| Washington, D.C.,
August 24, 2006 - As the United States prepares to join
other nations in the International Polar Year (IPY), President George
W. Bush has designated a new Chair and appointed two new members
to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (www.arctic.gov).
Mead Treadwell of Anchorage, Alaska, has been named Chair. Originally
appointed to the Commission in 2001, Treadwell is joined by new
members Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf of Nome, Alaska and Charles J. Vörösmarty,
of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Treadwell, whose term continues through February 2009, is a Senior
Fellow at the Institute of the North, and is Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of Venture Ad Astra, an Anchorage-based firm developing
geospatial positioning and imaging technologies. He succeeds George
B. Newton, Jr. who served on the Commission since 1992, and as Chair
since 1996.
"The world will focus additional attention on the polar regions
during the upcoming International Polar Year (IPY), 2007-2008,"
Treadwell said. "We haven't had an international effort like
this for fifty years. Our Commission will work to make sure the
United States finishes the IPY with a legacy of long-term monitoring
and the research platforms necessary to understand both the natural
and human processes taking place in the Arctic."
Metcalf is a Program Director with the Eskimo Walrus Commission,
created by Kawerak, Inc. to help Alaska's coastal walrus hunting
communities co-manage walrus with the federal government. She will
serve as the indigenous representative through February 2009, and
succeeds Mary Jane Fate of Rampart and Fairbanks, who served on
the Commission since 1991. Vörösmarty, an Arctic hydrologist,
is a Professor at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans,
and Space at the University of New Hampshire, and the Director of
the Water Systems Analysis Group. He will serve through February
2008.
The U.S. Arctic Research Commission was established by the Arctic
Research and Policy Act of 1984. Its principal duties are to develop
and recommend an integrated national Arctic research policy and
assist in establishing a national Arctic research program plan to
implement the policy. Commissioners also facilitate cooperation
between the Federal Government, State and local governments, and
other nations with respect to Arctic research, both basic and applied.
Every two years, the Commission recommends "Goals and Objectives
for Arctic Research," and the next report will be delivered
to the President and Congress in January 2007. The Commission's
next meeting is scheduled for October 10-11, 2006 at Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.
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