Sophie Paul
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Sophie Paul about her participation in the Underwater Mining Conference 2017 in Berlin, Germany from 24 to 29 September 2017
From September 24th to 26th I attended the UMC 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The conference is very specialized on deep-sea mining but covers many different disciplines within this field. Stakeholders and presenters from industry, environmental management, monitoring services, and research came together in Berlin and presented a broad range of topics. The conference is relatively small compared to other large research(only) conferences I attended earlier this year, such as the ALSO and Goldschmidt. The atmosphere is, however, much more personal and familiar because many participants know each other for years.
The conference started with an ice breaker where one could already start networking. Two days of so-called technical sessions followed, with presentations and a poster session. The first day focused on technological advancements as well as latest information about the three deep-sea mineral resources: polymetallic nodules, ferromanganese crusts, and seafloor massive sulfides. It was very interesting to get new insights into latest industrial activities and advancements, since this information is also crucial for tailoring my own environmental research work. I also presented my PhD work in a talk titled “Geochemical assessment of heavy metals in nodule mining disturbance sites: implications for standard development and monitoring”. From conversations during the coffee breaks after my talk, I also got feedback from participants outside of research that the environmental studies we are conducting are very helpful and informative for their future work and that collaborations between the different stakeholders should be improved and deepened. This was a positive vibe to take away from the conference because I think collaborations within science and other disciplines is crucial for successful projects and open communication.
The UMC 2017 was a very interesting conference and offered the chance to meet many new people, some of who one does not find at the usual other geo-/marine science conferences. In addition to that, it was nice to meet again colleagues from other research groups and conferences and to see that three years into my PhD my network is growing. I am grateful for funding I received from GLOMAR and the JPI-O Mining Impact project through the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research.
