After a wonderful 12 years of working, researching, and teaching at the University of Guelph, we said goodbye to our Canadian colleagues and headed southwest to Colorado. As of January 1, 2020, I will be the new Director of INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Eager to begin this new academic chapter, and have a chance to provide leadership to a research engine I have known about for my entire career. -Merritt
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After attending every annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting since 2002, I decided that this conference was not in my cards for this year. Instead, my goal was to elevate the amazing young scholars in our group. Dr. Catherine Dieleman delivered an invited talk in a disturbance session, while Carolyn Gibson gave an invited talk in the NASA ABoVE session. Kristen Bill, Will Cox, and David Bysouth also each presented their research findings in various sessions! While I was not there myself, I couldn't have been happier to have these incredible researchers serve as ambassadors of our research program. What a great way to end the academic year of 2019. -Merritt
This summer we deployed multiple crews to field sites in Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Catherine, Evan, Will, and Kristen ran the APEX program, Catherine continued her deep fertilization experiment, Will collaborated with CRREL, and Kristen acted as a liaison between our group and the BNZ LTER. In the NWT, David embedded in the community of Kakisa and helped launch "Northern Agricultural Futures". In the Sahtu region further north, Jessica and Cathal helped us to design and sample across a new fire x thaw chronosequence. It was a wildly successful summer and we will be learning from these samples and sites for many years to come. Thank you everyone. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your passion, dedication, and energy. -Merritt
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