New Co-chair and Leadership Team Member for Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sector (ABS) RWG 

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We're excited to share some leadership updates from the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sector (ABS) Regional Working Group (RWG)! Andrew Thompson will be stepping into the role of Co-chair, taking over from Patricia Yager following the completion of her term last year. A huge thank you to Tish for her outstanding leadership and contributions! We’re also thrilled to welcome Won Sang Lee to the ABS RWG leadership team. We look forward to the expertise and fresh perspectives both Andy and Won Sang will bring to the group!

Andrew Thompson is the John S. and Sherry Chen Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology as well as the Director of the Linde Center for Global Environmental Science at Caltech. His research group uses a range of numerical modeling and observational approaches, including ship-based research cruises, satellite observations, and data collected from autonomous platforms. Andy's interests include the circulation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Antarctic margins, the impact of ocean turbulence on carbon export, and ocean-ice interactions. As part of the SOOS community, he hopes to contribute to the design of future interdisciplinary observing systems that will help us to mechanistically understand the rapid changes that are occurring to the coupled atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system in the Southern Ocean.

Won Sang Lee is a Principal Research Scientist at the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), currently focusing on Antarctic ice-ocean interactions. With nearly two decades of dedicated polar research since 2006, he leads the Korea Network for Observation and Prediction of Ice Sheet and Sea Level Changes in a Warming World (K-NOW) and co-chair the Land-Ice/Ocean Network Exploration with Semiautonomous Systems (LIONESS). His research involves extensive fieldwork, including multiple expeditions to Thwaites Glacier as Chief Scientist, where I coordinate multidisciplinary teams to study ocean circulation patterns and their impact on ice shelf stability. As a contributing member of the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) community, Won Sang supports collaborative efforts to better understand the environmental dynamics of the Southern Ocean. His work contributes to ongoing research on oceanic processes and their interactions with Antarctic systems.

News article 09/Apr/2025/JB