Conference: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Workshop 2025

This award supports convening the 2025 West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Workshop in Coupeville, WA, enabling multidisciplinary scientific exchange on marine ice-sheet science at a time of increased focus on the impacts of Antarctic change and Antarctic international governance. At the 2025 Workshop, organizers will: (1) convene sessions on innovative WAIS scientific research with extended time for discussion and audience interaction to identify future research targets and logistical needs; (2) hold an open discussion with all participants on strategies for achieving strong US scientific leadership and presence in Antarctica; (3) livestream and archive recordings of the scientific program so that it is available to all stakeholders and trainees; and (4) continue to provide workforce development opportunities through post-agenda half-day mini-workshops. The fate of marine-based ice sheet sectors in Antarctica, in particular WAIS, and their interaction with other Earth systems has had a central role in nearly every major report about the impacts of global Earth-system change for the past decade. An ice sheet of such fundamental global importance and active research requires a dedicated, annual workshop that focuses and organizes the scientific community studying WAIS, its role in the Earth system, and its impact on the US population. The WAIS Workshop has been held annually to provide the key venue to foster scientific exchange across the wide, multidisciplinary intellectual range of marine ice-sheet science in both formal and informal side meetings. The workshop also incorporates modeling of the past, present, and future of WAIS and other marine-based ice sectors to quantify their contribution to global environmental change, short- and long-term paleoclimate studies that contextualize the ongoing evolution of WAIS, and relevant research from other ice masses. For 2025, organizers will continue the successful blind-abstract review and streaming and archiving of WAIS Workshop presentations. The team will also convene an all-hands discussion covering strategies for achieving strong US scientific leadership and presence in Antarctica, critical for meeting the goals of US investment in Antarctic infrastructure and science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.