The IUGG Electronic JournalVolume 6 No. 6 (June 1, 2006)This short, informal newsletter is intended to keep IUGG Member National Committees informed about the activities of the IUGG Associations, and actions of the IUGG Secretariat. Past issues are posted on the IUGG Web site. Please forward this message to those who will benefit from the information. Your comments are welcome. Contents
1. Welcome to Bolivia, a returning member of IUGG By vote by correspondence of the regular members of the IUGG, Bolivia has been accepted as a new member of IUGG in Associate status. Bolivia had previously been a member of IUGG from 1960 to 2000, and we welcome their return. The Adhering Body is the Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Bolivia, and the President of the National Committee is Dr. José Luis Tellería-Geiger. The Vice-President is Estela Minaya, and the Secretary General is Dr. Rudolfo Ayala. We look forward to new collaborations and new friendships. 2. Call for Delegates to the 2007 IUGG General Assembly In a formal letter posted on 9 May 2006 to all IUGG Adhering Bodies, a request was made for the name of the official delegate to the IUGG Council meetings in Perugia, Italy, in July 2007. This person must be accredited by means of a signed letter (fax and e-mail are not acceptable) from the IUGG Adhering Organisation. This person will be admitted to the Council meeting and may participate in Council business. Delegates from Adhering Bodies in Observer status (that is, dues not paid through 2006), may participate in Council Business but may not vote on issues requiring a ballot, including elections of officers and approval of the budget. Because of a change in IUGG By-laws (By-law 11) enacted at the 2003 General Assembly, IUGG Members in Associate status may send one representative to the Council meetings as a Listener, Listeners are not permitted to engage in discussions or vote on IUGG business. Previously, Associate members were not represented at Council meetings. The Adhering Organizations are asked to send these letters so that they arrive at the IUGG Office by 28 February 2007. In order to expedite the Council meetings, documents regarding items of business will be sent directly to the delegates for consideration in advance of the General Assembly. 3. ICSU announces formation of a Planning Group on Natural Hazards At the ICSU General Assembly in China in October 2005, a decision was taken to plan for a new ICSU initiative on Natural and Human-induced Hazards and Disasters. A call for nominations for members was issued, and IUGG as well as many of the GeoUnions submitted a number of names for the Planning Group. Tom Beer, Stephen Sparks, and Harsh Gupta as liaison from the ICSU Committee on Scientific Planning and Research (CSPR), were selected to represent the GeoUnions on the committee. Their work will begin in June. 4. IUGG representative to Science for Health and Well Being Steering Committee SHWB is an initiative of the ICSU Unions that been under development since 2002. It expects to marshal expertise from the natural, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences to attain new insights into the research and policies that affect people while being mindful of the obvious and intimate links to environmental systems. IUGG has been one of the several Unions, under the leadership of the International Union of Biological Sciences, which has supported this initiative. A Steering Committee is being formed to take this initiative forward, and Dr. Claire Horwell, Director of the International Volcanic Health Hazard Network, has agreed to be the IUGG representative to the Steering Committee. We look forward to being an active partner in this truly inter-disciplinary effort. 5. IUGG representative to the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency Dr. Claude Boucher, Ministere de la Recherche, Direction de la Technologie, Department Espace et Aeronautique, France, will represent IUGG at the 17th meeting of the CCTF from 15-15 September, at BIPM in Sevres, France. IUGG is grateful for his continuing service. 6. IAGA liaison to the Union Commission on Mathematical Geophysics Professor Matthias Holschneider, Universität Potsdam, Institut für Mathematik, Germany, has kindly accepted to be the IAGA liaison to the Union Commission on Mathematical Geophysics (CMG). Other Association liaisons include Martin Vermeer (IAG), M. Daniel Schertzer (IAHS), and A. Neri and Oded Navon (IAVCEI). The CMG 2006 meeting, Coupling in Earth Systems: Solids, Fluids, Life, will be held June 4-8 at the Sea of Galilee, Israel. 7. ICSU supports IAG’s GGOS for IGOS-P membership The Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) is an over-arching strategy for conducting observations relating to climate and atmosphere, oceans and coasts, the land surface and the Earth's interior. Based on existing international global observing programmes, IGOS seeks to improve observing capacity and deliver observations in a cost-effective and timely fashion. IGOS has developed six initial prototype projects as follows:
Resolution 3 of the 2003 (Sapporo) IUGG Council supported the establishment of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) by the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). GGOS, based on the IAG Services, provides the metrological basis for many monitoring and observing programmes in the field of Earth sciences. The IUGG Resolution and fact that GGOS is already well established within GEO (IAG is a GEO participating organization) encouraged ICSU to recommend that GGOS should become a member of the IGOS Partnership (IGOS-P). A new theme, Dynamic Earth, will likely be developed. 8. IUGG-Related Meetings Occurring during June - August 2006 A calendar of meetings of interest to IUGG disciplines (especially those organized or sponsored by IUGG Associations) is posted on the IUGG Web Site [ www.iugg.org ]. Specific information about these meetings, including web links, can be found there. Individual Associations also list more meetings on their web sites appropriate to their disciplines. May 29 - June 2, 2006 May 30 - June 3, 2006 June 1 - June 2, 2006 June 4 - June 8, 2006 June 6 - June 8, 2006 June 6 - June 9, 2006 June 8 - June 10, 2006 June 8 - June 10, 2006 June 14 - June 16, 2006 June 14 - June 17, 2006 June 16, 2006 June 17 - June 21, 2006 June 19 - June 23, 2006 June 19 - June 24, 2006 June 30 - July 1, 2006 July 3 - 7, 2006 July 8 - 15, 2006 July 9 - 14, 2006 July 9 - 15, 2006 July 10 - 14, 2006 July 15 - 19, 2006 July 16 - 23, 2006 July 17 - 19, 2006 July 21 - 22, 2006 July 25 - August 3, 2006 August 14 - 25, 2006 August 21 – 25, 2006 August 23 - 27, 2006 August 27 - September 1, 2006 August 28 - September 1, 2006 August 30 - September 1, 2006 End of IUGG Electronic Journal Volume 6 Number 6 (June 1, 2006) |
