Since 1994, the Canadian Polar Commission (CPC) has served as Canada's adhering body to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), an inter-disciplinary committee of the International Council for Science (ICSU) with responsibility for the initiation, promotion, and co-ordination of scientific research in Antarctica, and for the provision of scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System. As the adhering body to SCAR, the Commission is responsible for representing Canada's national interests in Antarctic and bipolar science and for disseminating relevant information from the Committee to Canada's polar research community. To advise on these and other matters pertaining to research in the Antarctic region and to ensure that the Canadian polar research community participates in critical planning activities and encourages international co-operation in Antarctic and bipolar research, the Commission has established the Canadian Committee on Antarctic Research (CCAR) as Canada's National Antarctic Committee under the provisions of SCAR.

CCAR Mandate

CCAR will serve as a national advisory body on Antarctic matters, reporting primarily to the CPC, and act as a link between the international Antarctic science community and Canadian scientists active in or seeking to become involved in Antarctic and/or bipolar research.

CCAR will recommend to the CPC Canadian representatives to serve on SCAR working groups, to advise on appropriate terms of office, and to ensure a proper flow of information among Canadian scientists and the respective working groups.

CCAR will review Antarctic research proposals (e.g., from the Canadian Arctic-Antarctic Exchange Program and others) when requested.

Members and Advisers 2003-2004

Kathleen Conlan
Research Scientist, Canadian Museum of Nature

Dr. Conlan holds a PhD in systematics and evolution and an M.Sc. in marine ecology. Her systematics research concerns the evolution and behaviour of amphipod crustaceans, shrimp-like organisms that inhabit the deepest oceans to the tropical rainforests, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. She has named two new genera and 48 new species and has two species named for her. Dr. Conlan's research in marine ecology concerns the effects of seabed disturbance on community structure. She has studied the impacts of the logging industry on the coastal seabed of British Columbia, the Exxon Valdez oilspill in Alaska, the tilling effects of icebergs on the Arctic seabed, and the impact of humans in the Antarctic.

Besides publishing her research in scientific journals, Dr. Conlan also teaches and popularizes her studies. Dr. Conlan involves elementary and high school students in her Arctic and Antarctic field trips through satellite telephone and email links. She teaches a university level course in marine biology at Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, N.B. Discovery Channel, the BBC, and Rogers Cablevision have presented her work in ten documentaries. Dr. Conlan has given over 50 presentations about marine life in the Arctic and Antarctic to elementary schools, high schools, and adult interest groups. CBC Morningside has twice interviewed her, as has Owl Magazine and Women's Sports and Fitness. Her latest television show, "Diving under the Antarctic Ice", was an initiative to bring televised lectures to over 8,000 Canadian schools across Canada. Dr. Conlan is continuing her love for education by participating in "Students on Ice", a polar teaching cruise for teenagers. A children's book about her diving adventures in the Arctic and Antarctic will be published shortly.
Kconlan@mus-nature.ca

Serge Demers

Serge Demers is Director of the Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski (ISMER) and professor of biology at the Universty of Quebec at Rimouski. He is also President of the Québec Océan Administrative Council, President of the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping (CIDCO) Administrative Council, President of REFORMAR Administrative Council (Oceanographic Research Vessel), Vice-president of the Marine biotechnology Research Centre (CRBM)Administrative Council, and Vice-president of the Maritime Innovation Administrative Council.

His research interests include phytoplancton, particle analysis, flux cytometry, UV radiation, carbon flux, microbial loop, estuary environments, and polar regions.
serge_demers@uqar.qc.ca

Marianne Douglas

Marianne Douglas is an associate professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto. Much of her research focusses on reconstructing past environmental change at high latitudes. By examining paleo- and bioindicators, such as diatoms, preserved in lake sediment cores, it is possible to track environmental changes. Different diatom species are present under different environmental conditions. Douglas has worked extensively within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago of the Canadian High Arctic. As part of the Canadian Arctic Antarctic Exchange Program, she will be undertaking an Antarctic field season on Livingston Island, Antarctic Peninsula in collaboration with the Bulgarian Antarctic Programme in December 2003 - February 2004.
msvd@geology.utoronto.ca

Olav Loken

A native of Norway, Olav spent the first winter of the International Geophysical Year (1957) at the US Wilkes Station as an assistant glaciologist. Since completing his Ph.D. at McGill University, Montreal he spent most of his career working for the Government of Canada on issues related to environmental research and management in Northern Canada. He has been Secretary of the Canadian Committee for Antarctic Research since its was formed in 1998.
oloken@sympatico.ca

