Dr. John Adams, Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada

John graduated with a PhD in Geology from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 1978. He has been employed by the Geological Survey of Canada for 29 years, and has been involved with all aspects of the earthquake program, from running field aftershock surveys to managing the program and from creating national seismic hazard maps to participating in post-earthquake engineering reconnaissance visits. John's research interests include the seismotectonics of Canadian earthquakes, evidence for paleo-earthquakes, and the crustal stresses driving the neotectonics and geomorphology, and how these can, and can not, be used for improving seismic hazard estimates.

John has been the lead seismologist in the development of the seismic hazard maps used in the latest edition of the National Building Code of Canada. In addition, he provides general advice on seismic hazards, participates in the Canadian Standing Committee on Earthquake Design for input into the earthquake provisions of the next building code, and participates in various Canadian Standards Association committees dealing with earthquake provisions to critical structures such as nuclear power plants. He is involved with the regulatory assessment of seismic hazard reports for important facilities, such as nuclear power plants, LNG plants, dams, and pipelines, and has completed a screening analysis for Canadian embassies abroad. John is currently treasurer of the Canadian Association for Earthquake Engineering.

Dr. Michel Béland, Environment Canada, Meteorological Service of Canada

Dr. Michel Béland obtained his Ph. D. in Meteorology at McGill University in 1977, in the field of atmospheric dynamics and numerical weather prediction. From January 1973 until his retirement in July 2008, Dr. Béland has been employed by Environment Canada (EC), where he worked, first as a meteorologist, and later as a research scientist in the field of predictability and global atmospheric modeling, and finally later on as a research manager, eventually being appointed Director General, Atmospheric Science and Technology. He also took on three sabbaticals, two of those at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris, and one as President and Director General of CERCA, the center for research in applied computation. He was rehired on a part-time basis by his former employer in September 2008, and is presently advisor to the new Director General of Atmospheric Science and Technology. His main task is to fulfill a number of international obligations, the main one being leadership of the Commission of Atmospheric Sciences of the World Meteorological Organization, for which he will complete his first 4-year term in November 2009. He has also chaired the International Core Steering Committee of THORPEX, a global atmospheric research program, since its inception in 2003, until April 2007; he is also presently co-chair of the International Joint Committee for the 2007-2009 International Polar Year until its eventual dismissal at the Oslo international polar science conference in June 2010. He is a past President (1995) of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS). He was recently awarded the Patterson Medal from the MSC for distinguished service to meteorology, and is a fellow of CMOS. Dr. Béland's recent contributions to science have been in the field of environmental prediction and seamless modeling. He has been pushing this concept within EC, in some occasions in partnerships with OGD's, and more recently at the international level, where the Executive Council of WMO recently endorsed the recommendations of an international expert panel he contributed in setting up on this concept. He is now tasked with providing the path forward for the eventual operationalization of these concepts by National Meteorological or Hydrometeorological Services's (NMHS's) or their equivalents, focusing on the necessary upstream R&D efforts which will be needed across a number of scientific disciplines.

Prof. Marianne Douglas, University of Alberta

Marianne Douglas is the Director of the Canadian Circumpolar Institute and a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Interested in natural history and the links between biology and geology, she completed her university degrees in biology at Queen's University, interspersed with a formative term in Paris prior to obtaining her graduate degrees. After completing her PhD in 1993, she worked as a research associate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the Geosciences Department for two years before taking up a faculty position in the Department of Geology, University of Toronto. In Toronto she set up the Paleoenvironmental Assessment Lab and she was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Global Change in 2005. In 2006 she moved to the University of Alberta and currently lives in both Edmonton, AB and Whitehorse, YT. Her research focuses on the study of environmental change in polar regions. Most of her work has been conducted in the Canadian High Arctic, north of the Canadian mainland, along with some field seasons in Antarctica. Using paleolimnological techniques, i. e., the study of lake sediments, it is possible to reconstruct past environmental conditions and events by examining the microfossils and other proxy indicators embedded within the sediments. Most of her work has used algal bioindicators such as the siliceous unicellular diatoms, to identify past changes. Paleolimnological studies on Ellesmere Island identified unprecedented changes in freshwater environmental conditions within the past century and long-term neo-limnological studies showed that these trends were continuing at remarkably high rates, with some ponds reaching complete desiccation. Complementary data is tracking a lengthening growing season that is affecting ecosystems at these high latitudes.

Dr. Richard A. Feely, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Dr. Richard A. Feely is a Senior Scientist at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. He also holds an affiliate full professor faculty position at the University of Washington School of Oceanography. His major research areas are carbon cycling in the oceans and ocean acidification processes. He received a B. A. in chemistry from the University of St. Thomas, in St Paul, Minnesota in 1969. He then went onto Texas A&M University where he received both an M. S. degree in 1971 and a Ph. D. degree in 1974. Both of his post-graduate degrees were in chemical oceanography. He is the co-chair of the U. S. CLIVAR/CO₂ Repeat Hydrography Program. He is also a member of the U. S. Science Steering Committees for the U. S. Carbon Cycle Science Program, the U. S. Ocean Carbon and Climate Change Program, and the U. S. Carbon and Biochemistry Program. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Oceanography Society. Dr. Feely has authored more than 175 refereed research publications. He was awarded the Department of Commerce Gold Award in 2006 for his pioneering research on ocean acidification. In 2007, Dr. Feely was elected to be a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Dr. Howard Freeland, Institute of Ocean Sciences

Howard Freeland is a senior research scientist in the Ocean Science Division at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in North Saanich, BC. Howard received his BA from the University of Essex (1968) and his PhD in Physical Oceanography at Dalhousie University (1973). He then spent two years as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and two years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island before returning to Canada in 1977.

