“Quo Vadis”, Latin for “where are you going?”, is an annual event held in the Department of Meteorology in which 2nd year PhD students present their work as if they were in an international conference. In addition to providing the opportunity for students to present their research in a professional yet friendly environment, Quo Vadis has an emphasis on where on-going research is heading (as its name suggests). Over the years presenters have always walked away with constructive feedback on their presentation style and scientific work, and occasionally, a new collaboration with someone in the audience!
This year’s Quo Vadis was held on 1st February, 2017. 26 excellent talks covering a wide range of meteorology-related topics were delivered by PhD students in their 2nd year in the one-day event. A full schedule of the event can be found here. The morning sessions covered topics such as Atmospheric Dynamics, Tropical Meteorology and Space Weather, whereas the afternoon sessions focused on Oceanography, Climate Change, Urban Meteorology and Data Assimilation.
Every year a winning talk is selected based on criteria including knowledge of the subject, methods and innovativeness, results, presentation style and ability to answer questions. This has always been a tough job for the evaluation committee formed by staff members, as our students tend to be very good at presenting their cutting edge research!
This year’s Quo Vadis winner is Christoph Kent. He gave an excellent presentation on representing surface roughness in urban areas to determine the vertical wind profile above the surface. Understanding wind in urban areas is essential to stakeholders in sectors such as renewable energy, construction and many more. In addition to the winner, 3 honourable mentions were made. They went to Jonathan Beverley, Thomas Eldridge and Elizabeth Cooper, whose talks were about the influence of Asian summer monsoon on European summer weather, the use of the Temperature Humidity Infrared Radiometer, and the use of data assimilation to improve flood prediction, respectively.
At the end of the event a buffet was served to thank all our speakers and the evaluation committee, congratulate the well-deserved winner and honourable mentions, as well as to celebrate research excellence of the Department of Meteorology. Quo Vadis 2017 was a huge success, you can find out more about the event on our Twitter account @SocialMetwork, or under the hashtag #QuoVadis2017.
