July 2014: SIN Russia’s Far East science and climate mission
Having joined forces with the British Embassy’s Climate and Economic & Energy sections, SIN Russia embarked on a 10-day science mission to the Far East that took the Embassy delegation from Yakutsk to Kamchatka through Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Sakhalin.
SIN Russia visited key scientific institutions and research centres in the region and met their directors and leading researchers to discover priority research areas and discuss possibilities for future bilateral co-operation.
SIN Russia started out in Yakutsk (Republic of Sakha), visiting the Melnikov Permafrost Institute SB RAS, a champion for permafrost evolution studies equipped with a unique underground laboratory. This was followed by a roundtable meeting at the Academy of Science of the Republic of Sakha which gave an excellent insight into the range and specificity of research carried out in Yakutia.
In Khabarovsk SIN Russia was welcomed at the State Research Centre “Planeta”, a leading organisation for satellite data processing and development of national satellite Earth observation systems for hydrometeorological and environmental purposes. SIN Russia then took part in a dynamic discussion with the representatives of the Institute of Water and Ecology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS) and the Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics FEB RAS with a tour of its research facilities. On its first day in Vladivostok SIN Russia had an informative meeting with the Chairman of FEB RAS Academician V.I. Sergienko who kindly briefed SIN Russia on FEB RAS key research strands and outlined prospects for international co-operation. Over the two days spent in the city, SIN Russia toured the Fast East Federal University (FEFU), visiting the innovative new medical centre among others, and had a chance to familiarise themselves with the research activities of the Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology FEB RAS, the Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry FEB RAS and the Il’ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute FEB RAS.
In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk SIN Russia visited the Sakhalin Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and the Institute of Sea Geology and Geophysics FEB RAS. SIN Russia concluded its science mission on the Kamchatka peninsula with a tour of the Mutnovskaya geothermal power plant and visits to the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology RAS, the Scientific Research Geo-technological Centre RAS and the Institute of Cosmophysics and Radiowave propagation.