Greetings from the new SCAR ExCom elected at the Punta Arenas Delegates meeting. In this update:
- Introducing your new ExCom
- ExCom responsibilities
- Wider SCAR Leadership
- Leadership meeting in Cambridge – April 2-6, 2025
Your new ExCom is:
- Gary Wilson (NZ, President)
- Carlota Escutia (Españia, Vice-President)
- Marcelo Leppe (Chile, Vice-President)
- Takuji Nakamura (日本, Vice-President)
- Chandrika Nath (Executive Director)
- Burcu Özsoy (Türkiye, Vice-President)
- Yeadong Kim (한국, Past President)
We met in Cambridge a month ago to start to build our plan as a new ExCom. We had a few things high on our priority list coming out of the Delegates Meeting in
Punta Arenas.
The first was thinking about how we divide the workload of ExCom members more fairly and the second was about how we could improve the coordination and link between SCAR science/research activities and also the link between the research activities and SCAR’s Strategy and Policy commitments at the ATS, CEP, CCAMLR and beyond.
ExCom responsibilities
In order to share the ExCom workload more equitably, ExCom is taking a Portfolio approach to managing SCAR programmes and activities. This means that each member of ExCom will have several portfolios they are responsible for, and this may change as activities come and go and the workload of each Portfolio varies. We will provide any updates as that happens. Here is a list of current responsibilities:
Gary Wilson
- SCAR strategy, oversight and EXCOM organizational matters
- SCATS
- Antarctic Environments Portal
- IPY
- Antarctica InSync
- Avian influenza
- Carbon management
Carlota Escutia
- Scientific Research Programmes
- Programme Planning Groups
- SCAR OSC
Yeadong Kim
- Past President
Marcelo Leppe
- Administration
- Standing Committees (except SCATS)
- Affiliated Programmes
- ISAES
Takuji Nakamura
- Finances
- Science Groups and SC-HASS
Chandrika Nath
- SCAR operational matters
- Secretariat operations
- Communications
- Supporting the president with SCATS, IPY, Avian influenza, Carbon Management and AEP
Burcu Özsoy
- Capacity Building
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- Outreach
Wider SCAR Leadership
SCAR ExCom recognize that SCAR relies heavily on leadership of each of its Science Groups, Standing Committees and Scientific Research Programmes to deliver its Strategic Plan and its collective science Leadership. SCAR also relies on each of these to provide scientific advice to the ATCM, CEP, CCAMLR and other bodies (such as those of the UN) and to bring together the international research community to support and develop SCAR research initiatives. It is important that the entire leadership are fully engaged with developing SCAR’s workplan and intersessional activities. ExCom is therefore seeking more detailed plans for activities being undertaken across its Groups, Standing Committees and
Programmes and an understanding of how they align with SCAR’s strategic goals. We are looking for better integration across all activities and clarity of strategic
purpose.
Leadership meeting in Cambridge – April 2-6, 2025
The SCAR Leadership (Science Group, Scientific Research Programme, and Standing Committee leaders) will meet in Cambridge with ExCom in April 2025 to share those plans and contributions and build a collective plan for our contributions to the Antarctic Treaty, CEP, CCAMLR and other policy fora.
So look out for requests from Co-Chiefs of the Science Groups, SRPs and Standing Committees and also updates from them on the group and programme plans.
For those of you heading into the field – I wish you well. And for those staying back in the lab, writing papers and teaching classes – I wish you well also. Have a great Christmas and I look forward to catching up in the New Year.
Gary Wilson
SCAR President