December 5, 2016
Dr. Rudolf Zhang awarded at III Congress of Yakutia's Engineers
About 450 delegates from the industry, academia and government gathered at the North-Eastern Federal University's auditorium on December 1 and 2, 2016 for the 3rd Congress of Yakutia's Engineers. Together with guests from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, the delegates took part in roundtable discussions on research and development in transportation and communications; innovative technologies in housing and communal services; IT technologies in culture; high-tech equipment for construction industry; natural gas as fuel for automobiles; and undergraduate's targeted admission schemes in engineering education. The Congress events included an exhibition which showcased achievements in engineering research and development in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as the final of the "I, Engineer" competition which aims to promote creative and innovative talents. A number of awards were presented at the plenary session. Dr. Rudolf Zhang from the MPI Laboratory of Permafrost Engineering was awarded the Civil Valor Medal by the Yakutia Ministry of Industry. He also received the Engineering Valor award from the Russian Engineering Academy granted to the Yakutian Branch of the Academy which he heads.
November 26, 2016
Three Disserations Successfully Defended at MPI
The public defense of three doctoral dissertations was held on November 23-24, 2016 at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute. Vasily Lytkin and Marina Danzanova have successfully defended their Kandidat Nauk (PhD) dissertations titled respectively "Late Holocene Dynamics of Glaciers and Rocks Glaciers in the Suntar-Khayata Range" and "The Formation and Regime of Supra- and Intrapermafrost waters in Urban Areas: A Case Study of Yakutsk". Twenty members of Dissertation Council D 003.025.01 decided unanimously that both candidates qualified for the award of Kandidat Nauk degree. The Council's verdict was also positive for Leonid Neradovskii, who presented research on "Methodological Bases for Electromagnetic Sounding of Frozen Ground within the Layer of Annual Temperature Variations" for the degree of Doktor Nauk (Dr.Sc.) in engineering. The minutes and resolutions of the Dissertation Council's session can be found here.
August 22, 2016
Strengthening Collaboration with SKLFSE, Lanzhou, China
Three delegates from the State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering (SKLFSE), Lanzhou, China visited the Melnikov Permafrost Institute from 5-10 August 2016. Led by Prof. Wu Qingbai, Director of SKLFSE, the delegation met with colleagues at MPI to introduce the research priorities at SKLFSE as part of the newly formed Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources and to identify collaboration areas and projects. The busy schedule included tours of the MPI laboratories, facilities and field sites, as well as residential construction sites in downtown Yakutsk and the proposed bridge site on the Lena River near Tabaga. As part of the visit, Prof. Huijun Jin gave lectures at the international summer school organized by the University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Permafrost/Natural Hazards. An important outcome from the visit is an agreement signed between the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources and the Melnikov Permafrost Institute to establish an International Research Center on Asian Cold Regions Environment and Engineering (关于建立亚洲寒区环境与工程国际研究中心的协议).The Center, abbreviated as IRC–ACEE, will be based at SKLFSE in Lanzhou and MPI in Yakutsk.
October 10, 2016
Training Course for Heilongjiang University Professors
MPI organized a training program on permafrost regions hydrogeology and hydraulic engineering for participants from the Heilongjiang University, School of Hydraulic and Electric Power from 22 September to 6 October 2016. The program included classroom lectures and field trips, covering various topics such as problems of urban construction on permafrost; frost-related metamorphism of groundwater and soils; cryopegs; permafrost hydrology in a changing climate; precipitation geochemistry and environmental effects; toxic chemical elements in the environment of Yakutia; construction of hydroengineering structures in cold regions; and experience in the establishment and management of a frozen soil laboratory. Field trips provided an opportunity to observe groundwater springs and icings on the Bestyakh terrace of the Lena River, to learn about hydrogeology of small river basins on permafrost while visiting the Malaya Chabyda monitoring site, and to better understand the water drainage problems for open-pit mining in permafrost regions during a tour of the Kangalassy Coal Mine. Several meetings with key MPI researchers were held to discuss the setting up of a joint laboratory of cold regions hydrology and hydroengineering.
July 20, 2016
A Doctor Degree Dissertation by Leonid Neradovskii Approved for Defense
The Dissertation Council at MPI has accepted for defense a dissertation submitted by Leonid Neradovskii, Senior Research Scientist at the Laboratory of Permafrost Engineering, for the Doctor of Science degree in specialty 25.00.08 – engineering geology, geocryology and geotechnical engineering. The dissertation titled “Methodological Bases for Electromagnetic Sounding of Frozen Ground within the Layer of Annual Temperature Variations” was evaluated positively by a commission consisting of Drs. R.V. Zhang, G.P. Kuzmin and A.V. Omelyanenko. The Council approved Dr. Y.B. Bashkuev, Institute of Physical Material Science (Ulan-Ude), Dr. V.I. Dzhurik, Institute of Earth Crust (Irkutsk) and Dr. A.V. Brouchkov, Moscow State University, as official opponents. The public defense of the dissertation is scheduled on 23 November 2016 at 9:00 a.m. The full text of the dissertation, as well as other related documents (in Russian) can be found here. Photo below: Leonid Neradovskii (right) and Alexander Fedorov during a field survey on a Lena River island.
