The winter doesn't give up - skiing everywhere!!!

Hi there,

Most of you, who are settled in Joensuu probably already dreaming about the spring to come. I started to feel that spring is about to come since we have changed the time 1 hour ahead last weekend, when the light days started to be longer. The Mother-Nature every now and then gives us sunny days and surprises with sudden snowfalls as well. I measured the amount of snow in the morning when coming out of the building in the morning, 6 cm - unbelievable. I do cross-country skiing quite often myself and I think with this kind of whether it will be possible to ski till mid of April, unfortunately not on the lakes.I do skiing close to football pitch in Lehmo, you can ski even during late evening on 1.7 km track with the lights. The forecast for the end of this week till mid of next week says that we can expect most of the time below -10 degrees in the night and about zero during the day.


This creates a lot of opportunity for those who would like to ski in "off-track" conditions, simply to say in every direction. Such difference in temperature creates thin crust of ice over the snow, which supports on a snow surface and you are not sinking into the snow as after the snowfall. The best time to do the "off-track" skiing is before noon, otherwise the temperature rises and thin crust of ice melts. Try it, it is really nice!!! If you intending to do it in the forest, please do not forget about personal safety - compass, map and mobile phone might be useful.

It is also the best time for wolfs to hunt their prey, especially moose. The moose is heavy and normally stuck in the snow, while wolves are circling the animal. I watched some videos filmed in this season, and it is amazing.

Good luck with your studies and have a nice coming Easter holidays!

Räkäposkella event and call for CBU FEE MSc programme

Hi up there,

The beginning of the winter seemed to be snowless and frostless, but recently it seems that Mother Nature takes its power back. It started to be around -20-30 C already last weekend and such kind of weather will still continue during this week. Today the students of University of Eastern Finland organized a crazy outdoor even is such bloody cold weather which is called “Räkäposkella”, even more crazy thing is last for 12 hours starting at 7 a.m. in the morning. So, you probably can imagine starting in the dark and finishing in the dark. There couple of rules in this skiing relay, the winner is a team with maximum number of laps counted by judges. Maximum number of team members is 12, however if you are really “sisu” you can even do 12 hours one-man-relay.

I just found out an interesting information which might be useful for some of you. A call for CBU Master’s Programme in Forestry and Environmental Engineering (FEE) is open. The call for applications for CBU FEE at the University of Eastern Finland will be still open until 16th March 2012. There will be CBU scholarships (500 EUR/month) available for the five best applicants in the application round 2012-2014. These scholarships are for the students who do not have any other scholarships of funding for their studies. Applicants do not need to apply for these scholarships separately. Please hurry up with your applications!

First forestry students were accepted to this programme in 2007 and this year the students will be chosen already 5^th time. Surprisingly the CBU FEE will offer students a scholarship first time starting from this year. Previously CBU provided only partial support for students, but this time the incredible opportunity is offered to the students.

Please distribute this information further to the potential applicants who can be interested. More details can be found on http://www.uef.fi/cbu-fee/news

Application call for CBU FEE Master's Programme

Hi up there,

The beginning of the winter seemed to be snowless and frostless, but recently it seems that Mother Nature takes its power back. It started to be around -20-30 already last weekend and such kind of weather will still continue during this week. Only couple of weeks left before a call for CBU Master’s Programme in Forestry and Environmental Engineering (FEE) will be open. The call for applications for CBU FEE at the University of Eastern Finland will be open from 1st February to 16th March 2012. There will be CBU scholarships (500 EUR/month) available for the five best applicants in the application round 2012-2014. These scholarships are for the students who do not have any other scholarships of funding for their studies. Applicants do not need to apply for these scholarships separately.

First forestry students were accepted to this programme in 2007 and this year the students will be chosen already 5^th time. Surprisingly the CBU FEE will offer students a scholarship first time starting from this year. Previously CBU provided only partial support for students, but this time the incredible opportunity is offered to the students.

Please distribute this information further to the potential applicants who can be interested. More details can be found on http://www.uef.fi/cbu-fee/news

CBU PhD seminar

Hello everyone,
I wish happy and successful year to all of you! In the mid of December last year CBU Doctoral students have had a seminar in Joensuu premises. Finally we had students from 3 different universities: University of Eastern Finland, University of Tampere and St.-Petersburg State Forest Technical University. We were 7 students from forestry, medicine, IT and social sciences. Each of participants prepared a presentation about 15 minutes on study progress and 10 minutes were given for questions and general discussion. It is already second meeting of CBU PhD students and most of us have made a headway and increased the expertise in the areas of study issues. General discussion at the end of the meeting was very fruitful and useful. The general concerns of the students regarding fundraising, guidance and support from CBU side were discussed. Personally, I think such kind of meetings offer to the students discuss the most relevant issues of study process, share the experience and knowledge.
Meanwhile during the autumn University of Forest Finland, School of Forest Sciences announced a call for 3-years PhD scholarship. At the end of the seminar GSForest coordinator announced the result of selection process. The 3-year PhD scholarship was granted to Anton Kuzmin who is writing his doctoral dissertation in the field of forest inventory. Congratulations!!!

Upcoming CBU doctoral seminar

Hello everyone,

Time is flying fast and autumn semester is over soon, however there is still time to finalize the study process before Christmas and New Year holidays. CBU PhD students will also discuss study process and future plans next week in University of Eastern Finland, the gathering is in Joensuu. The meeting will be organized already second time; last year first CBU PhD meeting took place also in Joensuu premises. The seminar is part of international collaborative project. The project involves four Finnish and six Russian universities with the main aim to increase the Finnish-Russian cooperation in research and to train professionals. Eight doctoral students started the pilot programme last year. Five students from University of Eastern Finland, others from CBU partner university.

At the end of last year CBU announced first 3-years grand for doctoral students, similar grand was initiated this year with the main aim to support doctoral candidate and improve co-operation with Russian CBU Partner Universities.

I will come back here with the blog after seminar!