| In early August 2004, I attended the Disturbance in Boreal Forest workshop held in Dubna, a Russian city north of Moscow. This international conference was attended by researchers from many countries, and was a great experience of me. The picture to the right shows David Greene from Concordia University in Montreal presenting his findings on the effect of fire on depth of duff in Quebec boreal forests. Below on the left are Nina Ulanova and Alexander Maslov, the organizers and hosts of the conference. I have very much enjoyed getting to know these friends, and was honored that they invited me to visit their home in Moscow for a couple of days after the conference and excursion were done. Nina is a professor in Geobotany at Moscow State University, and Alexander is a research botanist with the Russian Academy of Sciences. They did a great job in oranizing the Dubna conference. The photo below right shows a couple of the many posters that were presented in addition to the oral talks. Highlights of the conference were the mid- conference all-day field trip, the elegant dinner with music and dancing on the final night, and the entertainment by a Russian folk music vocal group. Of course, the post- conference excursion was an experience I will always remember; Sasha especially deserves great thanks for leading the excursion. More information on the excursion below. | |
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While in Sweden in 2004, I was able to partially fulfill a long-dormant dream, to investigate the Swedish archives for information about some of my ancestors. Further details about that project are here.