The Arctic Circle is non-profit, volunteer organization made up of people who enjoy learning, talking and sharing information about the North. The annual cost of membership is….
New members may join and
memberships may be renewed in person at the
meetings or by mailing this
form. The Executive John
Gilbert (President) received his
early education at King Alfred School
under the headmaster Frederick Spencer
Chapman, a member of the 1930-31
British Arctic Air-Route Expedition
and the 1932–33 Greenland Expedition.
Immigrating to Canada in 1953 he
served as a Radio Operator at Resolute
Bay and Eureka, Nunavut from 1956-58.
He travelled to Eureka on the
icebreaker D’Iberville. He then
followed a career in
telecommunications and information
technology. He was the Executive
Secretary of the 1984 Worldwide
Commission on Telecommunications under
the auspices of the International
Telecommunication Union, a UN
specialized agency. He was associated
for many years with UNESCO. John has
maintained a life-long interest in the
High Arctic and compiled a collection
of photographs, documents and stories
on the Joint Arctic Weather Stations:
1947-72 now held by the Nunavut
Archives. He curated the 2014 exhibit
"The Polar Adventures of Andrew
Taylor" assisted by a Northern Studies
Award and Research Grant Program from
the University of Manitoba. John is a
graduate of Carleton University and is
married with two adult children. Anne Adams
Simpson (Vice-President) was born and
raised in British Columbia, but she
moved to Ottawa to study and first
became a member of the Arctic Circle
in 2018 after attending several
meetings with her grandfather, Peter
Adams, who was a glaciologist and
politician. In 2017, she had the
opportunity to live in Yellowknife as
part of her Master’s degree in
International Affairs, experiencing
the North for the first time.
Beginning her career in negotiations
with Crown-Indigenous Relations
Canada, Anne is now a Senior Advisor
for Northern Affairs Canada.
Personally and professionally, Anne
has a passion for the North. Kathleen
Tipton (Past -President) graduated from
Ryerson’s School of Interior Design in Toronto in
1985. Her thesis centred on a proposal for the
design and construction of a Scientific Resource
Centre situated near Radstock Bay on Devon Island,
Nunavut. The Government of Canada produced a White
Paper on the subject of a resource centre for
Maxwell Bay one month following the publication of
her thesis. She moved to Finland in 1986 to work
with various architectural firms, and in 1995
co-founded Arkos Arkkitehdit, a multidisciplinary
design cooperative. During this period she also
studied architecture at Helsinki University of
Technology as well as Finnish, philology, film and
Russian architectural history at the University of
Helsinki. After returning to Canada, she embarked
on aircrew training in 2005 with the Royal
Canadian Air Force at the Canadian Forces Schools
of Aerospace Control Operations (Cornwall) and Air
Navigation (Winnipeg), finishing a course of study
in Borden at the CF School of Administration and
Logistics as an Air Logistics Officer in
Transportation and Air Movements in 2010. She
returned north of the 60th parallel in
2015, serving as Liaison Officer for CJOC’s Joint
Task Force North, Detachment Yukon. In 2018, she
received the Commissioner’s Commendation Award
from the Honourable Doug Phillips, Commissioner of
Yukon, for her excellence while serving as the
Commissioner’s military aide-de-camp. Currently in
Ottawa with Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group
J4 in charge of infrastructure for CAF TG
Transition Units and Transition Centres across
Canada. Thomas Frisch (Secretary) is a geologist (BSc Hons, Queen’s University, 1962, PhD, University of California Santa Barbara, 1967) who spent his entire professional career with the Geological Survey of Canada. His first experience of the Arctic was as a student assistant on a GSC field party in central Ellesmere Island in 1962. Tom subsequently spent some 23 summers in the North, working in the Precambrian Shield of the Eastern Arctic, northern mainland and Greenland. Although he retired in 1996, Tom continued his association with the GSC on a volunteer basis until 2011. Besides geology, Tom’s interests extend to book collecting (geology and Arctica) and Arctic history. David Terroux (Treasurer) (Biography to follow) The Committee Guy
R. Brassard is a
retired
Science
Advisor
(Canadian
Forest
Service,
Natural
Resources
Canada,
1989-2005) and
Biology
Professor at
Memorial
University of
Newfoundland
(1970-89). His
first arctic
work was in
1964
(Operation
Tanquary,
northern
Ellesmere
Island) as a
botany
student. This
was followed
by two more
summers (1967;
1969) of
botanical
field work,
also on
northern
Ellesmere.
