Visiting an international conference as a Master’s student

In July, the International Conference on Seafloor Landforms, Processes and Evolution (ICSLPE) was held for the second time. This year it took place on the beautiful island of Lipari. 

My name is Luisa Rollwage and I am a Master’s student of geophysics at Kiel University. During my bachelor thesis, and as a student assistant in the working group Marine Geophysics and Hydroacoustics, I have been working on submarine geomorphology for the last few years. I was happy to hear about the aim and scope of this conference, as it covered exactly my interests and provided a great opportunity to present my work to experts in the field. The working group made it possible for me to attend this conference with the help of additional funding from the FYORD Travel Grant and the Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Geophysik. 

With around 100 participants, the ICSLPE is a rather small conference, allowing young to senior scientists to discuss their work in a very personal and accessible environment. As most of the participants were at PhD or more senior career stages, at first it felt a bit like entering a community where most people already knew each other. But as everyone was very welcoming and friendly, likely supported by the shared research interest of all participants, the overwhelming feeling quickly disappeared. I was also lucky to know some familiar faces from research cruises and the BridgET summer school, which was very helpful in socializing. I enjoyed talking to many scientists during and after the conference and learning about their different career paths, interests and expertise.

The conference was held over three days, with daily poster sessions, and only one oral session at a time. I appreciated this format as it gave everyone the opportunity to hear all the talks. The short, 8-minute duration of talks helped to stay focused throughout the day. The small size of the conference made it easier to talk to other participants after a session, as you were constantly walking past them in the venue or in the small town of Lipari anyway. During the impressive conference field trip, we explored the geology of the islands of Lipari and Vulcano from a boat. A highlight was definitely walking on an active volcano and seeing a volcanic crater for the first time. These trips showed me once again how experiencing these landscapes in real life changes our perspective on the data. And as a nice and surprising treat, both Etna and Stromboli had major eruptions while we were there!

At the conference I gave a talk about the volcano-tectonic deformation along the potentially unstable flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano (La Palma), focusing on a semi-automated GIS workflow I used to identify tectonic deformation. Presenting your own work in front of experts can be intimidating because you have to expose yourself and your work to feedback and, potentially, criticism. However, I found that conferences help you practice defending your work and become more confident in what you are doing. I am grateful to have received positive feedback on my work. As I am aiming to apply for a PhD position after finishing my Master’s degree, I am happy that I got an overview of different topics, institutions and experts in a scientific field that is interesting for my future. I would recommend this conference to any scientist (or student) working on submarine geomorphology, especially those who want to network more within this small community. All in all, this conference fulfilled my expectations and I therefore consider it a success. 

Luisa Rollwage

Impressions from the Society of Experimental Biology (SEB) Annual Conference

My name is Smilla Tetzlaff and I am currently conducting my Master’s thesis in Dr. Meike Stumpp’s lab in the Kiel University Zoological Institute. I studied biology for my Bachelor’s degree in Kiel before enrolling in the Marine Biology Master’s program at the University of Bremen. My Master’s project focuses on the digestive processes of sea urchin larvae. More precisely, I want to investigate if sea urchin larvae are able to use laminarin (an abundant polysaccharide, or sugar, in the world’s oceans) as a source of nutrition and what impact it has on their fitness. 

Together with several members of our group and affiliated working groups, I attended the annual conference of the Society of Experimental Biology (SEB). This year, the conference year took place in Prague at the beginning of July. The conference itself was organized into three sessions (cell, plant, and animal) with interesting talks throughout the week, bringing together around 700 participants. I attended a lot of fascinating presentations and got the chance to give my first-ever talk at a conference. Here, I presented the main findings of my master’s project. 

Going into this event, I was really nervous, especially about presenting my own work for the first time being in an early stage of my research career. I never attended such a big and diverse conference before and it surpassed all expectations I had. The five days we spent in Prague were not only filled with interesting presentations but with much more. I learned a lot about a diverse range of research topics and scientific communication. Even though it was quite a lot of input to take in from all the talks, it was a really inspiring experience. The evenings were always filled with time to relax, nice dinners and good talks over Czech beer. It was great to talk about the research I’ve been conducting for the last nine months and to receive both feedback and expertise on my topic from other scientists. It also was an incredible feeling to be part of the scientific community.  Everyone that I got to meet and encounter at this conference was super friendly and interested, creating a really nice environment. Overall, it was an amazing experience. I hope that I can attend the conference again in the following years and would highly recommend it to everyone and especially ECRs. 

Smilla Tetzlaff