2Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgThe recent, combined NANO Lan American Regional ResearchGroup/NFPOGOCofERegionalTraining Programme in Ensenada, Mexico (see page 11) brought togetheralargenumberofLanAmericansciensts whose scienc career has beneted from previous ef-fortsofPOGOand/orNFPOGOinLanAmerica.This summary of POGO/NFPOGO acvies in Lan America istheoutgrowthofhavingthiscombinedgroupmeet-ing periodically over coee, meals, or just enjoying me together. We hope that this arcle is complete, but may missimportantevents/people;weapologizeforany omissionsandassureeveryonethattheywerenotin-tenonal.Finally,thisarclehighlightsafewsciensts whohavebeenengagedrepeatedlywithPOGO/NFPOGOcapacitybuildingeortsinLanAmerica,some starng at the earlieriniaves (further back as 1984, or 1997) and running constantly to the current Ensena-da meeng, where this arcle was draed.Thisarcleisdividedindierentseconsthatbriey describethefollowingtrainingandnetworkingpro-grammes: Early (19842003) Pre-NFPOGO Programmes andiniavesandothersynergiscinteracons;over-view of recent iniaves; POGO and NFPOGO Vising ProfessorshipProgrammes;NFPOGOCentreofExcel-lence(CofE)atBIOSandAWI;NFPOGOCentreof ExcellenceRegionalTrainingProgramme;NFPOGO AlumniNetworkforOceans(NANO);andotherPOGO supported training programmes. At the end, we present tables that summarize all programmes in Lan America. A table of researchers from Lan America that benet-ed from the above menoned programmes is available at www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/SM_NN8.pdf.Dr Vivian Lutz1, Dr F. Gerald Plumley2 and Dr Sebasan Krieger31 IIMyCINIDEP, Argenna2 NFPOGO Centre of Excellence in Observaonal Oceanography, Alfred Wegener Instut Helmholtz-Zentrum fr Polar- und Meeresforschung, Germany3 Centro de Biologia Marinha, Universidade de So Paulo, BrazilAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaSince 2003, POGO, and since 2004, NFPOGO have had a long and very produc-vehistoryofsupporngeducaonal iniaves, fellowships and other capac-ity building acvies that benet marine science research in Lan America.Dr Lutz Dr Plumley Dr Krieger(le to right) Eduardo Santamara-del-Angel , Robert Frouin and Sergio Cerdeira-Estrada during eld work at the 2006 NF-POGO vising Professorship in Brazil Rene Ayala and Ana Dogglio during lab analysis at the 2006 NF-POGO vising Pro-fessorship in Brazil3Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaEarly(19842003)Pre-NFPOGOiniavesandother synergisc interaconsAs antecedents to the NFPOGO iniaves we should men-onthecoursesthatTrevorPlataughtattheCatholic UniversityandtheUniversityofConcepcininChiledur-ing1984and1985(seearcleinNANONewsvolume1). Theseearlyeducaonalacvieswerecrucialintheca-reerofmanyLan-Americanresearchers.Someofthese studentswenttoCanadafor graduatestudiesandthenre-turned to their home countries includingOsvaldoUlloa,Rena-toQuiones,RubenEscribano andVivianLutzwho,atthat mewasdirectedbyH.Be-navidesandR.Negritogoto Canada due to their experienc-esinTrevorscoursesinChile. This exchange of students from and towards Lan America was smulated by Trevor and Shub-haslaboratoryandconnued throughout the years. As examples, Heather Bouman went for a post-doc at Osvaldo Ulloas laboratory in Concepcin (2005), recently Heather taught at the CofE trainings in Ber-muda and received a NANO alumni from Brazil as her Ph.D. student (Priscila Lange). Later on, Trevor Pla and Shubha Sathyendranath taught courses again in Chile in 1997 and in 2002, where Osvaldo Ulloa was the local organizer (co-sponsoredamongstothersbyIOCCGandPOGO).Oneof theinstructorsattheOlmutrainingcoursein1997was VivianLutz(Shubhasgraduatestudentattheme),and among the students were Roberto Milln-Nez, Eduardo Santamara-del-Angel(Mexico)andAdrianaGonzlezSil-vera (at that moment a masters student in Brazil). Due to theinteraconinthiscourse,Adrianadecidedtopursue herdoctorateinBajaCalifornia.Thisresearchgroupac-tuallyjusthostedtheCofERegionalTrainingProgramme