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ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°åF’s Larry Hinzman named ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°årctic vice president for International Polar Year

October 17, 2025

Larry Hinzman, coordinator for the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å System’s Arctic Leadership Initiative and one of President Pitney's "Arctic Professors", has been appointed vice president for International Polar Year at the University of the Arctic.

The University of the Arctic (ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°årctic) is a cooperative network of universities, colleges, research institutes and organizations focused on education and research in and about the North. The network fosters collaboration across the circumpolar region to strengthen northern communities, economies and knowledge.

Hinzman coordinates the Arctic Leadership Initiative’s design and implementation across the ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å system. His responsibilities include engaging university leadership, training cohorts of students, postdoctoral fellows and early career faculty to work in Arctic policy and sustainable development, mentoring ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å colleagues to advance Arctic research, and increasing the visibility of ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°å’s Arctic activities.

From May 24, 2020 until May 23, 2024, Hinzman served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as assistant director for polar sciences and executive director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, where he led work on the 2022 to 2026 Federal Arctic Research Plan.

Earlier roles include service as the U.S. delegate and later president of the International Arctic Science Committee, founding president of the U.S. Permafrost Association and member of the National Academies of Sciences Polar Research Board. At ÂÌÅ«Ì컨°åF, he previously served as vice chancellor for research and professor of civil and environmental engineering, and he directed the International Arctic Research Center from 2007 to 2015.

Hinzman’s primary research focus is permafrost hydrology, informed by decades of fieldwork in the Alaskan, Russian and Canadian Arctic.