In February 2007, Dr. Tingjun Zhang traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska to speak at the 7th International Conference on Global Change: Connection to the Arctic (GCCA-7). He also shared his experiences and knowledge of permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, and their impacts on cold regions climate and hydrological cycles, as well as his experiences in helping to build the Tibetan Railroad, with elementary, undergraduate, and graduate students in Fairbanks.
Dr. Zhang presented four different seminars about permafrost and climate change to faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). He also presented a lecture to UAF engineering students and faculty titled, "Frozen Ground and Hydrological Cycle." Dr. Zhang met with students and faculty from the International Arctic Research Center (IARC), the Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC) and College of Engineering and Mines (CEM) at UAF. These meetings were structured to foster an informal exchange of ideas between Dr. Zhang and graduate and undergraduate students. Dr. Zhang also met with a group of K-5th grade students at the University Park Elementary School in Fairbanks and presented a slide show about his experiences constructing the Tibetan railroad and life at high altitude cold regions verses life at high latitude cold regions.
Dr. Zhang is a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests focus on land surface processes in cold seasons and cold regions, especially on snow cover, permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, and their impacts on cold regions climate and hydrological cycles. Zhang worked with colleagues on permafrost and railroad construction on the Tibetan Plateau and on changes in permafrost conditions on the Russian arctic hydrological cycle.