Newsletter n. 26 – 16/09/2008 – September newsletter

PYRN –Permafrost Young Researchers Network

Also available online here: http://pyrn.ways.org/newsletter-n-26-16-09-2008-september-newsletter

1. PYRN leadership renewal
2. PYRN activities at NICOP
3. IPA leadership renewal
4. National representatives
5. PYRN-TSP update
6. PYRN-Bib now referenced
7. Permafrost in the news

1. New PYRN website
PYRN is renewing its leadership for the first time in its history. Starting in October a new core group will take over the management of the organisation and look after its membership. If you are interested, if you have ideas, look at this page: http://pyrn.ways.org/renewal-pyrn-leadership and apply before the end of the week!

2. PYRN activities at NICOP
PYRN and its local organizing committee, led by Andrew Basler and Guido Grosse, sponsored and organized a series of features at the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, including the PYRN awards (see http://pyrn.ways.org/activities/pyrn-award/2008-fairbanks), a reception for young researchers and mentors, a panel with the presence of Dr. Charles Harris, Dr. Jonas Akerman and Mr. Don Hayley, and many other activities. A meeting opened to all PYRN members was organized on site and its minutes are available on the PYRN website (http://pyrn.ways.org/node/23). We are now looking forward to the next permafrost conferences to be held in Canada and Norway in 2010 and in Russia in 2012.

3. IPA leadership renewal
The International Permafrost Association, PYRN’s mother organization has also renewed its executive committee, which is now led by Dr. Hans-Wolfgang Hubberten from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany. The executive committee is now made of:
Dr. Hanne Christiansen (Norway)
Dr. Dmitry Drozdov (Russia)
Dr. Antoni Lewkowicz (Canada)
Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky (USA)
Dr. Ma Wei (China)

4. National representatives
During the meeting in Fairbanks, four new national representatives were elected. Karianne Lilleøren will replace Håvard Juliussen for Norway, Philip Bonnaventure will replace Nicole Couture for Canada, Atsushi Ikeda will replace Tetsuo Sueyoshi for Japan and Isabelle Roer will help Jan-Christoph Otto with Germany. We welcome the new national representatives and thank the former ones for the fantastic work they accomplished

5. PYRN-TSP update
The PYRN-TSP project, PYRN’s flagship research project has entered its core phase during the summer of 2008. A set of new boreholes have been drilled in northern Sweden, northern Norway and Svalbard and will feed into the Thermal State of Permafrost project of the IPA. More information available under: http://pyrn.ways.org/activities/pyrn-drilling

6. PYRN-Bib now referenced
PYRN-Bib, the bibliography of theses completed in the field of permafrost science is rich of more than 500 references and is now referenced with an open source handle system at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. You can download it and quote it using the information on this page: http://epic.awi.de/epic/Main?static=yes&page=abstract&entry_dn=Lan2008c

7. Permafrost in the news
Killer virus secrets coaxed using lungs of flu victims preserved by permafrost in Alaska http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jhnMj6i16MEUtQiY1igFrH_TiX...
Permafrost carbon content double the old estimates http://www.popsci.com/laurie-j-schmidt/article/2008-09/permafrost-contai...
Raising vegetables under Canada's midnight sun http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN0444109420080904
Researchers find cold-loving, arsenic-eating bacteria in Yellowknife gold mine http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWVrCjSf09VceYbYMpwdLAetyB...

All of these items plus jobs, events, fellowships, blogs, discussions, image galleries, etc. available on the website (http://www.pyrn.org)

The PYRN editorial team