POAC’71 - Trondheim

The first POAC Conference was held at the Technical University of Norway, in Trondheim, Norway on August 23-30, 1971. There were almost 100 papers presented at the conference. The sessions included ice properties, ice forces, navigation in ice, and special sessions on harbors in Norway, fishing and fishing technology, armored breakwaters in the north, and pollution in lakes and fjords. Professor Per Bruun was the Chairman of the conference.

POAC’73 - Reykjavik

The second POAC conference was held at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, Iceland on August 27-30, 1973. There were over 70 papers at the conference. Dr. T. Karlsson was the Chairman of the conference.

POAC’75 - Fairbanks

The third conference was held at the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Alaska on August 11-15, 1975. There were over 130 papers at the conference with plenary lectures on the future of oil and gas exploration and development in Canada (C. Hetherington) and the search for a unified policy of offshore oil and gas development in Alaska (G.R. Martin).

Special sessions were held on remote sensing, the Arctic seabed, and the Japanese panel on marine facilities. Drs. D. Hood and D. Burrell co-chaired the conference.

Photos from POAC’75

POAC’77 - St. John’s

The fourth POAC Conference was held at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada on September 26-30, 1977. There were 84 papers presented at the conference with six invited lectures including offshore ice engineering (K. Croasdale), ice drift simulation (W. Hibler), ice modeling (J. Schwarz), fisheries management (Th. J. Tienstra), near shore current treatments and ice engineering (K. Horikawa) and ice forces on lighthouses (J. Danys). Professor Ross Peters was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’77

POAC’79 - Trondheim

The fifth POAC Conference was once again held in Norway at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim from August 13-18, 1979. There were over 100 papers presented with sessions related to ice and the shoreline, pack ice and icebergs, remote sensing, environment and oil spills, oceanography and meteorology, ice properties, soil mechanics, and marine and harbor structures. Professor Per Bruun was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’79

POAC’81 - Quebec City

The sixth conference was held in Quebec City, Canada from July 27-31, 1981. This conference was held at the same time as the IAHR Symposium on Ice. Both conferences were held in Quebec City but at different hotels. Registered participants could attend either conference. The POAC conference had 120 papers with plenary lectures on the environmental impact of hydro plants in northern Quebec (A. Soucy) and Dome Petroleum’s operations in the Beaufort Sea (B. Johansson). The conference had similar themes to the previous one, but more papers related to marine transportation in ice-covered waters. Professor Bernard Michel was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’81

POAC’83 - Helsinki

The seventh conference was held in Finland at the Technical Research Center of Finland in Helsinki from April 5-9, 1983. This was the largest POAC with over 160 papers and 300 registered participants. There was, in fact, a registered participant from Senegal! There were plenary lectures related to Arctic research in Finland (P. Jauho) and the icebreaking research (Chr. Landtman) as well as a short note on the international role of POAC by Per Bruun. Professor Pauli Jumppanen was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’83

POAC’85 - Narssarssuaq

The eighth POAC Conference was held at Narssarssuaq in Greenland from September 7-14, 1985. This was a unique POAC Conference since the number of participants was limited by the accommodation space available at Narssarssuaq. Special charter flights were arranged from North America and Europe to Greenland. In spite of its remote location, there were over 100 papers presented at this conference. Several plenary lectures were given including past environmental changes in the north-Atlantic region (W. Dansgaard), the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (H.P. Rosing), and environmental issues in the Arctic (L. Rey and R. Engelhart). Per Tryde was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’85

POAC’87 - Fairbanks

The ninth conference was held at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, USA from August 17-21, 1987. Over 120 papers were presented with a wide range of topics. There was an emphasis on Beaufort Sea activities with special sessions on spray ice, ice climate and forecasting, Arctic port design, and icebreaking vessels. Professor Bill Sackinger was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’87

