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- Graduate School GLOMAR
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- Conference Reports 2013
- Nanne van Hoytema
Nanne van Hoytema
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Nanne van Hoytema about his participation in the 8th International Conference on Coelenterate Biology in Eilat, Israel, 1 - 5 December 2013
Since my colleagues and I were performing our field work in Aqaba, Jordan at the time, it seemed like a great opportunity to attend the International Conference on Coelenterate Biology which was being organized in Eilat, Israel just across the border. This conference, which was organized for the first time in ten years, brought together scientists from all fields of coelenterate biology: from physiology and ecology to molecular biology, virology, and genetics. The main focus of the conference seemed to be the tropical coral reefs which are also found offshore of Eilat, but there were great talks on Mediterranean corals, cold water corals, ctenophores, and fresh water cnidarians such as Hydra.
My personal field of work is the area encompassing ecology and physiology. The conference provided me with many presentations in that area with sessions every day on ecophysiology and the process of biomineralization. Especially this process which is performed by corals through calcification was something of which I learned a lot during the conference with many presentations going into the cellular processes and impacts on it by climate change. Besides my own area, there were great presentations on the holobiont, or metaorganism, theory in which the coral is seen as an agglomeration of the animal, zooxanthellate symbionts and associated microorganisms. Two of these talks were given by Bette Willis from James Cook University, Australia and Thomas Bosch from the University of Kiel and were, besides being very interesting, prime examples of excellent presentation skills.
My own presentation on carbon fixation by primary producers in a Red Sea fringing reef went very well. This conference with its relatively small scale (200-300 participants) was an excellent location to give a first presentation at an international conference. The setting was relaxed and the atmosphere was very friendly. Even though the conference was in the middle of our field work, I felt I had been able to prepare enough and my presentation was well received with some interesting questions afterwards.
An additional activity of the conference was a visit to the Inter University Institute in Eilat, a marine science field station. Having worked on the Jordanian side for seven months, it was very interesting to see the Israeli station and how they worked in comparison. Of special interest was their new climate change set up in which they are able to simulate future scenarios for ocean pH, temperature etc. this computer regulated set up uses robotics to continuously monitor and adjust the conditions in the experimental units.
Overall, my attendance at the conference was a great addition to my PhD. I gave my first conference presentation, I learned a lot of state of the art research, and I met many scientists both in my own field and from the larger coelenterate biology community. I want to thank GLOMAR for funding my attendance at this conference.
My personal field of work is the area encompassing ecology and physiology. The conference provided me with many presentations in that area with sessions every day on ecophysiology and the process of biomineralization. Especially this process which is performed by corals through calcification was something of which I learned a lot during the conference with many presentations going into the cellular processes and impacts on it by climate change. Besides my own area, there were great presentations on the holobiont, or metaorganism, theory in which the coral is seen as an agglomeration of the animal, zooxanthellate symbionts and associated microorganisms. Two of these talks were given by Bette Willis from James Cook University, Australia and Thomas Bosch from the University of Kiel and were, besides being very interesting, prime examples of excellent presentation skills.
My own presentation on carbon fixation by primary producers in a Red Sea fringing reef went very well. This conference with its relatively small scale (200-300 participants) was an excellent location to give a first presentation at an international conference. The setting was relaxed and the atmosphere was very friendly. Even though the conference was in the middle of our field work, I felt I had been able to prepare enough and my presentation was well received with some interesting questions afterwards.
An additional activity of the conference was a visit to the Inter University Institute in Eilat, a marine science field station. Having worked on the Jordanian side for seven months, it was very interesting to see the Israeli station and how they worked in comparison. Of special interest was their new climate change set up in which they are able to simulate future scenarios for ocean pH, temperature etc. this computer regulated set up uses robotics to continuously monitor and adjust the conditions in the experimental units.
Overall, my attendance at the conference was a great addition to my PhD. I gave my first conference presentation, I learned a lot of state of the art research, and I met many scientists both in my own field and from the larger coelenterate biology community. I want to thank GLOMAR for funding my attendance at this conference.
