Earlier this afternoon, the 2nd Asian Conference on Permafrost came to a close at Hokkaido University. The conference was a definite success and covered a wide range of permafrost research and engineering topics through a total of 141 presentations (86 oral presentations and 55 posters). In total, there were 178 participants from 17 countries. Though the conference was located in Japan, many participants came from elsewhere in Asia – including 62 from China and 6 from Mongolia. Japan and Russia were the next most represented countries (after China), with 55 and 23 participants respectively. Early career researchers were well represented in general, and 20 received financial assistance to attend the conference.
There were two winners of the PYRN-IPA Award for Best Oral Presentation:
Yury A. Dvornikov for his presentation “Gas-emission craters on Yamal and Gydan Peninsulas — future lakes”
Matthias B. Siewert for his presentation “High-resolution mapping and spatial variability of soil organic carbon in permafrost environments”
Congratulations to these two talented young researchers.
The IPA is immensely grateful to the Local Organizing Committee for putting on a successful conference, and making such a conference possible after a long hiatus in Asia. We look forward to continued collaboration and activity in Japan.