His special
interest was
in arctic
mosses, and
his Ph.D. in
1970 was on
the mosses of
northern
Ellesmere
Island, with
an overview
for the Queen
Elizabeth
Islands. While
at Memorial
University,
his botanical
research (and
that of his
graduate
students)
continued on
arctic mosses,
mainly
analysing
large scale
distribution
patterns. This
involved more
field work in
several arctic
areas:
Ellesmere and
Baffin Is.,
Greenland, and
arctic
Alaska.
In addition,
he and his
students
carried out
considerable
bryological
(moss-related)
research in
Labrador and
on the island
of
Newfoundland.
Member of the
Arctic Circle
since the
mid-1960s, and
Fellow of the
Arctic
Institute of
North America,
he lives in
Ottawa. His
personal
interests
include
gardening,
square
dancing, and
high arctic
exploration
(esp.
collecting old
expedition
reports). Chris Burn (Biography to follow)
Luke
Copland
is a Professor
and holder of
the University
Research Chair
in Glaciology
at the
University of
Ottawa, where
he directs the
Laboratory for
Cryospheric
Research (https://cryospheric.org). His
research
focuses on the
dynamics and
recent changes
of glaciers
and ice
shelves,
primarily in
northern
Canada. This
research
combines
remote sensing
with field
measurements,
and is
primarily
aimed at
understanding
the controls
on ice motion
and glacier
mass balance,
and how these
may change
under a
changing
climate. Kathy
M. Haycock,
originally
from Ottawa,
grew up in a
world filled
with stories
and landscape
paintings of
the Arctic.
Her Dad was
Maurice
Haycock,
northern
Geologist and
Arctic
painter. Kathy
completed
undergraduate
work in
Psychology at
Carleton
University.
She continued
to work there
as a research
assistant and
in England at
Cambridge
University
before joining
the “back to
the land”
movement in
the Upper
Ottawa Valley
near Eganville
in 1973. She
began weaving
tapestries of
the landscape,
and with her
husband
started a
handcrafted
log home
building
company. Early
trips north
with her Dad
on his
painting trips
further
instilled her
early love for
the profound
beauty,
fragility and
powerful
influence of
the Arctic. In
1998 Kathy
began oil
painting. She
has returned
North numerous
times, though
not as often
as her Dad, on
extensive
painting trips
in Greenland,
Nunavut, the
Northwest
Territories,
the Yukon and
Alaska. Kathy
is a
professional
artist, an
elected member
of the Society
of Canadian
Artists,
Artists for
Conservation,
the Ontario
Society of
Artists, the
Federation of
Canadian
Artists, and a
Fellow of the
Royal Canadian
Geographic
Society. Her
art is
collected
worldwide. She
continues to
travel to the
North and to
the American
Southwest to
paint. Caroline
Forcier
Holloway, is
an Arctic
researcher and
a retired
Senior
Audiovisual
Archivist from
Library and
Archives
Canada (LAC),
who holds an
undergraduate
degree in
history from
the University
of Ottawa. Her
interest in
the Arctic
evolved as a
Reference
Archivist and
expanded when
she became the
archivist for
Indigenous and
Northern
Content, and
Oral History.
During her
career,
Caroline
conducted
professional
interviews for
the Workers’
History
Museum, LAC,
and academic
journals. In
particular,
she
co-produced
the video Lure
of the Lens: A
father and
son’s
experience of
the North,
mixing an
interview she
conducted with
silent home
movies of an
RCMP
constable’s
activities in
the Yukon in
the 1930s.
Caroline also
interviewed
filmmaker
Roger Racine,
a young
National Film
Board recruit,
about his
extreme cold
weather
filming during
the Canadian
military’s
Exercise
Musk-Ox in
1946. In 2009,
at a Nunavut
10th
anniversary
celebration in
Ottawa,
Caroline first
publicly
screened Inuit
Scenes at
Avvajja,
Igloolik,
a rediscovered
archival film
made in 1937
by
archaeologist
Graham Rowley,
documenting
Inuit and
places
encountered
while
excavating
with the
British-Canadian
Arctic
Expedition.
The
rediscovery
inspired
Caroline to
survey LAC’s
film
collection for
footage of
northern
content
revealing
sizable
amounts of
footage on
Arctic
expeditions,
contributing
towards the
Arctic’s
narratives of
the
relationship
between Inuit
and explorers,
and eventually
aligning with
the Truth and
Reconciliation
Commission’s
Calls to
Action, LAC’s
digitization
initiative,
and the
decolonization
of archival
descriptions.
Currently, as
an archivist
with the
Nunavut
Archives
Program,
Government of
Nunavut,
Caroline is
processing the
Thomas H.
Manning papers
and collection
of rare
literature on
Arctic
exploration,
which the
Arctic
explorer and
zoologist
willed to the
people of
Nunavut. She
is also
working on a
biography of
Thomas H.