Howard's research has mainly focussed on understanding the dynamics of the oceans, from the way shelf waves are generated and propagate information to the exchange of abyssal waters between the north and south Pacific Ocean Basins to large scale trends and evolution in Pacific abyssal waters, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Gulf of Alaska. But periodically in his career he has kept returning to the problems of doing oceanography from a Lagrangian perspective.

During the last 10 years Howard has primarily been preoccupied with the creation of Argo, the global ocean climate observatory. Howard crossed Canada as the CMOS tour speaker in 2001 with a talk entitled "Launching the Argo Armada". At that time Argo was little more than a dream and the international Argo steering team included representatives of only 8 nations, but Howard predicted in that talk that "we will have a global array of 3000 floats operating in the oceans of the world by some time in 2007". This was actually achieved in November 2007.

Howard is co-Chairman of the international Argo consortium which now includes 26 nations, and also heads the Canadian Argo group.

Dr. Michael G. Sideris, University of Calgary

Dr. Michael G. Sideris has degrees in Geomatics Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (1981, Dipl.-Ing., Honours), and the University of Calgary (U of C), Canada (1984, MSc and 1988, PhD). In 2004, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. honoris causa) in geodesy by the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, Bulgaria. After receiving his PhD, he joined the faculty of the Department of Geomatics Engineering at U of C, where he is now a professor, as well as Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Calgary. His research interests are in the areas of gravity field approximation, spatial and temporal geoid modeling, dedicated gravity satellite missions (CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE), satellite altimetry, airborne gravimetry, height systems and vertical datums, optimization, and geodetic applications of statistical, spectral, and wavelet methods. His research on efficient methods for precise geoid determination and geodetic boundary value problem solutions has earned him an international reputation, and the FFT-based software he developed is being used internationally by universities, national agencies and private industry. He has graduated over 30 MSc and PhD students, and has published over 160 articles in scientific journals and fully-refereed conference proceedings. Dr. Sideris is a Humboldt International Research Fellow, and a Fellow of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) and the International Geoid Service (IGeS). He is currently the President of the IAG and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).

Prof. Laurence Smith, University of California, Los Angeles

Laurence C. Smith is Professor and Vice-Chair of Geography and Professor of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received a B. S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1989), M. S. in Geological Sciences from Indiana University (1991), and Ph. D. in Earth & Atmospheric Sciences from Cornell University (1996). His research interests broadly span water and carbon cycles in the cryosphere and remote sensing, with studies of northern river hydrology, glaciers and ice sheets, the effects of permafrost thaw on soil carbon and lakes, and synthetic aperture radar and lidar systems. In 2006 he briefed Capitol Hill on the likely impacts of Arctic climate change and in 2007 his research on disappearing Siberian lakes appeared prominently in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4). In 2006-2007 he was named a Guggenheim Fellow by the John S. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. Other honors include a NASA Young Investigator award (2000), NASA Finalist for the Presidential Early Career Award (2002), Discover Magazine's "Top 100 Science Stories" (2006); and a Bellagio Residency from the John D. Rockefeller Foundation (2007). He is currently writing a popular-science book THE NEW NORTH: Our World in 2050 (Dutton, Penguin Group and others) to be published in 2010.

Dr. Susan Solomon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Susan Solomon is widely recognized as one of the leaders in the field of atmospheric science. Since receiving her PhD degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in l98l, she has been employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a research scientist. Her scientific papers have provided not only key measurements but also theoretical understanding regarding ozone destruction, especially the role of surface chemistry. In l986 and l987, she served as the Head Project Scientist of the National Ozone Expedition at McMurdo Station, Antarctica and made some of the first measurements there that pointed towards chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the ozone hole. In l994, an Antarctic glacier was named in her honor in recognition of that work. In March of 2000, she received the National Medal of Science, the United States' highest scientific honor, for "key insights in explaining the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole."

She is the recipient of many other honors and awards, including the highest awards of the American Geophysical Union (the Bowie Medal), the American Meteorological Society (the Rossby Medal), and the Geochemical Society (the Goldschmidt Medal). She is also a recipient of the Commonwealth Prize and the Lemaitre Prize, as well as the ozone award and Vienna Convention Award from the United Nations Environment Programme. In l992, R&D magazine honored her as its "scientist of the year". In 2004 she received the prestigious Blue Planet Prize for "pioneering research identifying the causative mechanisms producing the Antarctic ozone hole." She is a recipient of numerous honorary doctoral degrees from universities in the US and abroad. She is a member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and is a Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the European Academy of Sciences. Her current research includes climate change and ozone depletion. She served as co-chair of the Working Group 1 Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007), providing scientific information to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. IPCC and Albert Gore, Jr jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She was named one of the year's 100 most influential people in Time magazine in 2008. She also received the Grande Medaille of the Academy of Sciences in Paris for her leadership in ozone and climate science in 2008, and the Volvo Environment Prize in 2009.