The summer course aims to provide the students with an overview of the many research topics related to permafrost from geoscience, engineering, bioscience to social sciences and the relationship with the Arctic indigenous communities, especially relevant in regions with reindeer husbandry.
This year’s course was attended by students from Italy, Mexico and native America and included evening lecturers by eight professors within the different fields of science. The school was supposed host students from Portugal, China, Russia and the Netherlands too, but due to US visa issues and other miscellaneous reasons they were prevented in attending. The course has a very limited amount of spots due to the limited accommodation availability of the Reindeer station.
This summer course involved field excursions and used the interior Alaskan landscape for studying the different land forms and techniques within the field of Permafrost.
The Thematic Network has held similar courses previously at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in 2014 and 2015 and at the North-Eastern Federal University in 2016. The previous courses has been attended by 15-26 students.
UNIS has since 2016 hosted their own Permafrost course as a true legacy of the Thematic Networks activity in Norway.