The IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 9 No. 6 (1 June 2009)
UNION GEODESIQUE ET GEOPHYSIQUE INTERNATIONALE
INTERNATIONAL UNION OF GEODESY AND GEOPHYSICS
The IUGG Electronic Journal
Volume 9 No. 6 (1 June 2009)
This informal newsletter is intended to keep IUGG Member National Committees informed about the activities of the IUGG Associations, and actions of the IUGG Secretariat. Past issues are posted on the IUGG Web site (http://www.iugg.org/publications/ejournals/). Please forward this message to those who will benefit from the information. Your comments are welcome.
Contents
1.India enhances its membership category in IUGG
2.Report on the business meeting of the Indian National Committee for IUGG
3.IUGG Executive Committee meeting to be held in Melbourne (October 2009)
4.Report on the Spring School on Fluid Mechanics and Geophysics of Environmental Hazards
5.Honors and Awards
6.New Appointments
7.IAMAS, IAPSO and IACS Joint Scientific Assembly
8.IUGG-related meetings occurring during June - August 2009
1. India enhances its membership category in IUGG
The Indian National Science Academy, the Adhering Organization to IUGG, informed the IUGG President Tom Beer that the Academy decided to enhance its Category of membership in the Union from V to VI (starting from 2009).
2. Report on the business meeting of the Indian National Committee for IUGG
The Indian National Committee for IUGG and IGU met at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in New Delhi on March 16, 2009. Before the business meeting the Committee?s members were received by M. Vijayan, INSA President. The meeting was chaired by H. Gupta. He informed the Committee members about the contribution of India to four International Years (IYPE, IPY, eGY, IHY) and proposed to host a one-day session on the International years at INSA. The Committee discussed specifically a contribution of the country to the International Year of Planet Earth (e.g., eight video films on the Planet Earth were telecast and community radio programme). H. Gupta informed the Committee that INSA is considering the committee?s recommendation for an enhanced adherence, from the current level of Category V to Category VI, to IUGG commensurate with the Indian standing in the IUGG. The committee was pleased to learn that a joint Scientific Assembly of IAH (International Association of Hydrogeology) and IAHS (International Association of Hydrological Sciences), an IUGG Association, will be held in Hyderabad in September 2009. This would give a boost to the Indian bid for the General Assembly of IUGG in 2015. Harsh Gupta informed that India has made a very competitive bid for the IPO for the recently launched ICSU Programme ?Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR)? at INCOIS, Hyderabad. The Committee once again discussed the structure of the national committee in the view of eight associations of IUGG, including the recent one on cryosphere. Committee agreed that few more names must be included so that every sphere of the IUGG is represented. It was also suggested to nominate scientists to the Scientific Assemblies of IUGG Associations (IAG, IAGA, IAHS) to be held this year.
Received from Harsh Gupta (Chair of the Indian National Committee for IUGG and IGU)
3. IUGG Executive Committee meeting to be held in Melbourne (October 2009)
IUGG President Tom Beer announced the dates and the schedule of the IUGG Bureau and Executive Committee (EC) meeting and related events:
Thursday, 8 October
Morning: Opening Ceremony
A site-inspection of the venue of the 2011 IUGG General Assembly
Afternoon: Bureau meeting
Friday, 9 October
Morning: Bureau meeting Afternoon: EC meeting
Saturday, 10 October
EC meeting
Sunday, 11 October
Morning: free
Afternoon: EC meeting
Monday, 12 October
Scientific Programme Committee meeting
Tuesday, 13 October
Conference (to celebrate the 90th anniversary of IUGG) organized by CSIRO Division of Marine and Atmospheric research, afternoon.
4. Report on the Spring School on Fluid Mechanics and Geophysics of Environmental Hazards
The Spring School on Fluid Mechanics and Geophysics of Environmental Hazards was held from 19 April to 2 May 2009 in the Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore and focused on fluid mechanical aspects of natural hazards bringing students to current research frontiers in the these fields. The School addresses the fundamentals of geophysical fluid dynamics and geophysical hazard and risk in atmosphere and ocean contexts. Four specific environmental hazards were to be discussed in depth, namely, typhoons and tropical cyclones; monsoons and flooding; tsunamis; and pollution of atmosphere, ocean and the urban environment. The longer-term objective was to initiate a network of young scientists in countries of Asia and the Pacific Region who would be committed to work in this interdisciplinary area, and to launch a program of research addressing these problems. The School director was Keith Moffatt (Professor Emeritus of the University of Cambridge, UK). Two IUGG scientist delivered lecturers at this School: Gerd Tetzlaff (Institute of Meteorology, Universität Leipzig, Germany) and A. Jayawardena (International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Japan).
