Wit & Wisdom

Conferences – so near and yet so far

Iris van Zelst December 6, 2017

Everyone attending their own conference?
Credit: University of Haifa Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library

Attending conferences is expensive and time consuming, so going to all the conferences relevant for your research topic(s) is an impossible mission. One solution might be to attend (parts of) conferences remotely. Suzanne Atkins, postdoc at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, discusses the pros and cons of remote conferencing. Last month the Geological Society of London live-streamed their celebration of 50 ...[Read More]

The quest of a numerical modelling hero

Iris van Zelst November 15, 2017

Let's kill the ~~bugs~~ dragons and save the ~~code~~ princess!
Credit: Wikimedia commons: Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello

Numerical modelling is not always a walk in the park. In fact, it resembles a heroic quest more often than not. In this month’s Wit & Wisdom post, Cedric Thieulot, assistant professor at the Mantle dynamics & theoretical geophysics group at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, tells the story of his heroic quest to save the princess from the dragon clear a code from bugs and shows ...[Read More]

Poster presentation tips

Iris van Zelst October 11, 2017

(Part of) Charitra Jain’s poster at NetherMod 2017 on the generation of primordial continental crust

Being a scientist is more than just doing research and science. You also need to be able to communicate your findings to your peers and/or the general public (outreach). At conferences, you usually have two options for presenting your work: a talk or a poster (although at EGU, you also have the PICO sessions). A poster is often preferred if you would like to start a discussion and get lots of feed ...[Read More]

Why there should (not) be more women in geodynamics

Iris van Zelst September 20, 2017

More women in geodynamics? I don't think so.
Credit: Pixabay

Nowadays, equality is cool. Everyone is always going on about how women and men should get the same opportunities. In science, and hence, geodynamics, women are still a bit behind men for both historical (women only recently started graduating more in exact sciences) and unconscious-bias reasons. Therefore, there are lots of programs in order to stimulate women to go into science and, more importa ...[Read More]