Arctic Leadership Initiative newsletter: Issue 6

Arctic Leadership Initiative newsletter: Issue 6

July 24, 2026

The Icebreaker

Newsletter of the Arctic Leadership Initiative (ALI)
Connecting students, faculty, and partners across our program
Issue #6 (Summer 2026): Fireweed, fieldwork, and the year ahead
alaska.edu/arcticleadership

Fireweed Season

Alaskans know how to read a fireweed stalk: the blooms climb as summer goes, and when they reach the top, the season is winding down. In mid-July, the blossoms are still comfortably low, and ALI is making the most of the sunlight. Our newest President's Arctic Professors are already landing major awards and representing UA on national stages, planning for our September retreat is underway, and the 2026-27 cohorts announced this spring are preparing to begin their ALI year.

This summer edition of The Icebreaker shares new research news from ALI's senior faculty, a first look at the coming program year, and a roundup of opportunities from across the UA system worth catching before the fireweed tops out.

$1.3M Award to Confront Juneau's Glacier Outburst Floods

Eran Hood (UAS), 2026-28 University of Alaska President's Arctic Professor and professor of environmental science, is principal investigator (PI) on a newly awarded $1.3 million project addressing one of Alaska's most visible climate hazards: the annual outburst floods from Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.

The project, "Enhancing Glacier Outburst Flood Monitoring Capacity and Flood Risk Mitigation in Juneau, Alaska," is a Congressionally Directed Spending award made through the USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station in Juneau, running July 2026 through June 2031. Hood leads the effort with co-PIs Jason Amundson (UAS) and Gabriel Wolken (UAF): a UAS-UAF partnership aimed squarely at public safety and infrastructure planning in the Mendenhall Valley.

The team's work will build community resilience to glacier outburst flooding by informing planning and management related to public safety and infrastructure, and will produce actionable tools that can be applied to other glacier flood-impacted communities in Alaska and beyond, along with a framework for community engagement around integrated risk assessment and response. It's a model of what ALI's senior faculty do best: research capacity pointed directly at the needs of Alaska communities.

Arctic Professor Presents at Premier International Corrosion Conference

Raghu Srinivasan (UAA), 2026-28 University of Alaska President's Arctic Professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, recently presented his research at the 2026 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Aqueous Corrosion in New London, New Hampshire.

The Gordon Research Conferences are internationally recognized as one of the world's premier scientific conference series: single-track, immersive gatherings that bring together leading researchers from academia, industry, and national laboratories to exchange unpublished, cutting-edge work. This year's theme, "Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future through Science-Driven Corrosion Research," underscored the role corrosion science plays in sustainability across energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing.

Srinivasan presented a poster titled "Engineered Degradation of Carbon Steel in Seawater: Galvanic and Chemical Pathways for Passive Marine Decommissioning," research that reframes corrosion from a failure mechanism into an engineering tool, investigating controlled, passive corrosion as a sustainable approach to decommissioning aging marine infrastructure. His participation also opened conversations with international experts on corrosion challenges unique to Arctic and sub-Arctic environments, strengthening collaborations at the forefront of the field and advancing ALI's mission of research excellence and a growing international profile for UA.

Save the Date: ALI Program Retreat, September 28-29

Mark your calendars: the annual ALI program retreat will be held September 28-29 in Fairbanks, bringing together our 2026-27 student cohort, Early Career Faculty Fellows, President's Arctic Professors, mentors, and program staff for two days of connection, planning, and Arctic leadership in practice. The retreat has become the launching point for each ALI year and the place where cohorts become teams, and this year's gathering will set the course for challenge projects and programming across 2026-27. Logistics and agenda details will follow later this summer; participants should watch their inboxes.

The Year Ahead

The 2026-27 program year is shaping up to be ALI's most ambitious yet. Twenty-five students from across UAF, UAA, and UAS will begin their cohort year this fall; we'll introduce them properly, with faces and projects, in upcoming issues. Our four new Early Career Faculty Fellows, Mariah Seater (UAF), Seoyeon Kim (UAF), Amy Cross (UAA), and Xiaofei Song (UAS), are already at work alongside President's Arctic Professors Eugenie Euskirchen (UAF), Raghu Srinivasan (UAA), and Eran Hood (UAS). Weekly faculty meetings resume with the fall semester, new Arctic Engagement Award projects launch across the system, and challenge project themes for the new cohort are taking shape now.

Opportunities + News from around UA

ALI Ambassador Travel + Residency Awards: Apply by July 31

• Who: UA faculty, staff, and students seeking support to represent UA in circumpolar and national Arctic venues
• Purpose: Travel and residency support that puts UA voices in the rooms where Arctic priorities are shaped
• Deadline: Friday, July 31, 2026

Toolik Tundra Award (UAF)

• Who: Students and early-career researchers
• Focus: Sponsors independent, original Arctic research projects with up to 10 days at Toolik Field Station during the 2027 field season

UAS "Alaska Unlocked": In-State Tuition for All

Starting Fall 2026, every undergraduate at the University of Alaska Southeast pays the in-state tuition rate, regardless of residency, automatically, with no extra applications. For prospective students outside Alaska looking north, that's nearly $15,000 off the cost of a UA education. Share widely with anyone considering study in Southeast.

UAF Research Field Days: July 28 (Fairbanks) + July 30 (Palmer)

Free and open to all, 2-6 p.m., UAF researchers present work on permafrost soils, vegetable variety trials, small-grain breeding, and more, with guided tours of the Georgeson Botanical Garden in Fairbanks and the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer.

Stay Connected

Reach out to ALI Program Coordinator Nate Bauer or Director Larry Hinzman with questions, ideas, or news to share. If you have updates, opportunities, or stories to feature in future editions of the Icebreaker, please send them along; we're always eager to highlight the work happening across our campuses and communities. Visit alaska.edu/arcticleadership for the latest.

Thanks for being part of the ALI community; see you in August and September.

-The Arctic Leadership Initiative Team