2023 WAIS Workshop

We are thrilled to announce that registration and abstract submission for the 2023 West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Workshop at at University of Minnesota’s Cloquet Forestry Center in Cloquet, MN, is now open. You can find the registration link and all of the workshop details at the 2023 WAIS Workshop webpage.

This year we have three registration options: registration with off-site lodging ($150), early-career registration with on-site lodging ($225), and full registration with on-site lodging ($325). See our webpage for more details. For attendees who are professional broader impacts specialists (e.g., outreach coordinators, science communicators), you may choose any of the early-career participant rates to attend WAIS Workshop at a reduced cost. If you are a community college or two-year educator, please email wais@mines.edu prior to registering as we may have funding for travel and registration support for multiple participants.

Space for in-person participants will be limited, so register early to avoid being placed on a waitlist! The deadline for abstract submission is August 11, and the deadline to register for the workshop is August 25. You may register before submitting your abstract.

The abstract portal will require a title, co-author information, and a ≤500 word abstract. We also will offer travel and registration fee support for some students and early career researchers, with a preference for those who submit an abstract. Applications for ECR support are due on August 11 and can be submitted here. We define early-career researchers as students, postdocs or those no more than 5 years from obtaining a PhD. Abstract and early-career support decisions will be announced mid-to late-August.

The NSF- and NASA-sponsored WAIS Workshop is a transdisciplinary conference focused on marine ice-sheets and adjacent Earth systems, with a particular emphasis on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The Workshop hosts talks and posters from a diversity of fields, including glaciology, oceanography, atmospheric science, biology, data science, computer science, and engineering, in order to capture the full breadth of the marine ice-sheet system in order to constrain the past, present, and future state of West Antarctica. We also encourage researchers studying processes and geographic regions elsewhere in Antarctica and other glaciated regions of our planet. New for 2023, we have reserved multiple spaces on Thursday afternoon to hold focused workshops led by community members; if you are interested in hosting a workshop for the WAIS community (e.g., on data access, broader impact initiatives, project development), please send an email to wais@mines.edu. As in years past, science sessions will be livestreamed; join the WAIS Workshop mailing list for updates on the virtual options. This year’s science session include:

• WAIS in the Community: Actionable science requires civic engagement and co-production of knowledge with people outside the confines of academic and research institutions. We seek contributions that describe efforts to provide insight on and examples of community development that mutually benefit all parties involved as well as contributions that promote the development of inclusive and equitable research and learning spaces.
• New Technology & FAIR Science: Answering the pressing questions at the end of the Earth requires innovation for both the technology we use and the open-science ecosystem in which in work. What are the new technologies that have recently or soon will come on line that will enable steps forward in the generation of WAIS scientific knowledge? How do we develop open science frameworks to accelerate our science?
• Atmosphere & Ocean Drivers: New discoveries and insights relating to the atmospheric, such as surface mass balance, firn processes, extraordinary snow events, and atmospheric rivers, and the ocean, such as grounding line processes, ice-shelf stability, connections to sea ice conditions, sub-ice-shelf processes, and their interconnected atmospheric-ice-ocean system. We seek contributions that look at these key drivers—past, present and future—to help us understand modern and future change in West Antarctica, including insights from other glaciers and ice sheets that may inform our understanding of WAIS.
• Observational & Modeling Gaps: We invite contributions about research that highlights data gaps that limit our ability to advance our understanding of any or all components of the Antarctic system. What are the community needs for future satellite, airborne, and ground measurements? How do we easily access and analyze the growing volume of model output?
• Piecing the Puzzle Together: we seek submissions that integrate research and scientific discoveries across several disciplines in support of big-picture, scientific pursuits in West Antarctica, such as atmosphere-ice-ocean-bed-ecosystem interactions, linkages of surface and basal processes, modern-day connections with the paleo ice core and geologic record, and other multi-disciplinary, integrative topics that are important to WAIS and marine ice sheet dynamics.
• Uncertainty Quantification: Ice sheet processes are (now famously) subjected to “deep uncertainty”. How do we quantify and communicate uncertainty in a complex, interconnected, multidisciplinary, non-linear system? What are the key pathways for our community to define, quantify, reduce, accept, and communicate uncertainty in the marine ice-sheet system?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are embraced at the WAIS Workshop, and we are committed to creating and maintaining a workshop environment that is safe, inclusive, and welcoming to all genders, races, identities, self-expressions, ethnicities and cultures. Please contact the Organizing Committee if you have any questions or concerns regarding the WAIS Workshop by emailing wais@mines.edu. Hope to see you in September!

Best,
The WAIS Workshop Organizing Committee
Knut Christianson
Mickey MacKie
Brooke Medley
Lauren Miller
Peter Neff (2023 local host)
Matthew Siegfried

Dr. Peter Neff (he/him)
Assistant Research Professor
Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
University of Minnesota