Dr.Karl A. Erb has been the Director of the Office of Polar Programs  (OPP) at the National Science Foundation  (NSF) since 1998.  He is also the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland.

After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan 1970 he did post-doctoral work in accelerator-based experimental nuclear physics at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to Yale University in 1972.   More...

See Dr. Erb’s lecture on "Arctic Research in a Time of Change" at the Arctic Centre’s seminar.

Dr. Elena N. Andreeva works as leading social science researcher in the Institute for System Analysis of Russian Academy of Sciences , Moscow. Many years she is involved in studies of dramatic changes in the Russian North connected with social and economic transformation of last decades, using of natural resources, particularly oil and gas and impact of such an industrial development on northern society and environment. More...

Dr. Frank Burnet, Professor, Executive Director of Science Communication Unit, Bristol University

I have worked as an actor and as a biochemist. In 2002 I became the first Professor of Science Communication in the UK and led the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol from its foundation. More...

Ms. Liisa Holmberg, who is Sámi,  works as the Rector of the Sámi Education Institute  in Inari, Finland.  The school specializes in indigenous livelihood and traditions. The main subjects at the school are Sámi language, reindeer husbandry, handicrafts, tourism, business and media.  More...

Dr. Grete Kaare Hovelsrud, an anthropologist, is currently a senior researcher at CICERO, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo. She has worked and travelled in the Arctic for more than 25 years, and have been involved in various projects in a number of disciplines (quaternary geology, reindeer ecology, marine geology and social anthropology).

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Dr David Leary is a Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia and a Visiting Research Fellow at the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies , Japan. 

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Ms. Annika Lindblom is working as a Senior Adviser for sustainable development  in the Ministry of the Environment of Finland . She has worked in the Ministry´s Unit for Sustainable Development since 2004 coordinating and developing the sustainable development policies in the Government agencies. She has been preparing the national agenda for sustainable development mainly through the Secretariat of the National Commission for Sustainable Development (FNCSD).

Dr. Peter Prokosch is the Managing Director of UNEP/GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian foundation which  supports the United Nations Environmental Programme. Before he entered this position in 2006 he worked for 23 years as a biologist for WWF, the international conservation organisation World Wide Fund For Nature. Before that he worked as a director of WWF International out of Oslo/Norway to establish and develop the WWF-Arctic Programme. 

Dr. Philip Wookey is Professor of Ecosystem Ecology at the University of Stirling , Scotland.

He has worked since 1991 on the potential effects of environmental change on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems on Svalbard and in Fennoscandia, Iceland and Alaska.

The Arctic Centre Scientific Advisory Board
(1.1.2009 - 31.12.2011)

The scientific board meets once a year and it has an advisory and supervisory role which includes following tasks:

• The Board supports the leadership of the Arctic Centre by giving advice for research planning, science education, data management, communication and outreach. 
• The Board advises on implementation of the Arctic Centre Strategy for 2020 that has been adopted in fall 2008. The Board assesses whether the benchmarks set out in the Strategy are being achieved.
• The Board gives advice for evaluation the quality of the work of the Arctic Centre. 
• The Board supports Arctic Centre’s national and international co-operation and networking with scientific partners as well as public and private sectors.
• The Board supports the Arctic Centre in gaining external funding by giving advice and status for the Arctic Centre.