POAC’89 - Luleå

The tenth conference was held at the Luleå University of Technology in Luleå, Sweden from June 12-16, 1989. Although there had been a strong downturn in Beaufort Sea exploration, there was still considerable interest and good attendance at the conference. Sessions included ice forces on structures, constitutive and numerical modeling of ice, materials and components in the Arctic, and operations in the Arctic. Dr. K. Axelsson was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’89

POAC’91 - St. John’s

The eleventh POAC Conference was held in St. John’s, Canada from September 24-28, 1991. This was the second time that the conference was held in St. John’s. Keynote lectures included structures in ice (K. Croasdale), design of offshore concrete structures (B.C. Gerwick Jr.), an overview of research at AARI (B. Ionov) and ice forces and crushing (A.C. Palmer). Professor Derek Muggeridge was the Chairman of the conference.

POAC’93 - Hamburg

The twelfth conference was hosted by the Hamburg Ship Model Basin, in Hamburg, Germany from August 17-20, 1993. There was a strong emphasis on ships in ice-covered waters at this conference. The keynote lectures included the political and scientific trends in the Arctic (O. Rogne), the importance of marine transportation for the Russian Arctic (A. Granberg) and global change and Arctic sea ice (P. Lemke). Dr. Joachim Schwarz was the Chairman of the conference.

POAC’95 - Murmansk

The thirteenth POAC Conference took place in Murmansk, Russia from August 15-18, 1995. This was the first time that the POAC conference was held in Russia. There were a considerable number of papers related to ice properties and shipping in the Arctic, especially with regard to the Northern Sea Route. Dr. V. Michailichenko was the Chairman of the conference.

POAC’97 - Yokohama

The fourteenth conference was held in Yokohama, Japan from April 13-17, 1997. This conference was held jointly with the ASME Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering OMAE Conference. There were a number of papers at this conference related to ships and navigation in ice and activities in the Okhotsk region. Dr. H. Kitagawa was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’97

POAC’99 - Espoo

The fifteenth POAC Conference was again held in Finland at the Helsinki University of Technology, in Espoo, Finland from August 23-27, 1999. This conference covered a wide range of topics including ice loads on ships and propellers, environmental issues and Arctic developments. There was a joint POAC-IAHR Workshop on ice crushing. Professor Kaj Riska was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’99

POAC’01 - Ottawa

The sixteenth conference was hosted by the Canadian Hydraulics Centre, NRC in Ottawa, Canada from August 12-17, 2001. The theme of this POAC conference was “Ice Engineering Applied to Offshore Regions”. The conference included special sessions on all offshore regions where oil and gas activity was taking place, including Northstar in Alaska, the Sakhalin region, the Caspian Sea, and Canada’s East Coast, as well as sessions on international projects – PERD (Canada), JOIA (Japan), and INTAS and LOLEIF (Europe). Keynote lectures included the Terra Nova project (G. Lever), the Northstar project (D. Blanchet), ice information for marine operations (J. Falkingham), history of ice research in Japan (H. Kitagawa) and research needs for the Barents Sea (S. Løset). Dr. Garry Timco was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’01

POAC’03 - Trondheim

The seventeenth POAC Conference returned to Trondheim, Norway at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology from June 16-19, 2003. This was the third time that the POAC conference had been held in Norway. The conference featured keynote lectures on the ISO TC67 SC7 WG8 Intentional Standard for Arctic offshore structures (D. Blanchet, K. Croasdale and L. Fogwill), offshore platforms for oil and gas production on the Russian Arctic shelf (A. Malyutin and others), and Snøhvit, the world’s northernmost LNG project (J. Kloving and O. Gudmestad). There were special sessions on the European STRICE project and emergency evacuation from offshore structures in ice-covered waters. Professor Sveinung Løset was the Chairman of the conference.

