international
polar
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The southern hemisphere winter is over, and as the Antarctic warms up, the members of the BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Research) 2010-2011 expedition have headed to Antarctica to re-open the Princess Elisabeth Station for its first complete “zero emission” season. Departing from Cape Town (South Africa), they landed at Utsteinen on November 11th.

IPF has been invited to attend the world’s premier financial services event – Sibos – being held in Amsterdam from October 25-29, 2010.

From October 2nd to 17th, the general public will have the opportunity to discover the “Venturi Antarctica” at the Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris. Partnering with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the International Polar Foundation collaborated with car manufacturer Venturi from Monaco to develop the “Venturi Antarctica”, an electric vehicle to be used in the extreme conditions of Antarctica.

On September 17th, 2010, the community center “Bonnevie” and the association “l’ESPOIR”, officially inaugurated their project on Rue Fin in Molenbeek (Brussels) in the presence of Mrs Evelyne Huytebroeck, Minister for the Environment, Energy, Urban Regeneration and Aid to Individuals and Mr Alain Hubert, polar explorer and President of the International Polar Foundation. The project to build 14 passive duplex apartments was designed by architect Damien Carnoy and has involved the future inhabitants and owners of the apartments from its inception.

Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th of July 2010, IPF-Switzerland participated in the eighth edition of "La Nuit de la Science" in Geneva, a very popular event organised every two years by the "Musée d’histoire des sciences".

On June 9th 2010, Schneider Electric organized a VIP Event in Ostend. The event, in which the IPF participated, started with an academic meeting that was opened by Jean-Paul Brees, President of Schneider Electric in Belgium.

The "Zero Emission" Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica has been selected to be featured in the "Multiple Plan - Design Crossroads in Belgium" exhibition in Essen's Red Dot Design Museum from October 28th until November 21st, 2010.

The IPY Oslo Science Conference, scheduled for 8-12 June, is one of the biggest polar science meeting. Four IPF staff members will be attending. Needless to say, we are all exited.

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.