The school program was enriched by advanced lectures addressing relevant topics in the field. Two of the lectures were open to the general public and as such announced in the university and the local press. These were the lectures by E. Shuckburgh ?Climate Change: the Scientific Basis?, by Keith Moffat ?Rattleback Reversals, a Prototype of Chiral Dynamics?, and By Harsh Gupta (Chair of the ROAP Program on Natural Hazards and IUGG Vice President), who introduced the new ICSU ten-year research program ?Integrated Research on Disaster Risk?.
The student projects were organized in three phases. A few weeks before the beginning of the spring school in the first phase the lecturers formulated and circulated projects together with some references. The organizers then nominated students for the projects, and the students had time to prepare themselves for the projects. The second phase began on the first day of the school itself and allotted a time of two hours for ?guided student projects? on four afternoons of the first week. In the second week each of the nine student groups presented their results in a half hourly plenary presentation in phase three. These results will be summarized in a short report and will be made available on the IMS homepage. The full program of the spring school can found on the IMS homepage (www.ims.nus.edu.sg, there under: Programs and Activities, Past Activities 2009)
The School was promoted by IUTAM (the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics) and IUGG, and supported by an ICSU grant. The School was supported also by the ICSU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Region (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), and it contributed to two of ICSU?s priority areas: Natural and Human-Induced Environmental Hazards and Disasters and Building Scientific Capacity. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi and Gerd Tetzlaff of the Union Commission on Geophysical Risk and Sustainability represented IUGG in the school?s international scientific committee.
Received from G. Tetzlaff (IUGG GeoRsik Commission)
5. Honors and Awards
András Szöllösi-Nagy (Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme of UNESCO) and Kuniyoshi Takeuchi (Chair of the IUGG GeoRisk Commission) are awarded the 2008 International Contribution Award by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) for their outstanding contributions to global water issues.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences elected at its April Annual Meeting Kurt Lambeck (Member of the SEDI Advisory Board) as a Foreign Associate of the Academy.
Alik Ismail-Zadeh (IUGG Secretary General) received the 2009 International Award of the American Geophysical Union for promoting and fostering geophysics between Eastern European scientists and their colleagues worldwide. The award was presented at the AGU Joint Assembly in Toronto, Canada, on 26 May.
6. New Appointments
Peter Fox (Chair, IUGG Union Commission on Data and Information) and Bernd Richter (International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, Germany) has been appointed to the new ICSU Scientific Committee on Information and Data (SCCID). This committee will provide ICSU with broad expertise and advice on a strategic direction in the area of Scientific Data and Information. The committee will need to establish and assert a visible and effective strategic leadership role, on behalf of the global scientific community, in relation to the policies, management and stewardship of scientific data and information.
Harsh Gupta (IUGG Vice President) has been re-appointed to the ICSU Committee on Scientific Planning and Review (CSPR). The Committee coordinates the development of proposals for major new scientific initiatives by ICSU and to advise the ICSU Executive Board on priorities for such initiatives. The Committee also reviews the activities carried out by ICSU?s Interdisciplinary Bodies, advises the Executive Board on the future course of these activities, and oversees the Grant Programme.
Alik Ismail-Zadeh (IUGG Secretary General) has been appointed the Chair of the new Focus Group on Natural Hazards of the American Geophysical Union. The Focus Group will foster a focus on studies of geophysical hazards and promote fundamental research into the links between extreme natural hazards and dynamic processes on Earth and in space; real-time and long-term monitoring of active Earth processes; quantitative natural-hazard modeling; forecasting of extreme events and reducing predictive uncertainties; and implementation of effective strategies and designs for hazard mitigation and disaster management worldwide.