Photos from POAC’03

POAC’05 – Potsdam

The eighteenth POAC Conference was hosted by Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY, USA from June 26-30, 2005. This was the third POAC conference hosted by the USA and the first in the lower forty-eight states. Professor John Dempsey was the Chairman of the conference. The conference featured keynote lectures including the History of POAC (G. Timco), sea ice airfield maintenance at McMurdo (G. Blaisdell), decisions under uncertainty (I. Jordaan), ice gouging and pipelines (A. Palmer), and icebreaking along the Newfoundland and Labrador coast (Capt. J. Broderick).

Photos from POAC’05

POAC’07 – Dalian

The nineteenth POAC Conference was hosted by the Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China from June 27-30, 2007. This was the first POAC Conference held in China. Professor Qianjin Yue was the Chairman of the Conference. There were over 80 papers at the conference covering a range of topics. There were five keynote lectures including information on a new ice resistant oil platform for the Bohai Bay (Zhongmin Shi), the new ISO TC67SC7WG8 International Standard for Arctic Offshore Structures (Blanchet, Spring and others), coordinated modeling-observational approach for changes in the Arctic seas (M. Ikeda and others), research on time-varying ice actions (T. Karna) and oil-in-ice research in Japan (K. Izumiyama).

Photos from POAC’07

POAC’09 – Luleå

The 20th International POAC Conference was held in Luleå, Sweden, on June 9-12, 2009. One hundred and twenty papers were submitted and over 150 people attended the conference. Professor Lennart Fransson was the Chairman of the conference. The conference was packed with several keynote lectures, three parallel sessions, and interesting social activities including an icebreaker party, boat trip to an island in the Swedish archipelago, and a banquet. These social events featured delicious food of smoked and barbequed fish, reindeer stew and moose steaks. After the conference, a number of people joined the organized tour to Jukkasjärvi, the site of the winter Ice Hotel.

The keynote lectures included Fred Goldberg discussing historical ice observations and possible future ice conditions in the Arctic; Lennart Fransson discussing the cold regions research at Luleå Tekniska Universitet; Victor Santos-Pedro discussing the rules for shipping in ice-covered waters; Jim Sandkvist outlining the operational demands of Arctic oil exploration; Kaj Riska presenting interesting observations of the implementation of research results into icebreaker design; and Sveinung Løset discussing applied sea ice research in offshore operations. This was the first POAC conference with only electronic proceedings.

Photos from POAC’09

POAC’11 – Montréal

The 21th POAC Conference was held in Montréal on July 10-14, 2011. It was one of the largest POAC conferences to date with 266 registrants including 241 registered participants from 16 countries (including 23 students) and 25 spouses. There were 151 papers including five keynote lectures with three parallel sessions each day. Ivana Kubat was the Chairman of the conference and Anne Barker was the Chair of the Technical Committee. There were 13 topics for sessions under the conference theme Resource Development and Transportation in Polar Regions. In addition to an excellent technical program, the conference organizers also ensured that all of the participants tasted the French Canadian culture. An afternoon social event for all included a tour of the city of Montréal (including a bus ride on the Montréal Formula 1 race track!) and a delightful evening at a sugar bush deep in the heart of a maple tree forest. The meal including pea soup, baked beans, sausages, ham, Tourtiere and more, all of which were of course smothered in maple syrup. The evening banquet on Wednesday featured an excellent meal and conference chair Kubat presenting Dr. Joachim Schwarz with the POAC11 Founders Lifetime Achievement Award.

The keynote lectures included Geneviève Carr discussing the management of oil and gas activities in Canada's north and its related research, Tim Keane discussing year round Arctic operations, Walt Spring presenting an update on the ISO 19906 International standard for Arctic Offshore Structures, Peter Noble describing two early 20th century expeditions to the north and south poles and the lessons to be learned from their successes and failures, and Sveinung Løset presenting an update on the Arctic offshore field developments in deeper Eurasian waters. There was also a panel discussion chaired by Ross MacDonald on Arctic shipping polar code rules.

Photos from POAC’11