The University is sponsoring a series of major events as part of the fourth International Polar Year (IPY), a celebration that includes a variety of research and educational initiatives.

The “William S. Carlson International Polar Year Events,” named in honor of the former UD president who was active in polar research, will include public lectures, research seminars, art exhibits, film showings and public receptions. The Carlson IPY series is the 2008 version of an ongoing thematic series of lectures and events sponsored by the Center for International Studies under the title “UD and the Global Community.”

The Carlson IPY Events are designed to cultivate interest in the polar regions throughout the University and beyond. Specific goals of the project include developing a close sense of community among UD’s numerous polar-oriented researchers and educators, who work in a variety of disciplines; creating a distinctive and highly visible role for UD in the international activities marking the IPY; and promoting education about the polar regions in the state of Delaware.

The core of the series will be a group of public lectures, to be held throughout the spring and fall 2008 semesters, featuring several of the world’s foremost authorities on the Arctic and Antarctic.

At the same time, departmental and interdisciplinary research seminars will be held throughout the year. Many of the University’s departments and research centers will participate through exhibits, poetry and literature readings, films and other events.

The International Polar Year 2007-2008 is the fourth in a series of major international research efforts focused on Earth’s high-latitude regions. Originating in the 1880s as an effort to incorporate scientific goals and personnel in voyages of exploration, the International Polar Year concept has evolved into a worldwide, highly visible and well-funded enterprise aimed at advancing science, social science, humanities and education in and about Earth’s cold environments.

The Carlson IPY Events are sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Center for International Studies and all of UD’s seven colleges. Content and activities are being developed by a steering committee of faculty from several colleges and co-chaired by Frederick “Fritz” E. Nelson, of the Department of Geography, and Lesa Griffiths, director of the Center for International Studies.

The series will be co-sponsored by the American Geographical Society of New York City, an organization with close ties to previous International Polar Years.

Provost Dan Rich says the events are designed to be “a series of intellectually stimulating public lectures, departmental seminars and interdisciplinary activities that will raise consciousness on campus, and in the local and state communities, about the global importance of Antarctica and the Arctic.”

The University has maintained a strong presence in cold-regions research since the mid-1940s, when William Samuel Carlson, a highly accomplished Arctic explorer, military strategist and Earth scientist, was named UD president. He had been a leader of two of the University of Michigan’s Greenland expeditions in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Later, as commanding officer of the U.S. Army Air Force’s Arctic, Desert and Tropic Information Center during World War II, Col. Carlson played a role in developing several transportation routes through the Arctic that hastened defeat of the Axis powers. He authored many scientific and popular publications concerned with the Arctic, including the books Greenland Lies North and Lifelines Through the Arctic.

The Carlson IPY Events will begin with a reception on Feb. 12, at which Lawson Brigham, deputy director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, will sign the American Geographical Society’s “Fliers’ and Explorers’ Globe.”

As a U.S. Coast Guard captain in the mid-1990s, Brigham commanded the USCGC Polar Sea on the first voyage to the limits of the global ocean, extending from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to the North Pole. Brigham will also deliver the Carlson Events inaugural public lecture on Feb. 14. Future events will be announced as they are scheduled.

The Fliers’ and Explorers’ Globe has been signed by more than 75 of the world’s foremost explorers, including Roald Amundsen (first to reach the South Pole), Ann Bancroft (first woman to reach both the North and South poles), Louise Boyd (first woman to fly over the North Pole), Richard Byrd (Antarctic explorer and scientist), Fridtjof Nansen (polar explorer), Robert Peary (generally recognized as first to reach the North Pole) and Vilhjalmur Stefansson (Arctic explorer).

The globe has also been signed by pilots Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh, astronauts John Glenn and Neil Armstrong and many other celebrities. The globe will remain on display at UD during February 2008. Complete information about the globe, which travels infrequently, can be found at [http://www.amergeog.org/globe.htm].

More information about the University’s participation in the International Polar Year and some of the related research conducted by UD faculty and students is available at [www.udel.edu/research/polar].