Email: h.v.turner@pgr.reading.ac.uk
Thanks to Hannah Bloomfield, Ambrogio Volonte, and Matthew Lang for photos.
The EGU General Assembly took place from 8th to 13th April 2018 in Vienna and a large group of PhD students and staff from Reading attended. EGU is a large conference covering most areas within geoscience and over 10,000 people attended in all, making it rather overwhelming for a first timer!
Each day consisted of five 1.5 hour sessions, interspersed with coffee breaks and lunch. The final session every day was devoted to posters, providing a great opportunity to discuss work and network.
There were many sessions on offer, it was sometimes hard to choose between them. There were oral presentations, posters, and PICOs. I found the PICO sessions an interesting concept. They started with ‘2 Minute Madness’ when all the presenters introduced their topics before the audience were invited to visit the interactive screens to discuss with the presenters. Particularly interesting sessions for me were those on internal gravity waves and forecasting the weather.
Several of the PhD students who made the trip from Reading had talks during the week and the rest had posters. My poster was included in the final session on Friday when everyone was winding down. I was part of the mountain meteorology session and my poster covered the effects of vertical wind shear on gravity wave drag in the Antarctic region. I found it to be a valuable experience as I was able to discuss my work with experts in my field.
Of course it would be a shame to travel all the way to Vienna and not see the sights! As well as having some shorter breaks during the week, I was lucky enough to have the Saturday to explore in the glorious weather before flying back in the evening.
The Social Metwork 