attheUniversityofBajaCalifornia(from19Januaryto6 February2015).Moreover,itwasduringtheConcepcin 2002 course, aended by Ana Doglioand Milton Kampel (studentsatthatme),thattheideafortheAntaresnet-workwasfostered.Thiswasrealized duringaworkshopsponsoredbythe InternaonalOcean-ColourCoordinat-ingGroup(IOCCG)in2003atINIDEP (Argenna), where the Antares network was launched. Since this early start, the Antaresnetworkgrewalongsidethe Lan American iniaves of these inter-naonal organizaons. To illustrate, aer thesecondAntaresmeeng(2005),an IOCCGmeengtookplaceinMargarita Island(Venezuela);similarly,training coursesintheregionprovidedavenue foranAntaresmeeng(e.g.,Brazil2006and2009).This history of reinforcing the interacon and enhancing capaci-es through the years led Antares to receive an important grant from the Inter-American Instute for Global Change Research (IAI) in 2013, which is propelling the network intoa new connecon between natural and social sciences. This subjecthasbecomeamajorgoalinternaonally,bringing theoceanintotheagendasofglobalclimatechange, ecosystem services and societal benets, using similar approaches as those from Oceans and Society: Blue Plan-et (hp://www.oceansandsociety.org/) the over-arching marine task within the Group on Earth Observaons (GEO).Overview of recent (2003present) NFPOGO iniavesSince 2003, POGO, and since 2004, NFPOGO have had a long andveryproducvehistoryofsupporngeducaonalpro-grammes,fellowshipsandothercapacitybuildinginiaves that benet marine science research in Lan America and the Caribbean. These iniaves were complemented by IOCCG ac-vies in several instances. To date, trainees and/or instructors from12countries(Argenna,Brazil,Chile,Colombia,Costa Rica,Cuba,Ecuador,Mexico,Peru,TrinidadandTobago,Uru-guayandVenezuela)havebeenengaged.Lecturersand/or mentors from a number of developed countries (e.g., Canada, Japan,Korea,UK,USA)havealsotakenpartindeliveringca-pacitybuildingopportuniestotraineesfromLanAmerica, acng either as instructors to workshops/training programmes oered in Lan America and/or hosng fellows in their home instutes. In ad-dion, a large number of trainees from outside Lan America (Belgium, Egypt, Germany,India,Italy,Spain,SwedenandUSA)havestudiedinLanAmerica, with support from POGO and/or NFPOGO, further extending the Lan Ameri-can scienc network.2006 NF-POGO vising Professorship in Brazil2009 NF-POGO Regional Centre of Excellence in Brazil4Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaVising Professorship Programmes of POGO and NFPOGOThe goal of the vising professorship is to oer capacity build-inginthehostinstuon,leadingtoenhancedsustained oceanobservaonsthataddresssocietalissuesoftheday. Thepriorityistodevelophighly-trainedsciencprofession-als.Addionalimportantgoalsincludepromongcontacts, collaboraons and networking among instuons of develop-inganddevelopedcountries.Thisenhancedinteracongoes manymesacrossregions.InvitedinstructorsfromLan-America have collaborated in programmes in other regions. As an example, Vivian Lutz was invited to teach in India during the VisingProfessorshipProgrammeconductedbyTrevorPla in20042005.InthesamewaystudentsfromoutsideLan Americahavepursuedfurtherstudiesintheregion.Forex-ample, Satya Prakash, who aended the POGO vising profes-sorship in Cochin (20042005) went to Concepcin for his post-doctoral fellowship. He is sll acve in the NANO regional research program for the Indian subconnent.TheVisingProfessorshipProgrammestartedin2003sponsoredbyPOGOandinJanuary2004becameNFPOGO, as a partnership between POGO and the Nippon Foundaon (NF) for three years (from 2004 to 2007). This iniave metamorphosed into the Centre of Excellence (CofE) Programme in 2008. In Lan-America the rst visit-ing professorship was oered in Brazil in 2003, followed by another one in Brazil in 2006, in Argenna in 2010, and more recently one again in Brazil last year:This rst NFPOGO Vising Professorship eort in Lan