This proposal will provide funds for the support of round trip air travel of approximately five graduate students from U.S. institutions to Beijing, China, to participate in the First Climate and Cryosphere International Science Conference. The primary sponsor of the conference is the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project, which was established under the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) as a mechanism to coordinate the study of ice as an integral part of the global climate system. The selection of recipients of the travel grant will be conducted by a panel of five recognized polar climate experts, from a pool of applicants who have an accepted abstract for the meeting. Selection criteria will include the scientific content of the abstract, geographic and other diversity considerations, and relevance to CliC project areas. The principal investigator is the acknowledged leader of the U.S. polar research community, and has participated in a number of studies of both arctic and antarctic glaciology and climate. He has been responsible for many of the advances in our thinking about the climatic effects of the cryosphere. The proposal furthers programmatic interests in involving young polar scientists with the international research community, and fostering scientific interaction at all levels.
