ARKHANGELSK, March 26. /TASS/. The first Arctic Scientific School for young scientists opened at the Northern Arctic Federal University (NAFU) in Arkhangelsk, a TASS correspondent reported. The school features 50 students from 15 Russian universities, who participate in the National Arctic Scientific-Educational Consortium Association. The students represent universities in Arkhangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yakutsk, Tyumen, Khanty-Mansiysk, Yekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk, Usinsk, Ryazyan and Oryol.
Each participant has been working on an Arctic scientific project, and the school is designed to help gain relevant knowledge about the work of Russian scientists in the Arctic, about career opportunities in this field, as well as gain practical skills, support and motivation that are necessary for researchers at the initial stage of their careers. "We have attracted lecturers in different subjects and directions so that the participants understand a full range of diverse Arctic research conducted in our country, and thus they would be able to look beyond their subjects, to understand in general how Arctic sciences are developing," Alexander Saburov, director of the Institute for Strategic Development of the Arctic at NAFU, told TASS. "Secondly, we want to show that science, and specifically science in the Arctic, is not only work in laboratories, it is an opportunity for interesting expeditions, field trips, without which it is simply impossible to conduct these studies."
Lectures and master classes are delivered by eight experts from the Moscow State University, the Mechnikov Northwestern State Medical University, the Tyumen State University, the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and NAFU. "The scientists that we have invited do not just sit, so to say, in an ivory tower, they are interesting people with great life experience," he added.
Professor at Moscow State University, Alexander Pilyasov, told the audience about how the technique and topics of economic and geographical studies of the Russian Arctic Zone had changed since the 1930s. He noted an interesting fact - only 20 years ago, the term "North" was basic, and the "Arctic" notion both in scientific and in general usage began to replace it after 2005. "It appeared exclusively thanks to the Arctic Council and the international pressure so that we, too, being an Arctic country, would not lose the flag. This influence is international," he explained to TASS. "And now that the international cooperation is collapsing, here comes the thought - whether we should return to the very "Northernness" in which we have been engaged for decades, and which is the identity of Russia. While the Arctic is made to fit the circumpolar, the global approaches, and other countries."
'Stopwalk,' associated gas and railway
Some school participants are winners of the Association's competition. The award ceremony was held on the opening day. Three students of the Motor Transport Department at the Northeastern Federal University (Yakutsk) have developed a prototype of a walking machine that could be used in hard-to-reach areas in the Russian Federation's Arctic Zone. The young developers named their car "stopwalk". Instead of wheels or tracks, it has four legs. This design is used to damages less the soil layer, and, in addition, to cross small water obstacles. "We've tested it in a small artificial pond, and our "stopwalk" succeeded in crossing that small ford. If it is built in a large scale in the future, it will be able to cross shallow rivers and lakes, thereby it will be able to help [to deliver goods] to people in hard-to-reach villages," student Konstantin Efremov explained to TASS. The young scientists have used an electric motor and solar panels.
Ekaterina Kochneva of the Urals Federal University (Yekaterinburg) presented a project to develop the Yamal's transport and logistics complex. She has eyed transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail as an alternative to the Northern Sea Route. "The existing railway lines could be extended on the Yamal Peninsula, where they are just partially laid. They could be extended to Yekaterinburg," she said. "Yekaterinburg is very well connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Accordingly, it will be possible to distribute LNG supplies both to the west and to the east through the Trans-Siberian Railway."
NAFU's student Sardar Akramov had a project on the purification of associated petroleum gas. It is a promising resource, that could be used to generate electricity, and, in addition, it contains various useful elements. Presently, associated gas is mostly burned. "For each field, we need to select specific purification methods, methods to use it, since deposits are different, that is, the associated petroleum gas specifications also differ," the student said.
The school participants will visit NAFU laboratories, the Federal Research Center for Integrated Arctic Studies, as well as the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center in Severodvinsk. The school will work to March 29. The project is supported by the Presidential Grants Fund.