America was led byDr.RobertFrouin(ScrippsInstuonofOceanographySIO,USA) in 2006. There were mulple parts of this Vising Professorship, start-ingwithatrainingcourseattheBrazilianNaonalInstuteforSpace Research(InstutoNacionaldePesquisasEspaciais,INPE).Dr.Robert Frouin,withthehelpofexpertsfromtheinternaonalocean-colour community,includingDr.GregMitchell(SIO,USA),Dr.VivianLutz(IN-IDEP, Argenna), Prof. Ichio Asanuma (Tokyo University, Japan) and Dr. Ewa Kwiatkowska (NASA, USA), provided training on the use of remotely sensed ocean-colour data as a tool for analysing the marine ecosystem.Other objecves included:TobuildcapacityinCentralandSouthAmericatoexploitsatellite ocean-colourandother,complementarydatasetsinthequantave study and monitoring of coastal waters and ecosystems;ToaugmentthemeasurementsuiteattheANTARESandothersta-ons with radiometric data, by making available SIMBADA radiometers on a quasi-permanent basis;Todevelopstrategiesforlong-termsuccessfulobservaonsandre-search in biological oceanography of the coastal ecosystems in the re-gion;To promote long-term cooperaon between Central and South American countries and to improve the North-South Ameri-can dialogue within the American connent.Other components of the Vising Professorship involved travel by Dr. Robert Frouin to Mar Del Plata, Argenna, to provide training and to lend a SIMBADA radiometer to INIDEP for roune measurements at their Antares me series staon, and to train INIDEP students and sciensts in the use of the instrumentaon. Aer the training course at INPE, Dr. Frouin travelled to So Jos dos Campos and Ubatuba to test newly acquired opcal instrumentaon, to rene measurement protocols, and to parcipate in the October 2006 Antares cruise in Ubatuba. Among the students were Ren Ayala (who later on parcipated in year 1, CofEBIOS), Mayza Pompeu (in charge of the eld work at AntaresUbatuba me series staon, who parcipated in later courses), Ana Doglio , Eduardo Santamara and Adriana Gonzlez Silvera (the three of them took part in other courses as students and instructors).Brazil 2006Course tle: Evaluaon of satellite oceancolour algorithms and products in coastal regions of Central and South AmericaDates: 17 April to 12 May, 7 to 25 August, 2006Vising professor: Robert Frouin, Scripps Instuon of Oceanography, UCSD, USAHosts: Dr Milton Kampel, Instuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) and Instuto Oceanogrco da Universidade de So PauloComponents: eldwork, laboratory and seminars on remote sensing and modellingNumber of parcipants: 16Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Colom-bia, Mexico, Peru and VenezuelaVivian Lutz teaching at the 2006 NF-POGO vising Profes-sorship in Brazil5Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaThe theorecal component (more than 35 hours) was held in Bue-nos Aires at the Museo Argenno de Ciencias Naturales and the praccal/discussionseminarscomponent(morethan21hours) was held 500 km south of Buenos Aires, at Estacin Hidrobiologi-ca de Ququn, on the rocky coast.The POGO course provided an integrated combinaon of formal lectures, research seminars, discussion workshops and eldwork to inform research and to provide training in the area of climate change responses of coastal and near-shore ecosystems. This was intended to inform and enable the establishment of broad-scale observaonsandmeseries,whichareessenalforseparang climatechangefromlocalandregionalscaleimpacts.Research underpinning adapve responses to climate change was also out-lined regarding its impacts and the design of sea defences.ThefollowingNFPOGOpriorieswereexploredinthecontext of climate change and the relaonship between biodiversity and ecosystemfunconing:xedpointme-seriesobservaons, large-scaleobservaonsofbiodiversity,emergingapproaches for ocean observaons, data management, coastal observaons, coastalzonemanagementandmodellingfuturestatesinthe coastal zone.Argenna 2010Course tle: Understanding climate driven