Meet the Expedition Members @ ASSW 2026, Aarhus, Denmark

There's an opportunity to meet with Natalia Sarmanto and Joseph Ricketts in person if you are attending the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) in Denmark at the end of March.

Joseph Ricketts and Natalia Sarmanto Joint Project Leaders - image © Joe Cox

ASSW 2026 will be held from 25 March to 1 April 2026 in Aarhus, Denmark, featuring Community Meetings, Science Day, and the Arctic Observing Summit.

The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2026 is organized by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and hosted by Aarhus University and the Forum for Arctic Research (FAF) in Aarhus, Denmark. The event is structured as a hybrid conference, allowing both on-site and online participation.

Natalia Sarmanto and Richard Hill - image © Joseph Ricketts

Natalia and Joseph will be going to Aarhus on Saturday 28th March and on the Sunday 29th they will be there to present a poster of their research work carried out on the 2025 Tempelfjord Arctic Research Group expedition.  The Flora and Fauna project, jointly led by both of them, repeated field studies that had been carried out by young researchers of the Polar Exploration Group on a research expedition in 1983.  The current ARG Group Leader, Dr. Steve Staley and the 2025 Expedition Leader, Mike Haynes were both on that 1983 expedition and just five years later, in 1988, they were part of the team that founded the Arctic Research Group.

Joseph with expedition colleague Richard Hill in Sassendalen - image © Natalia Sarmanto

The Flora and Fauna project was focussed on being able to directly compare the results of the repeated studies, with those that were carried out more than forty years earlier, using the detailed information that had been diligently recorded by the researchers in 1983. The work in 2025 was carried using the same methodology, referencing location records, photographs and descriptions from the 1983 report. Their work last summer was also diligently recorded and incorporated current technologies to bring the project up to the 21st century.

Who knows, in 40+ years time, Natalia or Joseph, or hopefully both of them, may revisit the Tempelfjord area and be leading the expedition with young researchers for them to repeat the studies another time.

If you'd like to meet with Natalia and Joseph in Aarhus at the ASSW 2026 then please use the contact form on this website to make contact with the ARG, and the messages will be passed on so that they can get in touch with you.