ISU’s summer schools are famous not only in Russia, but in other countries as they are the place for young researchers to make new contacts and find new directions in their research area. One of the schools has already become a platform to train specialists for the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna. The other school organized in cooperation with Christian-Albrechts-University resulted in a double degree master program. Lake Baikal is one of the common grounds for developing cooperation among researchers from different countries.

In August the Baikal biological research station located in Bolshie Koty is to host three international summer schools for specialists interested in studying Baikal.

Maxim Timofeev, Director of the ISU Research Institute of Biology:

– Baikal as a unique ecosystem is of great interest for researchers in the world as a whole. Conducting regular educational and scientific schools, with more participants from different countries taking part in, is supposed to be a crucial instrument to promote and popularize Baikal studies both in Russia and abroad. I consider international summer schools to have great potential to turn the Baikal biological research station of ISU Research Institute of Biology into the internationally recognized center for Baikal studies.

Arkady Matveev, Dean of Biology and Soil Studies Faculty, ISU:

– Lake Baikal is the largest and oldest lake in the world famous for its biodiversity. It is a unique nature laboratory to study the structure and functioning of large water bodies. Lake Baikal is considered to be the largest fresh water reservoir in the world. But recently it has been under the negative impact caused both by global changes and economical activity on its shores.

Lake Baikal as a model system for the study of global environmental trends

The ISU Research Institute of Biology holds "Lake Baikal Summer School of Sciences: Lake Baikal as a model system for the study of global environmental trends" (under support of DAAD) on August 1 – 13.

Participants: students and researchers from Russia (Irkutsk and Kazan), Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. Specialists from research and science centers of Japan are also invited to take part in the section “Genoms’ life”.

Lecturers are leading experts and professors of Irkutsk State University, Research Institute of Biology, Geochemistry Institute and Limnological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. The school program includes lectures, workshops and expeditions for participants to be engaged into real research projects conducted in Baikal area. All activities contribute to the main idea of the school: education through research. Foreign students will have opportunity to take Russian language course as well.

Ecology of Large Water Bodies and Their Watersheds

Geography Faculty of ISU holds the International Summer School “Ecology of Large Water Bodies and Their Watersheds” on August 14 – 21.

Participants: Christian-Albrechts-University students (Kiel, Germany) and “Ecology and Environmental Management” program students. They are to take courses specially elaborated under a double degree program by Irkutsk State University and the University of Kiel.

Lecturers: professors and specialists of Geography Faculty and Research Institutes of SB RAS. 

Lake Ecosystems under Pressure: Processes and Impacts

On August 21-31 one more international school is to be hosted in Bolshie Koty. Swiss-Russian school is conducted by the ISU UNESCO Chair in Water Resources and the University of Geneva (Switzerland) under the international program (Leading House) aimed at promoting bilateral academic mobility and networking between Switzerland and Russia.

Foreign participants are the students from Swiss Universities, master students from Estonia, Finland, the USA, France and Kazakhstan; Russian participants – from Irkutsk, Moscow, Perm, St.-Petersburg, Ulan-Ude, and Yaroslavl.

Lectures and workshops are to be conducted by leading experts and professors of Irkutsk State University, Buryat State University and Limnological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences.  Scientists from Germany, France and Switzerland are also invited as supervisors.

The school program includes lectures, workshops, and field studies under the supervision of leading Russian and foreign experts. Young researchers and post-graduate students taking part in the school have a good chance to acquire not only theoretical concepts about large lake ecosystems functioning (Baikal and the Lake of Geneva), but practical skills required for participation in international interdisciplinary projects targeted at studying ecological problems and risks under global changes.