Dear colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to the 11th International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP 2016) to be held in Potsdam, Germany, 20-24 June, 2016.

The Alfred Wegener Institute has teamed up with UP Transfer GmbH and the University of Potsdam to organize a great conference for you, permafrost researchers. The conference aims at covering all relevant aspects of permafrost research, engineering and outreach on a global and regional level.

The conference website, containing all relevant information, is now online: www.icop2016.org and will be updated on a regular basis.

If you wish to get all conference updates, please subscribe to our newsletter on the website. The newsletter will replace circulars.

We hereby open the call for session proposals that should be submitted online until 1 April 2015:

http://icop2016.org/index.php/program/call-for-session

If you intend to submit a session proposal, the following items will be requested in the online form:

1.) Title of session;

2.) Conveners (name, affiliation, and e-mail), including the indication of PYRN convener(s);

3.) Session description (max. 300 words).

Each session will be organized by up to three conveners (i.e. those that submit the session proposal). We encourage a high degree of internationality for the convener boards. At least one convener should be a member of the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN). PYRN conveners are students or young researchers within six years after completion of their doctoral thesis, however, they must not be students or formally under the supervision of the senior conveners of the according session. PYRN will find a suitable candidate, if a session was proposed without involvement of PYRN conveners. The conveners will be responsible for the selection of abstracts and for the organization of oral or poster presentations.

The following themes denote the diversity of research to be presented at the conference, but are by no means restrictive:

1.    Lowland permafrost

2.    Mountain permafrost

3.    Planetary permafrost

4.    Subsea permafrost and gas hydrates

5.    Periglacial geomorphology

6.    Periglacial paleoenvironments

7.    Permafrost and climate change

8.    Permafrost in the water cycle

9.    Ecology, microbiology, biogeochemistry, and gas fluxes

10.  Natural hazards: assessment, adaptation, and mitigation

11.  Foundation engineering and architecture

12.  Infrastructure on permafrost

13.  In-situ and remote observation techniques and programs

14.  Modeling

15.  Socioeconomic and cultural dynamics

16.  History of permafrost engineering and research

17.  Education and outreach

If key fields are not represented in the submitted list of session proposals, the ICOP Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and the International Scientific Committee (ISC) will suggest special sessions to cover all relevant topics.

By 30 May 2015, a decision will be presented on the acceptance of submitted sessions. The decision will be based on the inherent scientific interest and quality of the session proposal, the potential to attract participants, the thematic overlap and number of available slots at the conference. 

The call for abstracts for the accepted sessions will open 1 August 2015 until 15 December 2015. After that date, depending on number of abstracts being submitted to each session, the LOC and the ISC may propose session joining or cancelling.

We are very much looking to receiving your contribution and to seeing you in Potsdam to ICOP 2016!

Best wishes,

Karina Schollaen

On behalf of the ICOP 2016 International Scientific and Local Organizing Committees