Three University of Alaska professors appointed as Arctic program leaders

University of Alaska Anchorage engineering professor Jeff Libby, standing by posters in his Alaska Domain Awareness Center office on Wednesday, was named as one of three President's Arctic Professors leading the university system's new Arctic Leadership Initiative. Libby is the designated UAA leader, while Larry Hinzman holds that position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Erica Hill holds it at the University of Alaska Southeast. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Three professors, each representing one of the three main University of Alaska campuses, have been named as special liaisons to coordinate Arctic studies though the university system and elsewhere in the state.

The three were named as President’s Arctic Professors, tasked with leading the university’s Arctic Leadership Initiative launched last year.

At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the choice is Larry Hinzman , an Arctic research veteran who served most recently as the assistant director of polar sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a former vice chancellor for research and former director of UAF’s International Arctic Research Center and has held other Arctic posts.

At the University of Alaska Anchorage, the Arctic professor is Jeff Libby, an engineering professor who heads the newly established U.S. Homeland Security program focused on the Arctic. At the University of Alaska Southeast, the Arctic professor is Erica Hill , an anthropology professor and archaeologist who served as program director for Arctic social science at the National Science Foundation.

The Arctic Leadership Initiative is intended to help develop future leaders, University of Alaska President Pat Pitney said in a statement.

“The world is coming north, and Alaska needs leaders, advocates, and scholars who can help us drive our own future. This initiative will intentionally develop, elevate, and empower those people, and I am thrilled that the University of Alaska will be the tip of the spear in those efforts,” Pitney said.

All three universities are known for their Arctic and subarctic research collaborations with organizations outside of Alaska, including the National Science Foundation, the National Snow and Ice Data Center and universities in other states and countries.

But as Libby described it in a recent interview, the three professors’ responsibility is to create collaborations within Alaska: with communities, school districts, businesses, young Alaska researchers starting their careers and with the university’s community campuses in rural areas.

“ I think a big part of it is really focusing on bringing students into the research that’s happening, but also junior faculty and staff members and really integrating more Alaskans into the work that we’re doing rather than partnering externally to bring people in here. It’s really about growing our own,” Libby said.

He cited one way that will be done at the Arctic Domain Awareness Center he leads, known as ADAC-Arctic. “Every research project that gets funded through our 10-year cooperative agreement will have an Indigenous component to it,” he said. That could be, for example, with Utqiagvik-based UIC Science Ltd ., which is part of the Native-owned Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corp ., the Inupiat Community of the North Slope , which is a tribal government, or other organizations, he said .

An example of recent work within communities, he said, is a just-completed Arctic summer internship program , which brought students from around the country to Alaska. That program partnered with UIC Science, and interns met with representatives of the Port of Barrow and Iḷisaġvik College, the tribal college in Utqiagvik, he said.

Another goal of the program, Libby said, is to tone down the infighting and competition for resources between universities in the system, largely between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

“I think this is kind of hopefully a shift to make the system work more effectively together to address the bigger challenges,” he said.

The universities have unique qualities and characteristics, and the Arctic Presidential Professors will be trying to match those in complementary ways, Libby said. “How are we different, but how can we sort of work together as a system to serve the greater good of the state?” he said.

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