The Life Aquatic

Hello and welcome back to Polar Times! On today’s episode we are excited to welcome Pierre Coupel, oceanographer, biogeochemist and documentary maker for ArctiConnexion, currently based in Canada! 

Post-PhD, Pierre has been fortunate enough to participate in many field seasons and chats to Jack all about life at ice camps and on board research vessels from several nations. From Chinese icebreakers to the salt pans of Bolivia, we talk travel, how this led to an exploration of his love for film-making, how this led to the decision to leave academia, and how these two talents (science and cinema!) come together in his current position at ArctiConnexion. We then talk all about his current work as well as his past documentary endeavours. ArctiConnexion is an organisation which aims “to support, through mentorship and knowledge sharing, indigenous communities in the development of local competencies and leadership for research and applications promoting community well-being.”

We’ve talked on Polar Times before about the power of the picture when it comes to science communication, and yes we’re going to revisit it again because creative scicomm is obviously something that we can’t get enough of!

If you would like to see Pierre’s winning photo, follow this link:

https://www.apecs.is/component/phocagallery/category/34-category-research.html?Itemid=392

If you would like to see his body of other work then go here:

https://pierrecoupel.wixsite.com/life-patchwork

Or check out his Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/pierre_coupel/

Finally, for ArctiConnexion, here’s the tea: 

https://arcticonnexion.ca/mission/

Episode edited by Damien Ringeisen

Cover art by Matthew Nelson

Music: "Scuba" by Metre, Nul Tiel Records, UK (unaltered) CC BY-NC-SA