Join us for an interactive discussion about interdisciplinary collaborations and co-production, AI in Arctic Permafrost research, and changing high latitude permafrost landscapes.

Speakers:

Go Iwahana specializes in the dynamics of permafrost systems, specifically investigating how ground ice forms, persists, and eventually degrades in a warming climate. His primary scope involves quantifying permafrost loss and analyzing its biogeochemical byproducts, including greenhouse gases. A significant portion of his work is dedicated to assessing how landform changes and surface disturbances, such as wildfires, impact Arctic communities and infrastructure. He approaches these questions using a hybrid methodology that combines precise in-situ GNSS measurements and laboratory analyses with multi-sensor remote sensing via airborne and satellites. He will introduce the aims, methods, and spatio-temporal range of his permafrost (geocryology) studies followed by narratives about challenges in collaboration and coproduction between researchers and communities, and among different academic disciplines and the scales targeted. 

Melissa Ward Jones is a Research Assistant Professor and Director of the Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC) in the Institute of Northern Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is a geographer and permafrost geomorphologist interested in understanding the drivers and responses of changing high latitude permafrost landscapes and environments. She uses a mix-methods approach to answer research questions by combining field work, remote sensing, GIS and statistical analysis and more recently, social science-based methods like surveys, interviews and workshop exercises. She has extensive field experience around Alaska, the Canadian High Arctic and Svalbard, Norway. Dr. Ward Jones has had a range of collaborative experiences during her career, including local, national, international, and field based, with various research stations (e.g., the Teshekpuk Lake Observatory in Alaska) and weather stations (e.g., the Eureka Weather Station in Canada) and co-produced research through the Permafrost Grown Project that she leads. She is an advocate of family friendly science and frequently conducts fieldwork with her family, including her daughter since she was 3-month-old. She will discuss collaborative work conducted by WERC Faculty in her capacity as Director.

Wenwen Li is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University (ASU), where she directs the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC). Her research interests include cyberinfrastructure, big data, geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI), and their applications in data- and computation-intensive environmental and social sciences. Her work has led to widely used cyberinfrastructure tools (e.g., PolarHub and PolarGlobe), and conceptual advances that support climate resilience in the Arctic, disaster response, humanitarian aid, and clean water access in underserved communities. She will share her experience bridging big data and AI research for Arctic permafrost science through collaborations with permafrost hydrologists, remote sensing experts, research software engineers, and community leaders to collectively advance our understanding of the Arctic landscape and how its changes are impacting ecosystems and Arctic communities.

Moderator: Brendan Kelly, UAF IARC

Co-hosted by UAF IARC and Arizona State University’s Global Futures Lab

This will be a hybrid event in Akasofu 501 and online. Please register in advance here for the Zoom link.