Plan A.

Sarah is the Executive Director of APECS. Originally from California, Sarah discovered her love of the cryosphere while completing her B.S. in Geological Sciences at Tufts University. She worked in Denali National Park in Alaska before moving to Svalbard as a 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grantee. Sarah used this year to develop her direction in permafrost research & took courses as a guest master student at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). She completed her M.Sc. in Geosciences at the University of Oslo in 2016. During her time on Svalbard, Sarah coordinated field excursions & workshops, served as a scientific & field assistant, taught on multiple UNIS courses & worked as an outdoor guide. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Executive Director of the International Permafrost Association. She is finalizing her PhD on the topic of permafrost thermal dynamics at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) & the University of Oslo.

Dr. Malgorzata (Gosia) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at UiT The Arctic University of Norway & Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her research focuses on Arctic & international environmental governance, science-policy interface and Arctic scientific cooperation, and the gender-environment nexus. Gosia has worked on numerous national & international Arctic projects, including for the European Commission, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland’s Prime Minister Office, Germany’s Arctic Office, and Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is a co-founder and co-lead of “Women of the Arctic”.

Dr. Tahnee Prior is the co-founder and co-lead of Women of the Arctic (WoA). Currently, she leads WoA’s research in the Horizon Europe-funded project ICEBERG, which seeks to comprehensively assess the sources, types, distributions and impact of human and climate-induced pollution on ecosystems and communities in the European Arctic; and how to enhance community-led resilience and adaptation in response. Together with her colleague, Gosia Smieszek, Tahnee also co-leads WoA's research contribution to the Horizon 2020 project Arctic PASSION, which aims to co-create and implement an Arctic observing system that is tuned to address the urgent needs of those who live in the Arctic and has relevance to global society.

In 2023, Tahnee completed a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Marine Environmental Law Institute, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests broadly include global environmental governance, international law, complex systems theory, Arctic and oceans governance, and the nexus of gender and environment.

Dr. Renuka Badhe is the co-founder of Women in Polar Science (WiPS). Currently she also serves as the Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board, and is based in the Netherlands. Her background is in economics and public policy, and she holds a PhD on southern ocean phytoplankton physiology. Renuka has worked with a range of international organisations on various aspects of polar science, policy and/or strategy development. Her current responsibilities include serving as a Chair of EU-PolarNet project’s External Expert Advisory Board, and service on many national and international committees.

Axel is a computer engineering student with a passion to provide tools for scientific and educational use to advance research and enhance the possibilities in teaching. Originally from Germany, he moved to Tromsø in 2022 and is particularly interested in the development of scientific measuring instruments and their adaptation to the special requirements of polar research.

In 2019 Axel has founded and since led a non-profit organization developing educational laboratory equipment with the aim to encourage inquiry-based learning by providing students with opportunities to experience authentic science in and outside their classroom.

During his voluntary engagement in building a multi-disciplinary alumni network for students, early career researchers and advanced scientists he increasingly realised the importance of such programmes and the diverse requirements of the participants. In APECS he found the perfect place to combine his scientific interest with his motivation to enhance cooperation and education across the scientific community by providing early career researchers an empowering environment to proceed on their path.

Axel joined APECS in March 2023 as Directorate Officer to support the administrative tasks of the APECS International Directorate and increase the capacity to continue and expand the services APECS provides to its members.

Besides his studies and work commitment, he enjoys Tromsø´s arctic environment through mountaineering, skiing and sea kayaking while having a camera at hand capturing the unique nature to increase the awareness about its vulnerability.