Tahoe-Baikal Institute ceases operations

The Tahoe-Baikal Institute has suspended its operations.

Lake Baikal in Russia is said to have more similarities to Lake Tahoe than any other water body. Scientists have often studied both to help the other.

The Tahoe-Baikal Institute came about in 1988 by Soviet and American students who attended a bilateral youth conference in Helsinki.

“The Tahoe-Baikal Institute gave hundreds of students like myself a genuinely once in a lifetime experience. Hearing that operations have been suspended is sad news as future young people won’t get the same opportunity,” Matt Roberston told Lake Tahoe News. “Those of us who participated in TBI’s programs came away forever changed, inspired, and part of a remarkable global family.”

No one from the executive committee of the institute responded to inquiries so it is not known if operation might resume, how many jobs were lost or how this affects studies that were under way.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report