Manning and a
bibliography
of his
scientific
publications
and
collections. Edward
(Ted) Johnson, OC,
has worked in
the
government,
business and
not-for-profit
sectors. He
has been a
repeat visitor
to Canada’s
Arctic since
the nineteen
seventies and
participated
in some
sixteen canoe
expeditions
North of
Sixty,
including what
are believed
to be first
descents of
the Ruggles,
Rowley,
Isortoq and
Ajaqutaliq. He
is a Fellow of
the Royal
Canadian
Geographical
Society and
the Royal
Geographical
Society, and a
Member of the
Arctic Circle
for over
thirty years. Tom Lukowski (Biography to follow)
Peter
MacKinnon is a
management
consultant and
academic.
He has a
professional
background
built on a
wide range of
experiences
derived from
holding
positions as a
scientist,
business
manager,
entrepreneur,
bureaucrat,
executive,
diplomat,
management
advisor and
academic.
His
experiences
span the
world.
He has worked
with clients
on every
continent and
a number of
island
nations. Dr.
R.I. Guy
Morrison is a
Scientist
Emeritus at
the National
Wildlife
Research
Centre of
Environment
and Climate
Change Canada,
following a 38
year career
researching
shorebirds for
the Government
of Canada. He
continues
active
research,
specializing
in aerial
surveys for
Red Knots and
other
shorebirds in
North and
South America.
Dr. Morrison's
work has had a
profound
impact on the
conservation
of Arctic
shorebirds.
His
low-altitude
aerial
population
surveys of
migratory
sites in South
America,
Central
America and
Mexico led to
the creation
of the
Western
Hemisphere
Shorebird
Network, which
currently
protects 120
key sites used
by shorebirds
in 20
countries
stretching
from Alaska to
Tierra del
Fuego. A role
model and
mentor to
ornithologists
throughout the
Americas, he
continues to
spend
considerable
time in the
field and, in
recent years,
has focused on
Arctic bird
species that
are the most
vulnerable to
climate
change. In
2016, Dr.
Morrison was
appointed as a
Member of the
Order of
Canada. Doreen
Riedel
is Henry
Larsen’s
daughter. She
had a wide
career in
biology,
health
education,
parasitology,
and medical
research in
Canada and
abroad. Her
life has been
profoundly
influenced by
her father,
who commanded
St Roch
in the Arctic
from 1928 to
1948. Doreen
has donated
her father’s
Arctic film
footage to the
government and
many artefacts
to Vancouver
Maritime
Museum. She
has researched
the
little-known
family
background of
her
Norwegian-born
father and has
been
indefatigably
publicizing
the Larsen
legacy by way
of films,
books,
articles, and
talks.
Currently, she
is editing the
Arctic portion
of Larsen’s
extensive
memoirs.
Doreen is a
member of The
Arctic Circle
and a former
member of its
executive, a
past president
of the
Canadian
Nordic
Society, and a
Fellow of the
Royal Canadian
Geographical
Society. Laura Thomson is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University and Canada Research Chair (Tier-2) in Integrated Glacier Monitoring Practices. With a background in geophysics, she spent her MSc developing ground-penetrating radar techniques for the characterization of permafrost, and she later worked with the Cryosat-2 radar altimeter validation team at the European Space Agency as a Young Graduate Trainee. Today, her research group focuses on glacier mass balance monitoring and downstream impacts of accelerating melt on Arctic watersheds. Research in the Ice, Climate, and Environment Lab (ICELab) integrates field, remote sensing, and modelling techniques to support the detection of glacier changes, build process understanding, and improve future projections. She serves as Canada’s national correspondent to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, supporting the continuity and growth of glacier mass balance monitoring efforts in Canada. John Wright is originally from the UK, but following careers with the British Antarctic Survey and the British and Canadian Armies, he now calls Canada home. He has wide experience of both Polar regions and was awarded the British Polar Medal with Antarctic and Arctic clasp by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998. He has climbed and skied in many different parts of the world; it was his interest in mountaineering that led to his employment as a Field Guide with the British Antarctic Survey in the 1970s. He worked on the Polar Plateau and in the Shackleton Mountains and overwintered at Halley Station and unintentionally at the Argentine Belgrano Station. Throughout his subsequent military career John undertook expeditions to areas such as New Zealand, Greenland, Svalbard, and Borneo. Between family commitments he used periods of leave to guide on cruise ships in the Arctic. Since retiring from the Canadian Army John has expanded his guiding to include Antarctic cruises and has become an active fellow of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He has helped to secure significant historical artifacts for the Society including a sledge used on the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean and the last dog sled to be used in the Antarctic
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