Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to the Fifth Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists to be held in Yakutsk, Russia from 4 to 23 June 2018. This event is open to young researchers under the age of 35 years, including undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Interested school children are also welcome to participate.

The Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists will include:

- the Geocryological Conference held from 4 to 8 June 2018 and
- the Geocryological Field Workshop from 9 to 23 June 2018.

The previous Forums (http://mpi.ysn.ru/index.php/en/fyps.html) were hosted by the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in 2015, 2013, 2010 and 2008, attended by young researchers from Russia and abroad (USA, China, Japan and France). In addition to traditional topics, the 2018 Forum will focus on emerging new areas of geocryological research.

The Fifth Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists will commemorate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Professor, Dr. Maria K. Gavrilova (1928-2010), the distinguished Russian climatologist and permafrost scientist. Professor Gavrilova was internationally recognized for her fundamental studies on climate and permafrost relationships. She authored classic books on the cold regions climates and was a major figure in the Yakutian geographical science for half a century.