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FROM: Lawrence Mysak, President of IAPSO
OPEN LETTER NO. 5 • August 2009
MOCA-09 and BEYOND
Dear IAPSO Colleagues:
It is pleasure to report that MOCA-09 was a great success, with approximately 1350 scientists from over 50 countries in attendance. This success would not have happened without the excellent work of all the conveners, the (Canadian) National Organizing Committee, and the Scientific Program Committee (of which SG Johan Rodhe was a member). Many thanks to all of them.
There were also important side meetings at MOCA-09: The final meeting of SCOR/IAPSO WG 129, DOES; the first meeting of SCOR/IAPSO WG 133, OceanScope; and the inaugural business meeting of the newly formed IACS (International Association of Cryospheric Sciences), which was a partner in MOCA-09. I had the privilege of attending parts of the latter two meetings, from which I learned a lot about their future plans and activities.
At the end of the conference, a five-member committee chaired by Past President Shiro Imawaki selected Dr. Bamol A. Sow of Senegal to receive the 2009 Eugene LaFond Medal, which is awarded to an early career ocean scientist from a developing world scientist who presents an excellent paper on oceanography at an IAPSO or jointly sponsored IAPSO symposium. The title of Dr. Sow's presentation: Simulation of the Senegalese and Mauritanian upwelling: How are the winds actually driving SST variability and water mass renewal? Our warmest congratulations to Dr. Sow. We hope that Dr. Sow will be able to attend and be featured at the next IAPSO assembly in Melbourne, as part of the 25th IUGG General Assembly, 27 June- July 8, 2011.
Plans are already well underway for the Melbourne General Assembly. The IUGG EC and association SGs will meet in Melbourne in early October, to begin work on the scientific program. We now very much welcome your suggestions of topics for IAPSO (or joint IAPSO) symposia in Melbourne. Please send your ideas to IAPSO SG Johan Rodhe (johan.rodhe@gu.se), or to myself. In addition, do not hesitate to volunteer as a convener!
Next June, Johan Rodhe will send out a call for nominations for the 2011 Prince Albert I Medal for excellence in physical and/or chemical oceanography. I urge each NC to identify a suitable colleague to nominate from his/her home country. It is most important to have a good pool of candidates for this prestigious award, given this year to Harry Bryden from the UK (see attached poster).
Looking further into the future, it was decided at the IAPSO General Business Meeting in Montreal, on July 22, 2009, that IAPSO will hold an assembly in Gothenburg, Sweden, during 22-26 July, 2013. Two sister associations of IUGG have been invited to join us in Sweden, and if they accept our invitation, we again should have a very exciting joint assembly.
In closing, I look forward to hearing from in the near future.
With best wishes,
Lawrence A. Mysak
President, IAPSO
lawrence.mysak@mcgill.ca
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