Jean-Bernard Minster (Scripps Institute of Oceanography, USA) and Ruth Neilan (International GNSS Service, USA) have been appointed to the new ICSU World Data System Scientific Committee (WDS-SC). This committee will develop and implement a plan for the creation of the World Data System by incorporating the former ICSU World Data Centres (WDCs), the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical data analysis Service (FAGS), and other ?state-of-the-art? data centres and services. J-B Minster will chair the WDS-SC.
7. IAMAS, IAPSO and IACS Joint Scientific Assembly
IAMAS, IAPSO and IACS invite the international atmospheric, oceanographic and cryospheric research community to MOCA-09, their Joint Assembly, to be held from 19 - 29 July 2009 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The MOCA-09 program at a glance is now available, listing the days and times for which each symposium has been scheduled: http://www.moca-09.org/e/documents/Program-framework-April1_000.pdf. The invited speakers are listed at http://www.moca-09.org/e/02-speakers_plenary_e.shtml. Do not miss the event!
8. IUGG-related meetings occurring during June ? August 2009
A calendar of meetings of interest to IUGG disciplines (especially those organized by IUGG Associations) is posted on the IUGG web site [www.IUGG.org/calendar]. Specific information about these meetings can be found there. Individual Associations also list more meetings on their web sites according to their disciplines.
- May 31 - June 4, CMOS, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 43rd Annual Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) Congress.
- June 2-5, ISPRS, Hannover, Germany, Workshop on High-Resolution Earth Imaging for Geospatial Information.
- June 3-6, IUGG, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia, International Conference Electronic Geophysical Year in Russia, State of the Art and First Results.
- June 6-11, IACS, Obergurgl, Austria, Mechanisms of Quaternary Climate Change: Stability of Warm Phases in the Past and in the Future ? ESF conference.
- June 8?10, IACS, Tromsø, Norway, High Mountain Glaciers and Challenges Caused by Climate Change.
- June 9-12, SCOPE, London, UK, 13th General Assembly.
- June 10-12, CTBTO & IASPEI, Vienna, Austria, International Scientific Studies Conference.
- June 21-24, CCEP, Toronto, Canada, 19th World Conference on Disaster Management (WCDM).
- June 22-26, Geochemical Society, European Association of Geochemistry, Davos, Switzerland, Goldschmidt 2009: Challenges to our Volatile Planet.
- July 1-3, IAG/ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, 9th Conference on Optical 3-D Measurement Techniques.
- July 6-10, IAG, Rome, Italy, 7th Hotine-Marussi SymposiumWeb.
- July 8-11, IGBP, Corvallis, USA PAGES 3rd Open Science Meeting (Past Global Change).
- July 19-29, IAMAS/IAPSO/IACS, Montreal, Canada, iaMas-iapsO-iaCs-Assembly-2009 (MOCA-09). Web: http://iamas-iapso-iacs-2009-montreal.ca/ .
- August 2-15, IAU, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, XXVII General Assembly.
- August 11-15, AOGS, Singapore, Annual General Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society.
- August 17-28, IASPEI, Trieste, Italy, Advanced Workshop on Evaluating, Monitoring and Communicating Volcanic and Seismic Hazards in East Africa.
- August 19-23, IUGG, IASPEI, SEDI, Suzdal, Russia, International Workshop ?Geodynamical Phenomena?.
- August 23-30, IAGA, Sopron, Hungary, 11th Scientific Assembly; Web: http://www.iaga2009sopron.hu .
- August 24-28, SEG/EAGE/ULG, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 11th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society
- cialis : generiques August 24-28, WCRP/IGBP/ICSU, Melbourne, Australia, Joint Conference of the Sixth International Scientific Conference on the Global Energy and Water Cycle and the Second Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (iLEAPS) Science Conference
- August 31 - September 4, IAG, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Scientific Assembly, Web: http://www.iag2009.com.ar/ .
- August 31 - September 4, WMO, Geneva, Switzerland, World Climate Conference (WCP-3).
End of IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 9 Number 5 (1 May 2009)
A.T. Ismail-Zadeh, Secretary General [http://www.IUGG.org] E-mail: Alik.Ismail-Zadeh@gpi.uka.de Fax: +49 721 71173.
Note: Contributions to IUGG E-Journal are welcome from members of the IUGG family. Please send your contributions to Alik Ismail-Zadeh by e-mail (insert in Subject line: contribution to E-Journal). The contributions will be reviewed and may be shortened by the Editor.
