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STATEMENT OF DR. LUIS PROENZA, VICE PRESIDENT, 

 ACADEMIC AFFAIRS AND RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA 



Dr. Proenza. Senator Murkowski, thank you very much. We 

 thank you for the opportunity to outline a framework for action. 

 My remarks are intended simply as an introductory background to 

 those of my colleagues. Alaska, this last frontier of the United 

 States, has suffered and has gained experience from natural disas- 

 ters in modem times: The 1964 Anchorage earthquake, the 1967 

 Fairbanks flood, and more recently, the massive oil spill of the 

 Exxon Valdez and the Mount Redoubt eruption. It now has the po- 

 tential for another assault along its northern coast in the form of 

 pollution migrating from the former Soviet Union, and from other 

 countries. In 1989 the University of Alaska was able to respond 

 within hours to the Exxon Valdez oil spill and we are prepared to 

 respond in a similar timely fashion now. 



We have many of the experts and much of the experience nec- 

 essary to accomplish this mission and have established working re- 

 lationships with colleagues throughout the circumpolar north and 

 collaborative agreements and facilities with virtually every federal 

 agency. As such, our University serves both as a national resource 

 for Arctic research in the United States and as a global observ- 

 atoiy. 



We are, of course, interested, scientifically and personally, in 

 these problems since the Arctic is our own background. In the mat- 

 ters we are addressing today, a framework for action requires mul- 

 tinational and interdiscipUnary linkages, and there is no arena 

 more conducive to such collaboration than the circumpolar north 

 and our own U.S. Arctic in Alaska. Here, by historical fact and of 

 necessity, multinational and interdisciplinary linkages have been 

 commonplace and extensive. 



Let me give you just a gUmpse of what is already in place, be- 

 cause it is through Alaska and through the University of Alaska 

 that the United States has a front door to the Russian Far East. 

 0\ir scientific contacts go back to the 1950's and '60's, scientific co- 

 operation began in the '70's, expanded into '80's, and during the 

 past two or three years has turned into true collaboration and sci- 

 entific partnerships. Indeed, the University's work with Russian 

 colleagues has long gone past paper agreements to joint field oper- 

 ations, joint research, data gathering and analyses, and the com- 

 mon use of facilities, including laboratories, computing and tele- 

 communication resources, ships, et cetera. 



A particular sahent example is our University of Alaska-Russian 

 Academy of Sciences joint international scientific center, "Arktika," 

 in Magadan. The center represents a bilateral research support 

 consortium for full scientific collaboration, including personnel, 

 space, scientific equipment, informational and logistical resources, 

 and telecommunications, which even include a telephone line that 

 is part of our University telephone exchange; in other words, a 

 local call in Fairbanks rings in Magadian and vice versa. 



The center is not only supporting our own scientists, but also 

 supports collaboration with other universities and the efforts of fed- 

 eral agencies such as NOAA, EPA, the National Park Service, et 

 cetera. Our linkages extend well beyond Magadan and go as far as 

 Murmansk and the entire Artie in between. These contacts shall be 