change in biodiversity and ecosystems: obser-vaons, modelling and experimentsDates: 12 February to 9 March 2010Vising Professor: Stephen J. Hawkins, Ban-gor University, School of Ocean Sciences, UKHosts: Maria Gabriela Palomo, Senior Re-searcher, Naonal Commission for Research in Science and Technology (CONICET) Argen-na; Museo Argenno de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia, Buenos Aires, Argen-naParcipaon in eldwork and seminar com-ponent: Juan Jose Cruz Moa, Universidad Simon Bolivar, VenezuelaNumber of parcipants: 22Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Uruguay and VenezuelaThePOGOcoursewasorganizedinto lecturesandpraccalacvies,mainly processingobservaonaldata,includ-ingaeldtriptotheParanaguBay fordoingobservaonofcurrentswith electromagnecandacouscdevices, measuringwaterpropereswithCTD, etc.Thegroupwasdividedintwo,with alltheparcipantstakingthemorning lecturestogetherand,intheevenings, Prof.Mose connuedwiththegroup ofgraduatesandcoveredtopicsmore deeply,whileProf.Maronetookcare oftheundergraduates.Attheend,the parcipants received around 30 % more training me than originally planned.Brazil 2014Course tle: Innovave integrated marine monitoring systems in coastal regionsDates: 19 October to 3 November 2014Vising Professor: Renzo Mose, OGS, ItalyHosts: Dr Eduardo Marone, Center for Marine Studies, Federal University of Paran, BrazilNumber of parcipants: 49Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and UruguayTable 1 - Overview of POGO and NFPOGO ca-pacity building workshops held in Lan America. The country names in bold font indicate the country in which the workshops were held.6Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaNFPOGO CofEBIOS and CofEAWITheNipponFoundaonPOGOCentreofExcel-lence(NFPOGOCofE)providesworldclassedu-caonandtrainingcoursesintheeldofobser-vaonaloceanography.TheBermudaInstute ofOceanSciences(BIOS)hostedphaseIofthe NFPOGOCofEannuallyduringfourconsecuve years(from2008to2012).Starngfrom2013, phaseIIoftheNFPOGOCofEhasbeenhosted by the Alfred Wegener Instute for Polar and Ma-rineResearch(AWI).Inbothlocaons,theCofE has oered 10 students a 10 month muldiscipli-nary programme that involves a series of lectures, laboratory studies, ship board training, and an op-portunitytoconductindependentresearch.Core skills such as scienc wring, stascs and public speaking are also emphasized.Asofthewringofthisarcle,fromall60NFPOGO CofE scholars, fourteen (14) are from Lan America: nine in CofEBIOS and ve in CofEAWI. Some of the NFPOGO CofE parcipated in other capacity building programmes supported by POGO or NFPOGO. Ren Ayala Campos (Venezuela) and FabricioGuaman(Ecuador)hadalsoaended oneofthepreviousNFPOGOregionaltrainings. WhereasLilianKrug(Brazil)aendedtheAustral SummerInstute(ASI)withsupportfromPOGO andhasbeenawardedaPOGOSCORfellowship to visit Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in the UK;PriscilaLange(Brazil)andRafaelJoseRasse Boada (Venezuela) were also POGOAMT fellows; andShaaziaSalinaMohammed(TrinidadandTo-bago) and Sebasan Krieger (Brazil) also aended the most recent CofE Regional Training Programme in Ensenada, Mexico.NFPOGO CofE Regional Training ProgrammeThe NFPOGO Vising Professor Programme mor-phedintotheNFPOGOCofERegionalTraining Programme(RTP)in2008.TherstRTPinLan America was organized and hosted in Brazil by Mil-ton Kampel in 2009; the second programme in Lat-in America was held in 2015 in Ensenada, Mexico.Robert Frouin (Scripps InstuonofOcean-ography,USA)was thevisingprofes-sor, once again. There werealsoassistants andguestslecturers: Heather Bouman (Ox-fordUniversity,UK), VivianLutz(INIDEP, Argenna),Milton Kampel(INPE,Brazil), RobertoMilln(Uni-versidadAutnoma deBajaCalifornia, Mexicooneofthe organizersofthe CofERTP2015En-senada),GeraldPlumley(BermudaInstuteofOceanSciences,Bermuda), Silvana Vianna Rodriguez (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil),Eliane GonzalezRodriguez(InstutodeEstudosdoMarAlmirantePauloMoreira