international
polar
foundation

A call for proposals has been launched for the first Antarctica InBev-Baillet Latour Fellowship (ABLEF) Award. The laureate of this award will be allocated a research fund enabling him to carry out his study proposal in, or in the vicinity of the Princess Elisabeth Antarctic research station.

On May 19th, polar explorer Alain Hubert, founder of the International Polar Foundation, visited the European Space Agency (ESA) to hand over a unique set of snow-depth measurements which had been collected during his 2007 Arctic crossing. This dataset makes a valuable contribution to the validation programme of ESA's ice mission CryoSat.

For the first time since its creation, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation delivered its "climate change" award to Alain Hubert, founding president of the International Polar Foundation (IPF), for his clairvoyance and commitment towards climate change-related issues.

We just lived a historical moment here in Brussels, as we received a phone call from Utsteinen base camp. Alain Hubert phoned to say that the last exterior module was mounted on the Station this afternoon.

Schoolchildren from the Hoogstraten primary school, located near Antwerp, designed and sewed a flag especially dedicated to the new Belgian Station in Antarctica.

The Utsteinen workaholics have now completed mounting the exterior modules on the Station's East side.

The C-shaped wooden side beams have now all been mounted. Next step involves tackling the exterior metal panels, as soon as the weather permits to do so.

The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.

The building team spent just 5 days building the station's floor. That's roughly 500 m² of pine wood resting upon the metal struts. This rigid progress puts the building team a few days ahead of schedule! Progress has been such that the building team earned a day's rest over the week-end.

It is snowing lightly, the sky is overcast, but the sun still pierces through the clouds. A fresh breeze rises now and then upon the Utsteinen ridge, cooling any extremity that has not been covered. It is -12°C, but who knows what the wind chill is.