Meet the Students
The 2022 BEPSII Sea-Ice School welcomed 29 Master students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and lecturers from several different countries, including the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Finland, Japan, Norway, Germany and the UK.
Every participant may have had their own reason to participate in the school but it was simply fascinating to hear about the various research studies and projects they had been working on.
On Day 1 of the BEPSII School, attendees took turns to briefly introducing themselves, discuss what their studies and research work focus on – the latter is something they were able to discuss during the poster sessions later on in the school.
This introductory session was an excellent way for each student to learn more about others, the focus of their studies and research work. But things did not stop there, though.
In fact, during their presentations, attendees got to share their personal interests. Hiking, jogging, kayaking and crocheting but also collecting worms, naming a trout, winter camping and playing underwater hockey, just to mention a few… plenty of unique hobbies and passions under the CHARS (Canadian High Arctic Research Station) roof.
To unpack their study and research work further, students were given the chance to participate in a couple of poster sessions. Be it a digital or a printed one, each poster was not only a snapshot on what each BEPSII School attendee but it also became an opportunity for enrich conversations, feedback exchanges and the exploration of potential future collaborations.
Everything in a unique setting: the CHARS round meeting room, decorated with paintings and ornaments representative of the local community and culture.
The list of represented universities and research institutes included:
Dalhousie University (Canada)
University of Calgary (Canada)
University of Manitoba (Canada)
University of Toronto (Canada)
University of Alaska (U.S.)
University of Texas at San Antonio (U.S.)
University of Utah (U.S.)
University of Washington (U.S.)
Hokkaido University (Japan)
University of Exeter (UK)
University of Hamburg (Germany)
University of Liège (Belgium)
University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
Norwegian Polar Institute (Norway)
Learning Through Lectures: From Sea Ice Algae and Ecology to Biogeochemical Modelling, Nutrients, and Effective Communication
Lectures were one of the highlights of the 2022 BEPSII School. Every day, students gathered in the CHARS main meeting space for a series of lectures that focused on a wide variety of topics, including Gas Exchange, Sea Ice Algae, Land-Sea Ice Ocean Interaction, Sea Ice Optics and Ecology, Sea Ice Biogeochemical Modelling, Sea Ice Nutrients, Introduction to Modelling of Marine Ecosystems, and Effective Communication for Early Career Scientists.
Each lecture gave students the chance to learn from a diverse group of lecturers and researchers, and to address topics that were familiar and quite new alike.
All of this while being able to get to know one another better through questions, group discussions, and interactions.
A big Thank You goes to all of our lecturers of the 2022 BEPSII School: Letizia Tedesco (Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, Finland), Bruno Delille (University of Liège, Belgium), Odile Crabeck (University of Liège, Belgium), C.J. Mundy (University of Manitoba, Canada), Sian Henley (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), Brent Else (University of Calgary, Canada), Daiki Nomura (Hokkaido University, Japan), Karley Campbell (The Arctic University of Norway, Norway), Naoya Kanna (The University of Tokyo, Japan), and Yann Ilunga (content creation and social media management, Finland).
And the conversations did not limit themselves to the time spend for lectures. In fact, free time and meals represented an opportunity to have additional exchanges and insightful conversations too.
Additionally, some of the lecturers even participated in the poster sessions, sharing their thoughts with students and asking them questions that may shape and improve their research work and studies.
Getting Experience Out on the Ice
The activities presented by the BEPSII School did not focus exclusively on the classroom. While students were not busy with lectures, presentations and conversations, they had the opportunity to experience actual field work.
For most days, different groups headed out on the ice near CHARS to participate in field work sessions coordinated by some of the lecturers, C.J. Mundy, Bruno DeLille, Sian Henley, and Odile Crabeck.
From coring, and measuring snow thickness to measuring light and nutrients, students were able to take part in a diverse range of field work activities and see what it really means to be on the field, collect samples and make measurements.
While some of our participants had been out in the field before, for others this represent the opportunity to carry out actual field work for the very first time – adding to the experience the location, weather conditions and overall school provided.
During the above mentioned field work sessions, students were able to work with and test different gear sets and tools used for a wide range of extraction, measurement and analysis activities, including measuring snow thickness, extracting sea ice through coring and light and nutrients measurement.
Processing Collected Samples in the Lab
Once the samples had been collected, it was time to work on them – and that is where lab work at the CHARS facilities came into the picture.
Over several days, while some of the students were busy out in the field, others took turn carrying out measurements and analysis of some of the samples collected while out on the ice.
From observing sea ice thinness and thickness to measuring salinity and chlorophyll filtration, there were different lab techniques and tools participants of the BEPSII School 2022 got to experiment with.
And on the final days of the school, students had the chance to present the findings of group work based on some of the activities of the previous days to the rest of attendees.
And they did an excellent job at it!
All participants of the school were able to experience science work in a unique location like Cambridge Bay while also having a glimpse of the local culture and its traditions (plus, a couple of students even got to celebrate their birthday at BEPSII!).
Theory through lectures, conversations and poster sessions, field work and lab sessions, group presentations, and a unique setting…there was such much the school offered attendees, becoming an experience they are likely to remember for a very long time – and that, we hope, has played a role in the development of their careers in science.
Browse the gallery below for more photos of the 2022 BEPSII SCHOOL.