IEAPM, Brazil), Rodolfo Paranhos (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and nally Silvia Maos Nascimento (Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Brazil), who oered lectures on theorecal fundamentals com-plemented by praccal demonstraons.The raonale for the course was that paroning the autotrophic plankton communityintofunconaltypesisexpectedtoimprovethemodellingof primaryproduconandincreaseourunderstandingoftheroleofphyto-plankton in the global carbon cycle. Through the course, trainees learnt the fundamentals on phytoplankton community structure, including laboratory and eld methods for idenfying composion and taxa, relaon with opcs, remote sensing approaches, and biogeochemical signicance.Among the students there were Ren Ayala (Venezuela), Jaimie Rojas (Ven-ezuela, who got a scholarship to assist in the Lan American NANO research projectin2013),MayzaPompeu(Brazil),AdrianaGonzlezSilveraandEd-uardoSantamara(Mexico,organizersoftheCofERTP2015Ensenada);as well as Ana Doglio(Argenna) and Ntalia Rudor (Brazil).CofE RTP Brazil 2009Course tle: Phytoplankton community structure: from the molecular to the global scaleDates: 21 September to 7 October 2009Vising Professor: Robert Frouin, UCSD, Scripps Instuon of Oceanography, USAHosts: Instuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espa-ciais (INPE) and Instuto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira (IEAPM)Components: eldwork, laboratory and seminars on remote sensing and modellingNumber of parcipants: 25Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Ecua-dor, Mexico, VenezuelaLan American past scholars of the Cen-tre of Excellence in Observaonal OceanographyGroup of scholars at the Centre of Excellence in Observa-onal Oceanography7Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaThe most recent RTP was held in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico earlier this year (see page 11). Lectures and labora-tory experiments were held by Ana Doglio(CONICET, Ar-genna); Crystal Thomas (NASA, USA); Greg Mitchell, Ma KahruandRobertFrouin(ScrippsInstuonofOceanog-raphy, University of California, USA); Natlia Rudor (Ins-tuto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais INPE, Brazil); Vivian Lutz (IIMyC INIDEP, Argenna); Adriana Gonzlez Silvera, Eduardo Santamara-del-ngel, Roberto Milln Nez (Fac-ultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autnoma de Baja California,Mexico).GeraldPlumley(NFPOGOCentreof Excellence in Observaonal Oceanography, AWI, Germany) also accompanied the workshops acvies.The overall goal of the RTP was to provide the theorecal backgroundandtheskill-setrequiredtoimplementand applymeasurementsofbio-opcalvariablesinseawater to both remote sensing and to the study of biogeochemical variability of coastal waters. Lectures were on topics such as:phytoplanktoncomposionandpigments,inherent opcalproperes(IOPs)inseawater,andremotesensing of ocean colour and IOPs. Water samples collected during the eld work were analyzed to determine phytoplankton communitycomposionusingfourdierentandcompli-mentary methodologies: microscopy; absorpon spectros-copy;highperformanceliquidchromatography(HPLC); and satellite ocean colour remote sensing.HavingAnaDoglio andNatliaRudor(twoformer NFPOGOtrainees)asinstructorsshowstheconnued progressionandbenetofPOGO/NFPOGOtrainingin meeng the long-term goal of creang a global network of oceansciensts.Furthermore,VivianLutz(IIMyCINIDEP, Argenna),RobertFrouin(SIO,USA)andGregMitchell (SIO,USA)connuetoplayamajorroleintheNFPOGO trainingprogrammesinLanAmericaandinspirethefu-ture generaons of marine sciensts.CofE RTP Mexico 2015Course tle: Phytoplankton bio-opcal variabil-ity: applicaon to the study of coastal systemsDates: 19 January to 6 February 2015Host: Adriana Gonzlez Silvera, Eduardo Santamara-del-ngel, Roberto Milln-Nez, Natalia Silva Hernndez (Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Universidad