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polar
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CryoSat-2, successor to CryoSat, was launched successfully from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on April 8th, 2010. The freshly launched satellite will provide accurate data on the variations of ice thickness in the Polar Regions, whether on land or on the sea surface. CryoSat-2, the third of the Earth Explorer satellites to have been launched in the past year, is part of a larger European effort to better understand the impact of climate change on these remote, yet sensitive regions.

During an official ceremony that took place on April 1st, 2010, Mrs. Sabine Laruelle, Belgian Federal Minister for Science Policy, and Alain Hubert, President of the International Polar Foundation, signed a partnership protocol between the IPF and the Belgian State. The protocol, besides marking the donation of the Princess Elisabeth research station to the Belgian State, defines the International Polar Foundation as the Antarctic Operator within the Belgian Polar Secretariat and the rightful owner of the intellectual property rights as the author of Princess Elisabeth Antarctica.

Just a quick Monday news to tell you that we are thrilled to see that the Ice Cube structure is currently being built on the site of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo.

On March 22nd, Steven Goderis, a PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, became the second recipient of the Antarctica InBev-Baillet Latour Fellowship Award. The official awarding ceremony took place at headquarters of the International Polar Foundation in Brussels and was attended by representatives of both the InBev-Baillet Latour Funds and the IPF.

During a ceremony at the Princess Elisabeth Station, Sven Kerremans (Laborelec) and Jean Chalon (Schneider Electric) symbolically handed over the keys of the station's technical core to Alain Hubert, President of the International Polar Foundation. The event celebrated the completion of the final systems tests. The Princess Elisabeth Station is now officially the first research station ever to solely operate on renewable energies!

Polar Quest is the new educational project from the International Polar Foundation, supported by the "Actieplan Wetenschapscommunicatie" of the Flemish Government.

The International Polar Foundation was invited to be part of the Belgian pavilion to showcase Belgium’s involvement in sciences related to better understanding our climate. Working with Atelier Brückner (Stuttgart), the IPF has devised an LED-lit giant ice cube to draw visitors into the world of Polar Regions, polar science and climate change, with the Princess Elisabeth Station as the main feature.

Dr. Elie Verleyen (Laboratory of Protistology and Marine Ecology at the University of Ghent), laureate of the InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctica Prize 2008 organised by the  InBev-Baillet Latour Fund and the International Polar Foundation, will be flying to Usteinen and the Princess Elisabeth Station on the 3rd of January 2010. He will be staying in Antarctica for a period of five weeks to carry out field work.

On 9 December 2009 at the University of Liège, Belgium, the IPF participated in the annual meeting of three Belgian Antarctic research projects: AMBIO, ANTAR-IMPACT & BELDIVA.

From the 10th to the 12th of November, the IPF attended the DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) symposium held in Brussels, Belgium. The symposium convened researchers from all across Europe as well some from the United States, Canada, Russia, China and Japan to discuss and debate preliminary results they have obtained under the European-funded Arctic research project.