Professor Oleg Anisimov is Head of the Climatology Department at the State Hydrological Institute of Roshydromet, located in St Petersburg, Russia. His main studies concern the impacts of Climate Change in high latitudes, with a special attention brought to Arctic permafrost regions. Dr. Anisimov is a coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chapter 15 on Polar Regions for Workgroup II.

Stephan Gruber is researcher and lecturer at the University of Zurich in the Physical Geography Division and firmly believes that topography makes happy. His main research interest is the quantitatve understanding of the mountain cryosphere (esp. permafrost). In his research he combines diverse methods such as spatial energy-balance and heat-transfer modelling, remote sensing, in-situ measurements, GIS analyses or geomorphometry. Stephan Gruber received his PhD from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and did his graduate and undergraduate studies in Germany (Uni Giessen, physical geography), the Netherlands (ITC, environmental monitoring and modelling) and Finland (Uni Lapland, Arctic Studies).

Dr. Heidi Kassens is head of the Otto Schmidt
Laboratory for Polar and Marine Research in St. Petersburg
and PI of the projects Laptev Sea System, IMPETUS and the Master Program for
Applied Polar and Marine Sciences at the St. Petersburg State
University. She was was
chief scientist of many expeditions to the Siberian Arctic such as the famous
Russian-Germany Expedition TRANSDRIFT VIII where subsea permafrost in the
central Laptev Sea was drilled for the first time.

Alexander Kholodov

Dr. Alexander Kholodov is research scientist at the Permafrost Laboratory, Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Alexander is a specialist in permafrost science and the quaternary geology of north-east Eurasia. His research focuses on the dynamic of thermal state of permafrost and organic matter stored in the frozen deposits. He has extensive experience in drilling different types of frozen deposits. Alexander has participated in more than 10 international and Russian onshore and offshore expeditions. During 2004-2006 he was the leader of the Paleoenvironmental Expedition “Beringia”, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is currently working on several large projects investigating the permafrost in the frame of International Polar Year such as Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) and Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD). On behalf of the GI UAF, Alexander works in the project of Russian-U.S. collaborations for the International Polar Year (TSP) as a part of an effort to network arctic observatories in Alaska and Russia for long term monitoring permafrost temperature in the cold regions.

Dr. Hanno Meyer is a research scientist and head of the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany. Hanno received his phD in Geology in 2001 at the University of Potsdam dealing with the reconstruction of Late Quaternary climate conditions by means of stable water isotopes in permafrost ice. He is co-chair of the IPA working group "Isotope/Geochemistry of Permafrost" and involved in many periglacial, glaciological and hydrological projects world-wide using stable isotope techniques, with a research focus in Siberia.

Pavel is a senior research scientist at the Russian institute for Geology and Mineral Resources of the Ocean in Saint-Petersburg. Pavel is a specialist of the quaternary geology and stratigraphy of northern Eurasia and more specifically of the shelf environments of the Russian Arctic Seas.He has extensive experience in using and interpreting seismic acoustic data everywhere in the world (Gulf of Mexico, Bengal and Persian gulfs, off-shore of Brazil, India, Oman, and of course in the Arctic) and in drilling subsea permafrost. Pavel has participated in more than 20 international and Russian onshore and offshore expeditions and was the leader of the geological investigation team onboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker “Rossiya” in 2007. He is currently working on a large project investigating the offshore permafrost evolution in the Laptev Sea after the Holocene transgression.