Autnoma de Baja Califor-nia, Mexico)Components: eldwork, laboratory and semi-nars on pigment analysis, inherent opcal prop-eres, light absorpon and remote sensingNumber of parcipants: 28Countries of origin: Argenna, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and VenezuelaTable 2 - Number of trainees for each country from/in Lan American instuons/training programmes that beneted from POGOs and NFPOGOs support. The training programmes are divided into POGO Visit-ing Professorship Programme (VPP), NFPOGO VPP, NFPOGO Centre of Excellence (CofE), NFPOGO CofE Regional Training Programme (RTP), POGO Atlanc Meridional Transect (AMT) fellowship, POGOSCORfellowship andAustral Summer Instute (ASI). The list also includes aendees from countries outside this region that parcipated in train-ing programmes that were held in Lan America. We counted mulple aendances from the same trainees.8Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaOther POGO Training Programme Acvies Involving Lan AmericaPOGO hosts other capacity building programmes from which Lan American trainees have beneted: POGOAMT fellowship, POGOSCOR fellowship, and Austral Summer Instute in Concepcin, Chile. In total, 173 students from Lan America have beneted from these iniaves.POGOAMT FellowshipThe Atlanc Meridional Transect (AMT) is a long-term muldisciplinary ocean observaonprogrammeinvolvingbiological,chemicalandphysicaloceano-graphicstudiesinyearlyresearchcruisesbetweentheUKanddesnaonsin theSouthAtlancOcean.ThePOGOAMTfellowshipprovideshands-on,sea-going experience to young sciensts from developing countries and economies in transion. The fellowship is open to sciensts, technicians, graduate students (Ph.D. and M.Sc.) and post-doctoral fellows involved in oceanographic research acvies. The selected fellows parcipate in cruise preparaon and planning; go on the cruise; and analyse the samples and interpret the results aer the cruise. From the seven POGOAMT fellows, three were from South America: Mario Vera (Uruguay, 2008), Priscila Lange (Brazil, 2012) and Rafael Jose Rasse Boada (Ven-ezuela, 2014). Rafael and Priscila were also scholars of the NFPOGO CofEBIOS in years 3 (2010/2011) and 4 (2011/2012), respecvely.POGOSCOR FellowshipPOGO and the Scienc Commiee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) jointly fundthisprogrammewhichisdesignedtopromotetrainingandcapacity building. Its main purpose is to advance sustained ocean observaons and their applicaons globally. It oers sciensts, technicians, graduate students (Ph.D.)andpost-doctoralfellowsfromoceanographiccentresindevelop-ing countries and countries with economies in transion the opportunity to visit other oceanographic centres for a short period. Training can be on any aspectofoceanographicobservaons,analyses,andinterpretaon.This programmehasawardedover150fellowshipssince2001,fromwhich51 were to scholars from Lan American instuons (see table 2). Five fellow-shipswenttoNANOmembers;andSergioCerdeiraEstradaandVladimir-Giovanni Toro Valencia, both from Mexico, were awarded twice.NatliadeMoraesRudortraineeduringtheCofERTP2009inArraial do Cabo and lecturer during the CofE RTP 2015 in Ensenada was a Ph.D. studentatInstutoNacionaldePesquisasEspaciais(INPE),Brazilandvis-ited the Scripps Instuon of Oceanography, USA, to study the variability in ocean-colour properes. Sergio Cerdeira Estrada trainee during VPP 2006 in So Paulo from the Naonal Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity in Mexico City, Mexico, visited EOMAP (Earth Observaon and Mapping) in Germany to derive standardised products using hyperspectral satellite images; and the University of South Florida to study red de events using satellite sensors. Lilian Krug a NFPOGO CofEBIOS year 2 scholar beneted from this fellowship during her Ph.D. at the University of Algarve, PortugalandwasabletovisitPlymouthMarineLaboratory(PML),UK,to study biogeochemical provinces.Austral Summer InstuteTheAustralSummerInstute(ASI)isrunan-nuallyattheUniversityofConcepcininChile;itis co-sponsored by POGO. The Instute takes approxi-mately 30 students for a series of lectures on specic topics relang to the general theme of the Instute. Between 2007 and 2015, POGO supported 119 stu-dents from nine Lan American countries as well as seven countries outside Lan America (see table 2).PresenceofLan nualmeengs.