During the European Polar Board’s Autumn 2021 Plenary Meeting, held 27-29th October, Nicole Biebow, Member Representative for the Helmholtz Association, Germany, was elected as the new EPB Chair. Nicole will serve as Chair for an initial term until Autumn 2023, having previously completed two full terms as a member of the Executive Committee since Autumn 2017.
Nicole Biebow received her PhD in Marine Geology at GEOMAR in Kiel in 1996. She has long-standing experience in the management of international projects and coordination of international consortia. She has worked as scientific coordinator or executive manager of international projects since 1996 and led a large Russian – German project called KOMEX (Kurile Okhotsk Sea Marine EXperiment) from 1997 - 2004. Since 2010, she has led the International Cooperation Unit at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). She is responsible for all international relations of the AWI and maintains an extensive network of contacts in the European and international science and policy communities.
Nicole is the Coordinator of the EU coordination and support action EU-PolarNet 2, having previously served as Executive Manager of EU-PolarNet (1), as well as being Coordinator of the EU-funded Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium (ARICE).
Egill Thor Níelsson, Member Representative for the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) was elected to the EPB Executive Committee. Egill is a Senior Adviser at Rannís, as well as a representative for Iceland to the IASC Council and the Arctic Science Funders Forum, and a board member of the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network. Previously, he was Executive Secretary of the China-Nordic Arctic Research Center (CNARC) and a Visiting Scholar at the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC).
Egill Thor Níelsson joins existing Executive Committee members Marie-Noelle Houssais (CNRS, France), Peter Sköld (ARCUM, Sweden), and Vito Vitale (CNR, Italy), along with Nicole Biebow (HGF, Germany) as the newly elected EPB Chair.
The EPB would like to note huge thanks and appreciation to Kirsi Latola, Member Representative for the Thule Institute, Finland, who served as EPB Chair from Autumn 2017 to Autumn 2021. The EPB has gone from strength to strength under Kirsi’s expert and dedicated leadership.
Source: European Polar Board