Thank you all for an amazing EGU General Assembly (GA) this year! If you missed EGU26 or some of the events we organised, here’s a recap so you can stop wondering how it went and get an idea of what to expect next year and connect with us through our channels to stay updated.
Part of the ECS Team that attended the GA26 onsite. From left to right: Chethan Çağatay, Michela, Marius, Barbara, Leire, Kiana (Picture courtesy of Kiana Karimi)
As in the past years, we started our GA with the online division meeting before the general assembly to present the G-Division strucure and give an overview of our activities. We updated the division structure as the team is growing. We are excited to introduce our new ECS Co-representative, Michela Ravanelli, who has taken over the role from our outgoing ECS Co-representative, Öykü Koç. Here, we want to express our great gratitude to Öykü’s work over the past years within the Geodesy Division and their efforts for the ECS community union-wide. Öykü initiated many blog post series and implemented regular online and in-person events during the General Assembly, which strengthened our community and we will continue to organise in the future. We introduced the new ECS team members who have and will continue to write this blog, coordinate our social media, and host our regular campfires and onsite Pop-up networking events. Our representative, Marius, will continue to organize together with Michela and the entire team these events and extend our community efforts.
In Vienna, we started the EGU26 week with the pre-icebreaker as usual, but this year we decided to expand the number of divisions involved a bit more, partly to engage with other fields and explore the interdisciplinarity of our division. It took place on Sunday, when early-career scientists from the Geodesy (G), Geodynamics (GD), Planetary Sciences (PS), and Solar-Terrestrial Sciences (ST) divisions gathered at CopaBeach.
Left: Pre-icebreqker at Copa Beach (Picture courtesy of Marius Schlaak); Right: Geodesy Fika on terrace G (Picture courtesy of Barbara Jenny)
Yes, this spot became a kind of permanent location for our pre-GA meet-up. We plan to continue this event every year, so we would love to see you there next year. Let your colleagues know, especially those new to EGU, as it builds a great foundation for a successful and fun week. Following the icebreaker, many attendees headed to the EGU Opening Reception at the conference venue, marking the official start of EGU26.
The momentum continued on Monday morning with the Geodesy Fika, a social gathering held in the EGU networking zone. Geodesy Early Career Scientists convened at the terrace G (our usual spot 🙂) to enjoy a coffee break and connect with each other. It was a vibrant atmosphere, with discussions ranging from research interests to expectations for the General Assembly.
Short Course Geodesy 101 (Picture courtesy of Barbara Jenny)
The short course Geodesy 101, convened by Rebekka Steffen, Eva Boergens, Martin Sehnal, and Anna Kłos, was on Monday lunchtime this year, and it was a great success as it attracted many researchers from all divisions, satisfying their hunger to get an overview of geodetic concepts ranging from GNSS and coordinate transformations to the analysis of gravity data. Have you thought about broadening your horizon across disciplines? The 101 short courses are offered by various divisions and can offer you easily understandable insights into many disciplines. If you are interested, we recommend you take the time to check them out at next year’s GA.
ECS Dinner on Monday night (Picture courtesy of Michela Ravanelli)
Monday had even more events for the Geodesy ECS – a joint dinner. Fortunately, we were able to extend the number of spots available compared to last year, allowing us to fill an entire floor! Isn’t it fantastic to have so many ECSs together? If you attended, we would love to hear about your experience so we can work on improvements for next time and don’t forget to tell your new colleagues to join us next year!
The first couple of days at the GA were packed with social events, from union-wide ECS networking events to division-specific ones. This year, the “Women in Geodesy” coffee break was quite a success on Tuesday, where we discussed equity, diversity, and inclusion in geodesy. We ended the day with the IAG reception, which has been a wonderful addition to the GA’s geodesy program for many years. If you missed registering, sign up to our mailing list to be informed immediately when the registration opens next year.
IAG Reception on the top floor of the BEV in Vienna (Picture courtesy of Barbara Jenny)
Last year’s GA, we introduced a special session in Geodesy G0.1, in a panel discussion format, titled “Geodesy – From Invisible to Essential,” to raise awareness of the importance of geodetic products. After the great interest, we moved this year’s special session, G2.1 “Streamlining geodetic research for policy – how can we utilize the Essential Geodetic Variables (EGVs) for easier engagement and communication“, into a large room, where the community discussed how to take action, support and shape policy decision processes. This was an amazing highlight of the Geodesy community in this year’s GA week.
Another highlight of the week was, of course, the medal lectures: the Vening Meinesz Medal Lecture by Frank Flechtner and the G Division Outstanding ECS Award Lecture by Eva Boergens. Bringing together the implementation of satellite gravimetry missions and their processing to userfriendly data products to a variaty of applications.
Top left: ECS award lecture of Eva Boergens; Bottom left: Medal lecture of Vening Meinesz medalist Frank Flechtner; Right: Frank Flechtner and Eva Boergens (Pictures courtesy of Holger Steffen)
These events, including this blog, are community efforts. Thank you very much to all of you who participated in these events, making the EGU26 a special experience for all of us. We want to continuously improve these events for the community, and it is important for us to give you an opportunity to participate actively and to receive feedback from you, the community. So please let us know if you have feedback on past events or suggestions for future events.
Snapshots from GeoVision (Picture courtesy of Christina Orieschnig)
Ideas are always welcome and with your support we can archieve great experiences together. One very sucessful example is the GeoVision which happened for the first time this year and attracted hundreds of people celebrating music together! This event idea grow from our Division and is implemented together with the ECS task group for outreach and communication! Reach us to contribute, give feedback, and give us new ideas!
We are looking forward to seeing you again in Vienna next year. In the meantime, stay updated with us in the community via this blog and our social media channels, and listen to and discuss with us online in our monthly campfires.
-Edited by Geodesy ECS Team
