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- AGU Fall meeting 2017
AGU Fall meeting 2017
December 11 - December 15, 2017, New Orleans, USA
Summary
The AGU fall meeting (AGU hereafter) is the largest Earth and Space science meeting worldwide with more than 20000 participants. It took me some time to get settled, but after I had gotten an overview over venue and program, I really enjoyed the ample opportunities for networking and for seeing talks from subjects other than mine. I gave a talk about my PhD research and had interesting discussions afterwards. Other highlights for me comprised talks of First Nation members and an interview with Dan Rather, one of the world's most renowned journalists.
Activities & personal benefits
Being the world's largest Earth & Space science meeting, the number of opportunities for me was manifold. I had made a schadeule of talks/posters I wanted to see before. However, when I arrived, I felt quite lost amongst this vast conglomerate of people and languages from all over the world, poster and oral sessions, keynote talks, side events, exhibition booths and and and. But after getting an overview over all the possibilities, I could lter out the events which I found most interesting.
For example, I had the chance of attending sessions where First Nation members reported about their research and their ways of dealing with the rapidly changing Arctic environment. I also attended a session about science communication where I heard inspiring talks. I especially liked this because science communication is important to me personally. For my talk, I also got good feedback. One of the co-authors of the paper which a part of my thesis builds on was there. We had a good and helpful discussion after my talk. Another highlight for me was an interview of Dan Rather, a journalist who has interviewed every US president since Eisenhower. He talked about his views on how to best encounter the climatic challenges which we are facing. Apart from science, it was a big social event. I met a number of people who I knew from my undergraduate studies. I could also talk to several renowned scientists from my own eld of sea ice remote sensing. It was a very interesting experience to see such a big meeting and to see how it is organised. Last but not least, I also enjoyed New Orleans as a city very much. The lively streets with music and arts everywhere were something which I had never seen before in this fashion and which really impressed and amazed me. All in all, it was a scienti cally, socially and personally formative experience for me and I am grateful to ArcTrain for having made this possible for me.
Valentin Ludwig