CREEPers are active in EGU

It is the largest Geoscience conference in Europe that gathers Earth scientists from all around the world. This year the EGU (European Geophysical Union) took place in its historic venue, Vienna. Many CREEPers (Gabriel, Jana, Gianluca, Wen, Thomas, Manuel, Beatriz, Lucan, and Giacomo) presented their research, either as posters or oral talks in different sessions. The specific talk and poster titles can be found here.

For many CREEPers the EGU was not their first larger conference, but Lucan joined the CREEP project just one year ago. It was his first EGU. Vienna and the EGU form an exciting environment, ground for cosmopolitan wanderers and harbour for new collaborations. The wide and luminous halls buzz with the latest discoveries, shared informally while enjoying a cup of coffee. When it comes to talks, the huge variety of disciplines offers so much inspiration, that one often finds her or himself running along the corridors to attend  that other interesting sessions as well. Indeed, you could find the CREEPers all scattered in the labyrinth of science provided by the EGU, with many opportunities to discuss their work with notorious scientists. The EGU is one of the best chances to get thorough feedback!

EGU is not only a big conference. It is also the chance of staying in a European capital, rich in culture, art and amusements. Vienna is lively and welcoming. As we CREEPers did, take a day or two out after the conference to visit the many museums the town has to offer. Manuel and Giacomo warmly recommend the Natural history Museum, which has an impressive collection of minerals! 

Outreach

Lucan Mameri and Manuel Thieme welcomed Yohel, a 14 year old high-school student, to show a bit of the daily life in a scientific laboratory and their perspectives as PhD students. The CREEP’ers introduced Yohel to some research topics concerning the CREEP team at Geosciences Montpellier, the machinery the lab uses, and talked to him about their own experience to be early-stage researchers. The visit was part of a one-week internship for pupils experiencing the professional world and exploring their aptitudes. For more information, check the article on the outreach page. https://creep-it.gm.univ-montp2.fr/outreach/relating-scientific-live-school-children/.

Academic secondments

Giacomo spent the past three months in ETH (Zurich) for his academic secondment. He has been collaborating with Antoine Rozel and Taras Gerya to develop a numerical model able to reproduce the nonlinear viscous processes observed in his experiments (performed in Durham). What mostly impressed Giacomo was the possibility to meet every week with visiting scientists whose work is relevant to his research. ETH is a crossroad for Earth scientists and cradle of some of the trendiest branches of research.  It has been an inspiring experience that changed his point of view and improved his critical knowledge on his studies.

Currently, Wen is doing his secondment at the University of Bristol. He is working on anisotropy in sandstone and salt, while collaborating with Michael Kendall and Philipp Prasse. It was almost two years ago since we had the short course in Bristol, the city hasn’t changed much, but we are approaching the end of the project now. ‘Wonderful times go fast’, said Wen.

Edited by Giacomo, Linfeng, Philipp and Wen