After the highly successful ASSW 2005 in Kunming/China we would like to take the opportunity to welcome you to Potsdam in the heart of Germany, and close to its capital Berlin. It is located close to an area where the earliest proofs for the existence of large glacial ice-sheets on the Northern Hemisphere could be established convincingly (in Rüdersdorf where striations, caused by the ice, had been found in a quarry on a rocky surface). The meetings of the Arctic Science Summit Week will be conducted in the facilities of the scientific institutions housed on the Telegrafenberg, today the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) with its research station Potsdam, the Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam (GFZ), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the Institute of Astrophysics and an outlet of the German Weather Service (DWD). The Telegrafenberg is also the place of the so-called Einsteinturm, where experiments to prove Einstein’s theory of relativity have been conducted. The Telegrafenberg has a long tradition of being the location of scientific institutions from more than a hundred years ago to the times of the German Democratic Republic and now again.

Potsdam was one of the residences of the Prussian kings, is today the capital of one of the 16 members of the Federal Republic of Germany (country Brandenburg) and it can look back to long history, rich and cultural traditions. The vestiges of emigrants from France, The Netherlands and Russia and many other nations can clearly be seen in the city. Potsdam is also home to a university with many disciplines of relevance for Arctic research.

Berlin, which became the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany after the reunification of Eastern and Western Germany, has all the amenities of a capital in central Europe and offers a rich variety of cultural events. It is only 20 minutes away from Potsdam by train. We are sure that you will have a memorable time when visiting the Arctic Science Summit Week, despite the weather, which may be quite unfavorable towards the end of March

This year two institutions have taken the responsibility of organizing the Arctic Science Summit Week. The IPEV ( Institut Polaire Français - Paul Emile Victor ) and the AWI (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research) have joined forces to organize the ASSW 2006, and on behalf of the organizing committee and of our institutes we like to welcome you to this science week, which will be an important event in Polar research because of the upcoming IPY and the Year of Planet Earth, both to be conducted during the years 2007 - 2009.