PYRN –Permafrost Young Researchers Network

Also available online here: http://pyrn.ways.org/newsletter-n-28-04-02-2009-february-newsletter

1. PYRN winners at AGU
2. PYRN-Wiley contest: Win a FREE 945$ value subscription now!
3. PYRN-USPA Partnership and educational fund!
4. WANTED: PYRN members with… skills to manage the PYRN website!!
5. Latest job postings
6. Upcoming conferences
7. Permafrost in the news

1. PYRN winners at AGU Permafrost scientists from all over the world applied for the PYRN award at the AGU fall meeting in December 2008, which was generously sponsored by the U.S. Permafrost Association (USPA, http://uspermafrost.org/). The review panel awarded two poster presentations (200$ each): Santosh K. Panda, A. Prakash, D. Solie, V.E. Romanovsky, T. Jorgenson: Identification of surface signatures indicative of near-surface permafrost in Alaska Highway corridor. Poster Number: C31E-0553: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/~santosh/AGU_Poster_Santosh.pdf Sebastian Westermann, Julia Boike: Monitoring of Surface Temperatures with Thermal Camera Systems at a High-Arctic Permafrost Site on Svalbard, Norway. Poster Number: C31E-0552: http://pyrn.ways.org/files/AGU08WestermannThermalCamFinal.pdf Congratulations to the winners and once again thanks to the USPA!

2. PYRN-Wiley contest: Win a FREE 945$ value subscription now! We are pleased to feature the first PYRN-Wiley contest with a fantastic prize valued at $945: A FREE one-year print and online subscription to Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, the leading journal in permafrost research. The winner of the contest will be the PYRN member with the highest number of "points" (http://pyrn.ways.org/userpoints) at the end of June 2009. To collect points, you simply have to contribute to the website by posting blogs, comments, images, jobs or bibliographic entries. Each entry is rewarded with points that add up on your profile. We are grateful to Wiley, the publisher of Permafrost and Periglacial Processes to offer us this opportunity. More info on the contest at http://pyrn.ways.org/pyrn-wiley-contest-win-free-945-value-subscription.

3. PYRN-USPA Partnership and educational fund After the successful completion of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost in Fairbanks in 2008, the United States Permafrost Association (USPA) is now striving to increase the prominence of permafrost science and cold regions engineering through new partnerships, education, and outreach. The USPA generously initiated a PYRN/USPA Educational Fund in December to expand the USPA’s mission of permafrost education and community outreach. Additionally, a new position on the USPA Board of Directors and the PYRN Core Group (filled by Anna Liljedahl, UAF) has been created to increase the communication and foster the partnership between the two organizations. If you have suggestions on how the PYRN/USPA Educational Fund can be used to facilitate and benefit the PYRN-USPA partnership, please do not hesitate to send your ideas to Anna Liljedahl, (ftakl@uaf.edu).

4. WANTED: Webmaster for PYRN website! The new PYRN website (http://pyrn.ways.org) is now one year old and receives around 100 hits a day, which is a reasonable pace for a community like ours. The website is hosted by the World Association of Young Scientists (WAYS) and uses an open source Content Management System (CMS) named Drupal (http://www.drupal.org). We are looking for a PYRN member willing to help with the website management. If you are interested contact Philip Bonnaventure (PYRN coordinator) and Hugues Lantuit (webmaster) at contact@pyrn.org

5. Latest job postings An impressive number of positions are advertised on the PYRN website. You can find them all at: http://pyrn.ways.org/jobs - A PhD position dealing with energy and water fluxes in the Lena Delta, Siberia at the AWI in Potsdam, Germany: http://pyrn.ways.org/phd-position-awi-potsdam-energy-and-water-fluxes-le... - A postdoctoral research position is announced at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge to study permafrost changes in the Arctic. More information is available here: http://pyrn.ways.org/postdoctoral-research-associate-permafrost-universi... - A PhD position is available at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, within the project CRYOSUB: Mountain Cryosphere Subgrid Parameterization and Computation. More info here: http://pyrn.ways.org/cryosub-mountain-cryosphere-subgrid-parameterizatio... - Multiple Master’s, PhD, and Postdoc opportunities are available as part of a recently funded NSF project on thermokarst in Alaska. More info on this exciting project is available here: http://pyrn.ways.org/multiple-graduate-research-and-postdoctoral-researc... - A PhD or master’s position in microbiology/ecology of permafrost is available at the INRS in Canada. More information here: http://pyrn.ways.org/microbial-processes-regulate-production-co2-and-ch4...

6. Upcoming conferences - European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2009, 19-24 April 2009, Vienna, Austria Abstract submission ended mid-January, but you can see the enormous programme with several sessions dealing with permafrost issues on the website: http://meetings.copernicus.org/egu2009/ - The first PAGES Young Scientists Meeting will be held in Oregon, USA, July 6-7 2009: http://www.pages-osm.org/ysm/index.html. This meeting deals with paleoclimate and a series of travel fellowships will be made available by the organizers. Apply now! - IAMAS, IAPSO and IACS – MOCA-09 (atmospheric, oceanographic and cryospheric research), July 19-29, 2009, Montreal, Quebec, Canada http://www.iamas-iapso-iacs-2009-montreal.ca/e/99-home_e.shtml - The Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS) and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) together with the Yukon College will host an International Student Conference focused on Polar Research in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada from 2-5 October 2009. More information will be posted soon. PYRN Core Group Leader, Philip Bonnaventure is serving on the Student Organizing Committee so please direct questions/comments about the conference to him (pbonn075@uottawa.ca) - PYRN is a partner of the upcoming Young Earth Scientists Congress to be held in Beijing in the fall (October 25-28th 2009). This congress takes place in the framework of the International Year of Planet Earth. This is a unique opportunity to meet your peers! http://www.yescongress2009.org/index.php

7. Permafrost in the news Student bring Kashmir train link project to Mumbai. A team of students of the Verrmata Jijabai Technican Institute are building a model of the 290 km railroad under construction and suggest a extension to Kargil taking into account the terrain and unhelpful climatic conditions. The trains would pass through fully permafrost regions.http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/students-bring-kashmir-train-link-project-to-mumbai/415961/

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