What’s New? BISO Board Member and USNC/IUGS Chair Farouk El-Baz discusses the discovery of an ancient mega-lake in the Darfur region on Al Jazeera English’s Riz Khan. View complete YouTube video (16:50). Teaching Climate Change Workshop Co-Sponsored by USNC/INQUA On June 2-4, 2008, AMQUA, the USNC/INQUA, and National Association of Geoscience Teachers/Digital Library for Earth System Education (NAGT/DLESE), in conjunction with the 2008 AMQUA Biennial Meeting, will sponsor an On the Cutting Edge workshop on Teaching Climate Change with Ice Core Data. AAAS Symposium on IYPE The four USNCs for Earth Sciences co-sponsored “Planet Earth: Lessons Ignored, Lessons Learned,” a symposium on the 2008 IYPE, during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, MA on 15 February 2008. International Year of Planet Earth The International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) was officially launched at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris in February of this year. Learn more about U.S. IYPE activities…		Who We Are… The U.S. National Committee for the Geological Sciences (USNC/IUGS) promotes the advancement of geological sciences in the United States and throughout the world by participating on behalf of the U.S. scientific community in the activities of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), a member union of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). The USNC/IUGS represents the National Academy of Sciences and operates within the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) of the Policy and Global Affairs Division. Learn more about the USNC/IUGS. Committee Interests The USNC continues to track the development of geoscience in the Middle East. Learn more... IUGS and the Role of the United States An article by Farouk El-Baz in GSA Today. Sponsor The USNC/GS is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. GEO-0701397. Contact Us U.S. National Committee for IUGS Board on International Scientific Organizations The National Academies Keck Center, W1013 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 Tel: (202) 334 2807 Fax: (202) 334 2231 Email: usnciugs@nas.edu Ester Sztein, Program Officer		Upcoming Meetings Oslo to Host 33rd IGC IUGS, in collaboration with the National IUGS Committees in the five Nordic countries of Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, will hold the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo, Norway in August 6-14, 2008. The 2008 Congress theme will be: “Earth System Science: Foundation for Sustainable Development.” IGC registration is currently open. Visit the IGC website for additional information.
				2008 IAVCEI GA in Reykjavik, Iceland The 2008 International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) will hold its next General Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland from August 18-25, 2008. View details on scientific sessions.
				HGS to Host Joint Annual Meeting The Houston Geological Society (HGS) will host the joint meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies from October 5-9, 2008.
				Fall AGU Meeting in San Francisco
				International Visitors Office Scientists and students traveling to the United States for professional activities can obtain information from the International Visitors Office, a program operated by the BISO.
Revised 27 May 2008