Attending my first international conference as a PhD student
One of the most exciting experiences for a PhD student is attending their first conference to present their initial research findings. I finally got this chance in April 2024, when I joined the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2024 in Vienna, Austria.
Every year, Vienna hosts the largest gathering of geoscientists in Europe – the EGU General Assembly. This international conference brings together scientists from all scientific disciplines and specialisations related to the geosciences, from ice core science to seismology to Earth and space sciences and many more. Last year, this conference attracted almost 20,000 participants – and one of them was me!
The journey begins
Around 10 PhD students from my lab – the Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement in Grenoble, in south-east France – decided to go to EGU24. Our journey started in the afternoon at the train station in Grenoble. From there, we took a train to Geneva, Switzerland, where we boarded a direct night train to Vienna. The train station in Geneva was full of other scientists who had the same plan to reach the EGU. They were easy to identify as most of them were equipped with poster tubes to safely transport their scientific posters to the conference.
The first impressions
After arriving in Vienna and spending Sunday exploring the city, the 5-day conference started on Monday. When arriving at the venue I was stunned by the sheer size of the conference centre. The interior was filled with industrial booths advertising the latest instruments and measurement techniques or demonstrating new exciting software solutions (see picture below). The program ranged from scientific sessions on specific topics, and interactive workshops, to great debates and major Medal & Award lectures.
Deciding on the scientific format
Each participant could submit a short abstract for the conference (mine is available here: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-18855) and decide whether to give a short 10-minute oral presentation in one of the scientific sessions or to present a poster. As I had never presented a poster before and I liked the idea of having a poster as an outcome of this conference, I chose the second option.
The poster session
On Tuesday it was finally my turn to present my poster in one of the large halls dedicated to the poster sessions. For the next two hours, I could explain my work to interested people. I was quite surprised by the number of people who came up to me and showed an interest in my poster. While some of them were working on very similar topics and wanted to exchange in more detail, others came from completely different backgrounds and just wandered around the exhibition hall and were listening to different poster presentations that interested them.
Looking forward to the next one…
Overall, it was a great experience for me to attend EGU24 as my first large international conference and to have the chance to present some of my work during the poster sessions. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the networking with other people in the same field, learning about exciting science outside of my own discipline and having the opportunity to explore a new city in addition to all the science. I am already looking forward to my next scientific conference!
Find out more about my research project here.