Simon Ommanney

Simon Ommanney, a graduate of McGill University, worked on Axel Heiberg Island with Fritz Müller from 1960–1966. He was employed as a glaciologist with Environment Canada for 27 years, where he was the driving force behind the Canadian Glacier Inventory and the first Chief of its Scientific Information Division. In 1993, he became Secretary General of the International Glaciological Society (IGS), based in Cambridge, U.K. On his retirement in 2003, he was appointed a Senior Research Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute and awarded the Richardson Medal by the IGS. He is currently the Canadian correspondent to the IGS and a Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
simon.ommanney@sympatico.ca

Wayne Pollard
Department of Geography, McGill University, Director, McGill Arctic and Subarctic Research Stations, Associate Faculty member in the McGill School of the Environment, and Member of McGill's Centre for Climate and Global Change Research.

Dr. Pollard is a permafrost geomorphologist with more than 20 years of Arctic research experience and more recently has been involved in research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica . His interest in landscape processes and landforms of cold polar deserts in both the Arctic and Antarctic has lead to research collaborations with the United States and New Zealand Antarctic Programs and recently with NASA on Martian geomorphology and Astrobiology. Dr. Pollard's research focuses on two aspects of polar desert geomorphology: first, the influence of permafrost on ground water hydrology, and second, the nature, origin and geomorphic importance of massive ground ice. Wayne is also committed to science education and has been involved in several science camps in Nunavut, and has also delivered courses for the Nunavut Teacher Education Program (NTEP). He currently chairs the Canadian Committee for Antarctic Research (CCAR), Canada's national Antarctic committee under the auspices of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research), the international umbrella organisation that co-ordinates research throughout the south polar region.
Pollard@felix.geog.mcgill.ca

Fred Roots
Science Advisor Emeritus, Environment Canada

Fred Roots has been involved in Antarctic research ever since he participated in the Modheim expedition of 1949-52. He has spent many years doing geological, geophysical, glaciological and climate field work in sub-arctic and arctic Canada, and has published about 150 related scientific papers and book sections. He founded the Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Project in l958, serving as its director from 1958 to 1972. He was a Member of the Polar Research Board of the US National Academy o Sciences from 1970 to 1983. He served as chairman of the committee to study co-ordination of Canadian scientific activities in polar regions (north and south), and wrote the report "Canada and Polar Science" which led to the establishment of the Canadian Polar Commission and influenced Canada's decision to adhere to the Antarctic Treaty. He was Founding Chairman of the International Arctic Science Committee, and is Canadian representative to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative meetings (1993-present). He has been a member of the Canadian Committee for Antarctic Research since its beginning. He has received many prestigious awards and decorations s for polar science from Norway, the UK, the USSR, the US, and Canada. He is an officer of Order of Canada.
Fred.Roots@ec.gc.ca

Martin Sharp
martin.sharp@ualberta.ca

Martin Sharp is Professor and Chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. He is a glaciologist with particular interests in glacier-climate interactions, glacier hydrology and ice dynamics, and biogeochemical processes in glaciated environments. Most of his research is conducted in the high Arctic, but in the past three years his group has been involved in work in the McMurdo Dry Valleys under the auspices of the New Zealand Antarctic Program.

Dave Williams
Astronaut, Canadian Space Agency

Dr. Williams is a specialist in emergency medicine and family practice with a research background in neurophysiology. He joined the Canadian Space Agency in 1992 and completed basic astronaut training in 1993. His clinical research interests focus on human adaptation and performance in space, as well as terrestrial space analogues including undersea and polar exploration. In April 1998, Dave participated in a 16 day spaceflight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia performing neuroscience research to determine the effects of microgravity on the nervous system. He orbited the Earth 256 times, traveled over 10 million kilometers and spent over 381 hours in space. From July 1998 until September 2002, he held the position of Director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and concurrently held a position as the first Deputy Associate Administrator for Crew Health and Safety in the Office of Spaceflight at NASA Headquarters in 2001. In October 2001, he became an aquanaut through his participation in the joint NASA-NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NEEMO 1 mission, a training exercise held in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research laboratory and became the first Canadian to have lived and worked in space and in the ocean. In support to the NASA vision for space exploration, he is actively involved in developing health care for future lunar missions and is part of a team developing a space exploration training program that will involve sending astronauts to polar analogues. Dave is currently training to participate in his second spaceflight, Mission STS-118 / 13A.1. During the 11-day mission to add a truss segment and relocate solar arrays on the International Space Station, Dave Williams will perform three spacewalks.