Paul Morin, the director of the National Science Foundation’s Polar Geospatial Center (PGC) at the University of Minnesota, stepped down from his position, effective September 22nd. For 13 years Morin led PGC, and its predecessor the Antarctic Geospatial Information Center. He spent 32 years at the University of Minnesota, including his time at the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics.
One of Morin’s most significant accomplishments is ArcticDEM, a White House initiative led by PGC to produce a high-resolution, time-dependent elevation model of the Arctic using the University of Illinois’ Blue Waters supercomputer. Morin has numerous publications in wide-ranging fields including remote sensing, geoscience education, the carbon cycle, and scientific visualization. Morin stated that
“PGC has done incredible things over the past decade and I expect that to continue far into the future. It has always been about PGC’s people and how they serve the community.”
Longtime PGC leadership members Jonathan Pundsack and Claire Porter will serve as acting Co-Directors of PGC. The main NSF PGC cooperative agreement was recently renewed in early September 2021, and over the course of the next three years PGC will continue current services, expand support for investigators, improve product accessibility, and broaden education & outreach activities.
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Check out the original PGC Newsletter post here.