Weichao Wu

With the support from GLOMAR, I participated the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Organic Geochemistry in the USA. I have to say it is an amazing conference due to the beautiful landscape of conference site, a good atmosphere and a diverse program. During the GRS and GRC, I not only have presented my latest work to the peer organic geochemists and famous professors, but gained the latest knowledge about organic geochemistry. For instance, GRS is generally hosted by young scientists, and it provides good platform for our graduates, post-doctors, and other young scientists to exchange our new data and ideas. It is a good opportunity for me to learn how to organize the oral presentations by our fellow young scientists although I didn’t join the hosting work because it presented the basic procedure to organize a seminar, and how to make the seminar smooth. What’s more, I can find something in common and share some experience during PhD study; e.g. how to deal with the relationship between PhD students and supervisors, and how to balance the work and life.

For GRC, most presentations are invited and presented by pioneering professors or senior scientists, and those works are representative the current frontier of organic geochemistry. For instance, the dissolved organic matter (DOM) study based on the new technique FT-ICR-MS and the clumped isotope study of CH₄ are the hot topics in current organic geochemistry, which were presented by Prof. Dr. Patrick Hatcher from Old Dominion University who is named 2016 Treibs Medalist, and Prof. Dr. Shuhei Ono from MIT, respectively. These pioneering scientists not only elucidated those new techniques clearly, but also predicted the future challenge and trend. It has broadened my knowledge and provided some potential study area for my future post-doctoral work.

During the GRS and GRC, I represented my work as poster "substrate-dependent utilization of carbon and hydrogen isotope for lipid biosynthesis by Methanosarcina barkeri". I have talked more and got a lot of comments and suggestions from some famous organic geochemists such as Prof. Drs. Alex Sessions, Rogers Summons, Ann Pearson, Shuhei Ono and Rich Pancost who expertized in geomicrobiology or isotope geochemistry. They thought our work was more interesting if more diverse cultures were investigated via the same study method, and moreover it can explain some observation and support some hypothesis in environmental microbiology.

After this conference, I also visited Prof. Dr. Roger Summons’ lab at MIT, and Prof. Dr. Ann Pearson’s lab in Harvard University in the USA. In addition, I also talked about some latest results with my former supervisor Dr. Xiaolei Liu in Roger’s group. To summarize, the GRS and GRC are an unforgettable conference and I will exert myself to my work on geomicrobiology. I would like to thank GLOMAR for financial support.