As the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) will be the first ICOP during PYRN's short but already very successful tenure, we have a number of exciting events planned. NICOP will take place from June 29-July 3 in Fairbanks, Alaska, and a majority of our PYRN events will happen on Tuesday, July 1.

On the evening of July 1, following the PYRN Mentor's Panel, we are hosting a PYRN Social event. Please click here to let us know if you will join us! This event is primarily a social gathering, with free food and drink at Wood Center Pub (D/E-10 on map) from 18:00-22:00. One of PYRN's main goals is to network and foster collaboration, which is often done best over a (free) beer! Please come out and meet your fellow young permafrost researchers from around the world and use this opportunity to establish new collaborations and friendships.

During the social we will also feature a slideshow in the background, similar to the PYRN Gallery on our website. People are requested to e-mail 2-3 pictures to Guido Grosse (each in good jpg-quality and <300kb), perhaps even taken during IPY, of exciting scenes showing permafrost features, arctic and alpine landscapes, wildlife, field work, or social gatherings. Short one-sentence descriptions would be much appreciated. Please be aware that these photos will eventually be added to the PYRN Gallery on our website (if you do not want them to appear online due to copyright or other issues, please indiate this in your e-mail to Guido).

Sponsorship of PYRN activities during NICOP is kindly provided by the University of Alaska Young Researchers' Network/UA IPY Outreach Office and the Norwegian Thermal State of Permafrost IPY Project.

If you would like to join us at the social, we ask that you please let us know by "voting" at this link. It is very important that we have a general count, so that we can be sure to provide enough food and drinks. If you cannot log in to the PYRN website, simply request a new password (http://pyrn.ways.org/user/password). If you are experiencing difficulties with the login, just drop us an e-mail at contact@pyrn.org, and we will send you a new passord.

We look forward to seeing and meeting you all at NICOP later this month!

The PYRN Core Group