opening of the Soviet Arctic to international research (initially with the USSR Polar Research Institute in Murmansk and Gorbachev’s Leningrad 1988 Conference).
In addition, during that time the GI was among the first university institutes admitting graduate students and post-graduates from the People's Republic of China, and it was through its close working relations with Japanese science leaders such as Takesi Nagata (Polar Institute) and Atsuhiro Nishida (Space Research Center) that the germinal steps were taken in 1978-1981 which through the good offices of Syun Akasofu led to the creation of the IARC.
