Junior scientists play an essential role in this project: seven PhD- and graduate students were staff members of the drilling campaign 2008/2009 at Lake El'gygytgyn. There they had the opportunity to accompany the project in its "hot phase" and to carry out first studies. Three additional PhD-students were part of the 7-member team, which went to the Lake in July 2011 for 3 weeks, to gain more data for the scientific assessment.
Together with other young academics, they have already or will obtain a degree within the near future. The disciplines are diverse (like micropalaeontology, isotope geochemistry, sedimentology, geochemistry), the main focus of the theses remains, however: it concerns the exploration of Lake El'gygytgyn - its origin, the over 3.6 million years prevailing climate with the significant change from the warm Pliocene to the cold Pleistocene and the development of permafrost.
The theses not only provide the base for the academic qualifications of the individual, but are also important elements of this research project.