Gold Medal

2010 Winner - Canadian International Polar Year National Committee

IPY Committee members at the RCGS Dinner, November 2010 (Photo: Frank Scheme)

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Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea poses with Ian Church and David Hik, who accepted the 2010 Gold Medal on behalf of the Canadian International Polar Year National Committee. (Photo: David Barbour)

The fourth International Polar Year (IPY), in 2007- 2008, was the largest-ever scientific program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic. Canada’s participation was extensive: it involved 1,750 researchers, 900 northerners and more than 1,000 students working on 52 research projects throughout the North. This massive research effort, which brought together the nation’s scientific community, was coordinated by the Canadian International Polar Year National Committee, a body of  scientists, academics and government representatives chaired by Ian Church, a retired senior science  advisor with the Yukon government. The committee was supported by the Canadian IPY  Secretariat,  led by David Hik of the University of Alberta. Canada was an international leader in IPY, advocating research on the human dimension of polar regions, says Church. One of our major contributions was the integration of traditional knowledge with western science. “Traditional knowledge wasn’t part of the scientific culture,” says Church, “but by the end of IPY a lot of scientists from a lot of countries were  saying, ‘Wow, we’ve learned a lot!’”

— Amy Smart and Monique Roy-Sole

More information:

List of Canadian IPY Committee members (Adobe PDF document)