SCAR GSSG - Structure

Terms of Reference

According to SCAR the Terms of Reference for a Standing Scientific Group will be:

"to share information on disciplinary scientific research being conducted by national Antarctic programmes;

to identify research areas or fields where current research is lacking;

to coordinate proposals for future research by national Antarctic programmes to achieve maximum scientific and logistic effectiveness;

to ensure appropriate cross-disciplinary awareness and linkages with the other SCAR SSGs;

to identify research areas or fields that might be best investigated by a SCAR Scientific Research Programme and establishing a Scientific Programme Planning Group to develop a formal proposal to the SSG;

to establish Action Groups, either individually or jointly with either or both other SSGs, to address specific scientific topics;

to make funding requests for SCAR support of SSG activities (eg symposia, workshops, etc);

to provide scientific advice to the Executive Committee as required.

Formation of the Geoscience Standing Scientific Group (GSSG)

At the second meeting of the GSSG, held in Bremen in July 2004, the existing Chief Officer (CO) stood down and there was an election for a new CO. Prof Alessandro Capra was elected as the new CO and Prof Ross Powell of the USA was subsequently elected as the new Deputy CO. Prof Bryan Storey remains as the Secretary until the next SCAR meeting in 2006.

The newly created Action Groups, Expert Groups and Scientific Research Programmes are listed (and linked to) above.

The AGEANT Action Group was disbanded at XXVIII SCAR.

The first meeting of the newly created GSSG was held on Thursday 18 July 2002.

Dr Phil O'Brien from Australia was elected as the inaugural Chief Officer, Prof. Alessandro Capra from Italy was elected as Deputy Chief Officer and Prof Bryan Storey, from New Zealand, was elected as Secretary.

Mr John Manning remained in charge of geodesy and geographic information activities under the newly created Expert Group on Geospatial Information (GIG).

A report on the outcomes from this first meeting was presented to the SCAR Delegates for their consideration. Also see GSSG research areas for further information.

STRUCTURE OF GSSG

Terms of Reference

Formation of the Geoscience Standing Scientific Group (GSSG)