NASA LCLUC

  Dear LCLUCers, friends of LCLUC, international colleagues and friends, The past year has been marred by the gloomy war in Ukraine, with the threat of an escalation to a global, nuclear conflict. The atrocities by the aggressor towards the civilians and the current destruction of the civilian infrastructure in the center of Europe is unimaginable for the 21th century. On the other hand, it seemed that the world got accustomed living with the COVID virus. They say, a bitter joke in Kiev, once the bombs and rockets started falling on Ukrainian cities, was that to the question “What’s the situation with COVID at your place?”, the answer would be “What is it?”.   We all became experts in virtual meetings and review panels. But with time we gradually started socializing and attending in-person meetings. Although the mask regimes have been until recently less strict almost everywhere, the statistics show some increase in infections, and I see again more masks donned inside shops in ou

  Dear LCLUCers, In March of 2020 Secretary-General António Guterres of the United Nations said: “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war”, calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. If he only knew what he would face two years later, when five Russian missiles hit Kyiv "immediately" after he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy finished their meeting in Kyiv. There is a popular joke: If you ask someone there about COVID, they’ll shrug their shoulders “what is it?” What is happening now could not be believed in the beginning of this year. Not a single analyst suggested a scenario of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, which Russia keeps calling a “special operation” – a limited regional conflict in eastern Ukraine was expected by many, though. During this “special operation”, millions of people became refugees, hundreds of thousands became homeless, dead or wounded. And the war goes on, at least at the time of this writin

  Dear LCLUCers, friends of LCLUC, international colleagues,   As you see, my wishes a year ago for the virus-free 2021 were not fulfilled. The second year has passed with restrictions varying from stricter to softer and back to stricter, the new variants coming in waves. Now I’d be cautious to predict what will happen next year although a year ago vaccinations were just becoming available, and currently most people I know are vaccinated. We all adjusted to the changes in our personal life and work mode, became experts in virtual meetings, giving up international travel, but started some socializing and participating in limited holiday celebrations. In keeping with the LCLUC tradition, I will herein summarize achievements of the second strange year – 2021 - list our plans and convey my best wishes to the whole LCLUC family and our friends around the world. So, here we go. Solicitations. LCLUC-19 and -2021 selections brought many Early Career Scientists and diversity in geographi