international
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The most recent Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship laureate, Dr. Kate Winter of Northumbria University, along with Dr. Denis Lombardi from the Royal Observatory of Belgium and other colleagues from Newcastle University have published a paper describing their findings from data they collected using low-cost Raspberry Shake seismographs.

On Wednesday, May 5th, IPF Founder and President Alain Hubert took part in the online webinar debate "The European State of the Climate: An open Arctic, why does it matter for Europe?" hosted by the Brussels Times.

An expert in micrometeorites at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) who won the 2010-2012 Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship, Dr. Steven Goderis has spent several seasons using the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) as a base to collect micrometeorites.

It is with immense sadness that the International Polar Foundation learned of the death of friend and Expedition Medic, Jacques Richon, who fell victim to an avalanche in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland on Friday 19th March.

It is with immense sadness that the International Polar Foundation learned of the death of friend and Expedition Medic, Jacques Richon, who fell victim to an avalanche in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland on Friday 19th March.

Swiss doctor Jacques Richon spent twelve seasons at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica from 2008 to 2021 as the station’s Chief Medical Officer. His decades of experience working as a surgeon, an emergency doctor carrying out helicopter rescues in the Alps, and a renowned mountain guide for extreme environments was a major asset to the teams he accompanied to the station. In his last interview with IPF, he talks about the work he did to improve the medical facilities at the Princes Elisabeth Antarctica, (PEA) and future plans he had for the station.

Guus Luppens, an electromechanical engineer who first travelled to Antarctica during the 2018-2019 research season, was tasked with handling a number of maintenance tasks for Princess Elisabeth Antarctica’s renewable energy production systems. We spoke with him about the work he had done with his colleague Johan Demuylder during the most recent season (2020-2021) at the station.

The last 2020-2021 BELARE crew left Princess Elisabeth Antarctica on Tuesday 16 February after securing everything and putting the station into winter mode.  The station is now running on its own and will do so for the next eight months. It will continue to provide energy for the scientific equipment gathering data for various meteorological and geophysical projects running all year long.

As February progresses and the sun dips below the horizon for longer and longer periods of time each night, it’s a reminder that the 2020 - 2021 season is drawing to a close. Preparations are already underway to prepare the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica for overwintering.

Over the past few years, Science Liaison Officer and Deputy Station Manager Henri Robert has been giving online classes to students in Belgium and around the world from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. This season, his lessons have been more popular than ever.