Let’s move onto another amazing researcher and ECS, Öykü Koç, who is involved with ‘Skype a scientist’, an educational nonprofit with a focus on connecting people with science in fun and meaningful ways, making science education available and engaging for everyone. Öykü Koç (she/they) is a PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano (Italy), with her research focusing on the time-variable gravity field ...[Read More]
Hi Simon, thank you for sharing your story with us and the geodesy community! First, can you give us your ‘classical work intro’ so that we get an idea of where you are working and what your field of interest is? I am currently working at Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)’s Earth Observation Centre (EOC) as a working student, while at the same time studying for a Master’s degree at T ...[Read More]
Researchers working in STEM fields who also belong to a minority group face more challenges than their more privileged colleagues. Take Maryam Mirzakhani for instance; she was the first woman and the first Iranian to receive the Fields Medal. But along that path, she quietly overcame a lot of barriers on her journey- from being a child during the Iran-Iraq war to educational inequalities and the u ...[Read More]
Today, we are going to talk a little bit about dual-use, particularly in the context of geodesy. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, dual-use refers to the application of knowledge, information, data, products, or technology in ways that may deviate from their original scientific intent, often leading to ethical challenges. These challenges arise from the lack of control over who uses the da ...[Read More]
Think of a geodesist. What names come up in you? What do they look like? Do they have glasses? Is their hair short or long, grey or blonde? What’s their country of origin? Can you imagine them wearing a dress? And how come so many of them run marathons? I’m joking, but hopefully you get the picture. Geodesists, especially the ones in power positions, are not the most diverse bunch of people. Since ...[Read More]
Hello, it’s us again! Coming back from the holidays, there couldn’t be a more fitting way to kick off a new blog season than by delving into the world of postdocs or to put it more precisely, by stepping into the shoes of a postdoc. As we try to reacquaint ourselves with our daily routines, I think it’s a perfect moment to empathise with those navigating postdoctoral life’s uniqu ...[Read More]
This is a guest post written by Jürgen Kusche, who has convened numerous sessions on various international conferences, and had the wonderful idea to use the geodesy division blog to initiate an open discussion on the topic session convening. For that reason, readers are encouraged to comment at the end of this post. Currently, Jürgen Kusche is professor at the Chair of Astronomical, Mathematical ...[Read More]
Recently, I came across a tiny (10 x 10cm) book called “Ich hab eine Freundin, die ist Geodätin” (“I have a friend, and she is a geodesist”), by Sylvia Schuster with drawings by Dorothea Tust. Virtually all of my colleagues were quite sentimental about this since it was published as a so-called ‘Pixi-book’. And Pixi-books, as I learned, are the de facto story books in Germany to explai ...[Read More]