May 29, 2020

Larry Hinzman named White House Assistant Director of Polar Sciences

In May, Dr. Larry Hinzman was appointed Assistant Director of Polar Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and Executive Director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC).

As an OSTP Assistant Director, Hinzman will coordinate the broad national suite of research in the Arctic and Antarctic, and will serve as an information resource to the White House and Federal agencies. As the IARPC Executive Director, Hinzman will be responsible for leading IARPC’s interagency activities, including developing IARPC’s 2022-2026 Arctic Research Program Plan, and meeting its legislative mandates.

Hinzman, who remains an employee of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), has been assigned to the Department of Energy (DOE), via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act Mobility Program, and, in turn, DOE has detailed him to OSTP.

Hinzman previously served as the UAF vice chancellor for research and as a professor of civil and environmental engineering. He was the director of UAF’s International Arctic Research Center from 2007 to 2015. Professor Hinzman’s primary research interests involve permafrost hydrology.