The 6th SANAP Research symposium was held at Houw Hoek Hotel in the Western Cape, from 27 November to 1 December 2023. A series of posts will be done on the SANAP website to give feedback on sessions and more will follow in the next few weeks.
Delegates started arriving and most were settled in on Monday evening. Delegates from South Africa, Finland, and the United Kingdom spent the week networking with each other and with students, and listening to talks within the thematic themes identified under the South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP). All delegates received a welcoming package to get them through the symposium.(Left: Photo Credit – Anché Louw, SAPRI)
The symposium started with a keynote lecture by Prof Jukka Tuhkuri of Aalto University, Finland on the expedition to find the shipwreck of the Endurance: “On March 5th, 2022 an international Endurance22 expedition located the wreck of Endurance, the lost vessel of Ernest Shackleton. The Endurance22 expedition was organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and the expedition team was taken to the wreck site by S.A. Agulhas II, captain Knowledge Bengu and his crew. Jukka outlined and discussed the three goals of the expedition: to locate the wreck, to tell the story of Endurance to new generations, and to conduct scientific work. The science team onboard included scientists from Stellenbosch University and Aalto University. The Keynote lecture discusses, inter alia, who Shackleton was, how the Endurance was lost and found, and what was learned on the Weddell Sea Expedition” abstract supplied by Prof Tuhkuri. (Above: Photo Credit – Anché Louw, SAPRI)
A welcoming reception took place after the keynote lecture . This reception allowed members of the SANAP community (both old and new) to interact in an informal meet and greet for the first time since the last Symposium in 2018. The 2020 Symposium was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a decision was made to postpone the 2022 Symposium to allow the SANAP community to generate new data post-pandemic.
Afterwards a workshop was held by the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists of South Africa (APECSSA), and they reported back to the SANAP community n Day 3 of the symposium. (Right: Photo Credit: Anché Louw – SAPRI)
Prior to the commencement of the Symposium, a meeting of the members of the South African national committee for Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) took place chaired by Prof Bettine van Vuuren and was attend in person and online by members of the committee. Prof van Vuuren as chair of the national committee feedback on day 2 of the symposium.
More posts on sessions and presentations of the 6th SANAP research Symposium in the coming weeks.
