Mirco Wölfelschneider

The 9th Conference for Young Marine Researchers (YOUMARES) 2018 took place in Oldenburg at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität from the 11th until the 14th of September. The Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch, where the icebreaker took place, and the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), one of the main hosts supporting the team under the coordination Ferdinand Esser, did a great job in offering young researchers working in the marine field a stage to communicate and exchange their science. With more than 30 announced talks, more than 40 announced posters, and roughly 250 participant all together, the YOUMARES in 2018 keeps growing and exceeded the last years numbers again.

The topics in the 19 sessions covered a vast array of topics from “Could citizen scientists and voluntourists be the future for marine research and conservation?”, over “Submerged in Plastic: impacts of plastic pollution on marine biota”, to “Crossing traditional scientific borders to unravel the complex interactions between organisms and their non-living environment”. I was part of the organization one of the more than 20 people trying to keep everything in an enjoyable frame. By chance I also came in the unexpected, but nevertheless very pleasant, situation to get involved in hosting the Open Session together with some colleagues. Even so the research is already very internationally based, another very pleasant surprise was the great number of participants from at least 15 different countries all around the world. In the end the three best talks and posters have been awarded with a voucher of Springer each and small collections of little presents provided by a variety of sponsors. The talks I could listen to, the posters I have seen, the session I ended up hosting, and the all the people I met, was all over again a great experience I happy to have been part of. But this is not all the YOUMARES offered this year in Oldenburg. 11 workshops including “How to turn science into a story?”, “Visit to the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) campus and the public aquarium in Wilhelmshaven” and many more were conducted for the participants. Screen-printing for T-Shirts, bags, and all other kinds of clothing offered by Jessica Schiller and Philipp Laeseke was additionally on the agenda, as well as the legendary “After-Conference-Clubbing” on the last evening.

The next years YOUMARES will take place here in Bremen from the 24th until the 27th of September. At that occasion Viola Liebich, Simon Jungblut, as two of the founding organisers and the main organisers over the years, and the YOUMARES itself with celebrate its 10th year of existence. I can only emphasise each and anyone who would like to get involved by presenting a poster, giving a talk, or helping in the organization team!