Engineering & Environmental Research

DF Dickins Associates Ltd.

Projects: Conferences

Arctic container ship for Norilsk Nickel
– Aker Arctic.

David Dickins was invited to participate in a specialized three-day intensive workshop organized as part of the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment under the auspices of the Arctic Council working group Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME).  This is an international effort involving three lead countries – Canada, Finland and the United States under the direction of Lawson Brigham, Deputy Director of the US Arctic Research Commission.  Participants included government agencies, academics, and representatives from the oil and marine shipping industry (e.g. Maersk and BP).  The goal of the workshop was to develop detailed and plausible scenarios describing the potential impacts of climate change on the future make-up of Arctic marine activities in American, Canadian, Norwegian and Russian waters.  

David Dickins has played a key role in organizing and chairing five international conferences on arctic environmental and transportation issues. The latest International Oil & Ice Workshop held in Anchorage in October 2007 was organized as a joint venture with SL Ross Environmental Research (see NEWS for highlights of this event).

Sponsors included the United States Coast Guard, US Minerals Management Service, Norwegian Clean Seas (NOFO), ARCO, BP, and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. David Dickins was contracted to develop a world-class technical program of 20 speakers and to facilitate and chair the two-day event. There were 300 participants from eight countries. The overwhelming consensus of all those present was that the event was the most effective and focused workshop ever on this topic. The purpose was to bring together the best researchers in the world with experience in arctic oil spills. www.mms.gov/tarprojects/354.htm

Sponsors included Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response (CISPRI) and the United States Coast Guard. Dickins Associates organized and facilitated this conference, which attracted 180 delegates from Canada, Norway, Denmark, USA, and Germany. David Dickins participated in all aspects of the conference including developing the technical program and inviting speakers.

David Dickins acted as the facilitator of an international workshop sponsored by Alaska Clean Seas. Over 160 people from Canada, United States, and Norway assembled to discuss the technical, environmental, and social aspects of contained burning as a viable oil spill clean-up technique. Coming immediately after the Gulf War, the conference was able to make valuable use of experience gained with the Kuwait oil fires to ensure that human health issues are taken into account in future applications of in-situ burning.

This event was part of the 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver. Dickins Associates planned and carried out a highly successful conference that drew over 220 of the world's foremost experts on all aspects of transportation in Polar Regions. Delegates attended from Russia, UK, Japan, New Zealand, France, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Sweden, US and Canada. The company produced a 2-volume bound set of proceedings, which were distributed to participants and libraries around the world (Editor: A. Cassidy).

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