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A great portion of the territory of Yakutia is located beyond the Arctic Circle. Its bowels store diamonds and gold, tin and antimony, oil, coal and iron ores. Yakutia is a large mining region specialised in production of non-ferrous metals and other minerals. Agricultural development is impeded by broadly distributed permafrost. Constant effect of extremely severe climatic and natural conditions determines human life there.
In 1947, a research station of the USSR Academy of Sciences was organised in Yakutsk. In 1957, the Yakut Division of the Academy entered the Siberian Branch, as one of its science centres. Now the Yakut Science Centre is the largest scientific institution not only in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) but also all over the northeastern Russia. The main fields of research are closely related to problems of northern territories.
Specific natural processes of high latitudes made it possible to build up activities of the Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy. The specialists of the Institute have designed unique installations and a network of astrophysical stations that allow them to take part in many important international projects.
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- Northern lights, a famous wonder of nature of high latitudes.
- Element of a world largest installation for continuous recording of extensive air showers of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Aeronomy. (right)
The state of the permafrost, distribution of mineral deposits and their prospecting and mining in the permafrost conditions, all these are the main areas studied by the Institute of Geosciences and the United Institute of Permafrost and Development of Natural Resources of the Cryolithozone including the Melnikov Institute of Permafrost and the Mining Institute of the North. The institutes have a broad network of permafrost and seismic stations and test grounds.
- Mammoth at the entrance of the Melnikov Institute of Permafrost
- Underground laboratory sited within a layer of permafrost ground. (right)
The United Institute of Physical-Technological Problems of the North, comprising also the Institute of Non-Metallic Materials, deals with problems of operation of machines, mechanisms and constructions in severe climatic conditions and the respective adjustment of technologies.
Studies in the Institute of Biological Problems of Criolithozone focus on northern ecosystems and biological resources of the region. Scientists from the Institute of Problems of Ethnic Groups of the North study mentality and ethnocultural features of Arctic peoples that are closely related with the nature.
There are two international research centres working on the basis of the Yakut Science Centre. They are the International Research Centre for Development of Northern Territories «Sakha Inter Nord» and a subdivision of the International Centre of Solar-Terrestrial Physics.
The Yakut Science Centre works in close contact with the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), created in 1993 on the basis of several SB RAS institutes specialised in humanities, ecological and economic studies, as well as with the Ammosov University of Yakutia and other higher schools of Yakutsk. Under regular support of the Government of the Republic, the scientists of the Centre implement federal and regional-scale research and development programmes aimed at restructuring and growth of the economy of the Republic of Sakha.
- New buildings of the Ammosov University of Yakutia
- International biological station "Lena-Nordensheld" in the Lena delta. (right)
The Yakut Science Centre forms a separate campus not far from the centre of Yakutsk; it has a well-developed infrastructure (an autonomous energy supply, a hospital, a club, fleet, etc.).
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