From the 25th of August to the 4th of September the Baikal Summer School-Conference of Young Scientists is taking place in the village Bolshie Koty (Southern Baikal) and at the ISU Institute of Biology in Irkutsk. This year, the theme of the School was modern methods of studying hydrobionts (organisms adapted to living in an aquatic environment).
Young specialists from different cities of Russia take part in the School-Conference. The program includes reports on scientific topics of participants, lectures, practicums, including capturing amphipods (Baikal crustaceans), workshops, acquaintance with the biodiversity of Lake Baikal.
The most important point of the School-Conference for the participants will be the project work that they perform in groups. The scientific directions of the projects were offered to young scientists by the staff of the ISU Institute of Biology. The results of the work will be presented at the closing of the School-Conference.
Of course, the participants weren’t left without entertainment: excursions to the observation deck on Skriper Rock and in the Chernaya [Black] valleytoan near the village of Bolshie Koty, to the arboretum and the Baikal Museum of the SB RAS in the village of Listvyanka, to the architectural and ethnographic museum “Taltsy” and to the laboratory facilities of the ISU Institute of Biology.
Baikal Summer School-Conference of Young Scientists this year is dedicated to the anniversary of the ISU Institute of Biology. Organized in 1923 by the decree of the Narkompros (People's Commissariat for Education) as a Biological and Geographical Institute, this year it celebrates 100 years. The main scientific directions of the Institute are related to the conduct of fundamental and applied research work on the study of the structure and functioning of the biocoenosis of Lake Baikal and of the Baikal natural area, assessment of their ecological state. Employees carry out research in the field of ecology and hydrobiology of Lake Baikal, ecophysiology and molecular biology of endemic hydrobionts, as well as experimental toxicology and biotechnology, ornithology, microbiology, etc. Currently, the Institute is headed by M. A. Timofeev, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
