ARGENTINE NATIONAL REPORT 1999-2003 - IUGG

� What does CNIAPSO mean in Argentina?
CNIAPSO identifies a non-governmental association, a non-lucrative one, namely,
“Comité Nacional” (National Committee) of IAPSO (International Association for the
Physical Sciences of the Oceans), whose origin in Argentina corresponds to the end of the
sixties.
Its mission is set in the first Article of its Internal Statute:
“To promote the study of the scientific problems related with the ocean and the
interaction that takes place in its boundaries, taking into account the contribution of
marine geophysics, marine geology, marine chemistry, physical oceanography,
meteorology and hydrology; to organise scientific meetings and to report the
corresponding results of the scientific activity in this field.”
Currently, CNIAPSO is composed by eighty five members. They are Argentinean
scientific researchers that live either in Argentina or abroad, who have a great interest in
common, namely, the scientific knowledge of the oceans. They are researchers working in
different areas, such as oceanographers, physicists, chemists, geologists, biologists
geographers, mathematicians, meteorologists, hydrologists, engineers, Argentinean Navy
Officers, retired or in service, experts in computing sciences. CNIAPSO ’s activities are
also spread and sometimes even shared with undergraduate and graduate students of
oceanography studying at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, or at other
private and public universities.
� Brief history:
Historically, when CNIAPSO arose in Argentina, at the beginning of the seventydecade,
it had the objective of “opening” a space, that did not exist up to that moment. It
was oriented to consolidate an incipient community who was interested in studying the sea
(including its boundaries and habitants), contributing to solve scientific-technological
problems related to it.
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Within CNIAPSO, that scientific community finds a “site-in-common”:
For publishing. Thus, it follows the creation of a national journal with anonymous
reviewers, namely, “ACTA OCEANOGRAPHICA”. It stands for quite a long time till
its edition had to be finished after some years mainly because of the lack of financial
support.
For sharing, problems, efforts and projects with other colleagues working in related
areas.
For interacting with other researchers from the national community, and doing so, to
benefit themselves with constructive and useful judgements derived from the fact that
submission of their own work to evaluation by equals finally enriches the own
intellectual knowledge of any subject.
For joining efforts that lead to optimise the scarce available resources and to avoid
unnecessary superposition of tasks.
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