(Top) presenngthepro-Projectin2011 VivianLutz,Jaimie Langediscussing goals in 2013 (Berlin) Silvapresenngup-in 2014 (Lisbon).UniversityofConcepcinvessel at Dichato, ChileLilian Krug and Dr Ajit Subramaniam onboard vessel undertaking sampling prac-ce at the 2007 Austral Sum-mer InstutePriscilaLangebeing bapzedforcrossing the Equator line at the AMT cruiseRafaelRassepreparing abio-argoinstrument for the AMT cruise9Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaNANOThe Nippon Foundaon and the Partnership for Observaon of the Global Oceans have created a network of former scholarscalledtheNFPOGOAlumniNetworkforOceans(NANO).ThegoalsofNANOaretomaximizetheben-ets of the alumni from the training they have received, to facilitate network interacons between alumni, and to promote joint (regional coalion) research eorts. NANO has two classes of members: alumni and friends. Alumni include scholars from the Centre of Excellence (CofE) at BIOS and the CofE at AWI, the CofE Regional Training Pro-grammes in Brazil, Vietnam, India, Philippines and Mexico, and the Vising Professorship Training Programmes in India, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Brazil, Tunisia and Vietnam. NANO is currently organized into regional coalions. One of these research groups is the Lan American Regional Coalion, which is briey described below.Currently,72individualtraineesaendedoneormoreNFPOGOsupportedtrainingprogrammes.Fromtheese trainees, 58 are NANO members. For more details, please refer to table 2 and www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/SM_NN8.pdf. Detailed research proles of NANO members in Lan America are available on the web pagehp://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/Lan+America.Lan American NANO TheLanAmericanRegionalProjectfortheNANONetwork(LANANO)startedinApril 2012. It was coordinated by Ana Doglioand was supported by Guillermina Ruiz (a recent trainee in the CofE RTP 2015Ensenada) with general supervision of Vivian Lutz. One of the achievements of the rst phase of the project was to send more than 50 pigment samples from6meseriesstaonsoftheAntaresnetwork(Argenna,Brazil,Colombia,Mexico, PeruandVenezuela)totheOceanEcologyLaboratory,attheNASAGoddardSpaceFlight Center(Greenbelt,Maryland,USA),forhighperformanceliquidchromatography(HPLC) pigment analysis.The second phase of the LANANO project was coordinated by Jaimie Rojas (Venezuela, a trainee at the CofE RTP 2009Arraial do Cabo) and supported by advice from Vivian Lutz. A workshop on Ecological use of marine phytoplankton pigments at the Antares-ChloroGIN me-series-staons was carried out in October 2013 at the Staon of Marine Research of the La Salle Foundaon for Natural Sciences in Margarita Island, Venezuela. Briey, the work-shop consisted of lectures, working sessions and group discussions on the topics regarding phytoplankton pigment analyses used in oceanographic research and the possibilies of car-rying out HPLC analyses in Lan America. A total of 17 parcipants were gathered including twospecialguests,SuzanneRoy(UniversitduQubecRimouski,Canada)andCrystal Thomas(NASAGoddardSpaceFlightCenter,USA),eightrepresentavesoftheveguest Lan-American countries, and 7 local researchers from Venezuela. Preliminary results on the Variability in phytoplankton pigments at the Antares/ChloroGIN me series staons and ancillary informaon from the parcipang sites was reported.ThethirdphaseoftheLANANOprojectisongoingunderthecoordinaonofAdriana Gonzlez Silvera (UABC, Mexico) and with the assistance of Natalia Silva Hernndez (UABC, Mexico). Itincluded the connuaon of pigment samplecollecon atthe six parcipang sites and the gathering of the samples at the workshop held in conjuncon with the recent CofE RTP 2015 at UABC (Ensenada, Mexico). The main subject of discussion of the LANANO workshop was the producon of a publicaon with the results obtained from pigment analy-sis at the six me-series-staons. For more informaon on this topic please read the accom-panying arcle in this issue of the newsleer on updates of the LANANO project (page 22).Detailsonthisproject,aswellasthemenonedreportsareavailableonthewebpage hp://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/Lan+American+Regional+Project.nAmerica at NANO an-)SebasanKrieger - posalofLARegional 1(Abingdon); (Middle) eRojasandPriscila gprogressandfuture )and (Boom) Natalia - datesoftheproject LA-NANO project sampling in Cariaco (Venezuela), Ubatuba (Brazil) and EPEA (Argenna)10Contact us: regeirk@gmail.com, info@nf-pogo-alumni.org, lilian.krug@nf-pogo-alumni.orgNANO website: www.nf-pogo-alumni.orgAn overview of POGO and NFPOGO acvies in Lan AmericaConcluding RemarksPOGOandNFPOGOiniaves,inaconstrucvesynergywithotherorganizaons(e.g.,IOCCG),havealongandvery producve history of supporng capacity building workshops (table 1), training programmes as well as fellowships from which over 300 Lan American marine sciensts have beneted. In this arcle, we summarized the training programmes and tried to be as accurate as possible. Trainees from 12 dierent countries in Lan America and the Caribbean parci-pated in one or more programmes (table 2). Most trainees were from Brazil, Argenna, Chile and Mexico. At hp://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/le/view/SM_NN8.pdf we show a list of all trainees and instructors from research instuons from and/or training programmes held in Lan America. From these, 29 trainees and 5 instructors parcipated in more than one of the training programmes. Even long aer their training, many of the parcipants sll feel inspired and movated by their experience in the dierent programmes and by the passion that instructors, senior sciensts and other trainees have for marine science. We highlighted a number of trainees and are condent that many more of them already contribute to the advances in marine science; to the establishment of a solid research network within Lan America and beyond; to help determine marine, environmental and public policy; and acng as mulpliers for the future generaons. Although in some ways it seems just the beginning, since nowadays challenges call for even stronger collaboraon within sciensts, itisvaluabletoseetheinteraconsalreadyachievedthroughnetworkinginLanAmerica.Finally,theseadvancesare a direct result from the support of POGO and the Nippon Foundaon, as well as the hard work and commitment of all instructors and trainees.Acknowledgements We would like to thank Trevor Pla and Shubha Sathyendranath for their invaluable input and suggesons, ensur-ing we highlight key people and that we summarise the most important historical facts; Sophie Seeyave for sending us the most current informaon on the dierent training programmes. Call for Personal Outreach ProjectsEducaon is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson MandelaWeannounce a call for small projects for outreach and educaon performed by alumni in their countries. Outreach is an acvity of provid-ing services to populaons who might not otherwise have access to those services. Thus we expect proposals which main ain is to distribute knowl-edge and/or awareness to ocean-related issues. The maximum amount by which it can be applied is US$500, which can only include costs of educa-onal materials, tools, transortaon or expenses related to material prep-araon (e.g. prinng).Please send the completed form of the proposal to monikao@ioplan.gda.pl by the 30th of May 2015.Visit hp://www.nf-pogo-alumni.org/NANO+Outreach for more informaon and reports of past projects