EGU Blogs

Divisions

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Living IN the Greenland ice sheet: the story of Sites I and II, Camp Century’s older, smaller siblings

January 21, 2022
Living IN the Greenland ice sheet: the story of Sites I and II, Camp Century’s older, smaller siblings

Greenland, cold as it is, was appropriately front and center in the Cold War. Strategically placed between Europe and North America, the United States sought to maintain and enhance its position on the island so that American missiles and bombers were in striking range of many Soviet targets. Soviet bombers and missiles coming toward North America would streak over Greenland making early warning c ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – The Wild Card

January 21, 2022
The Sassy Scientist – The Wild Card

Abasi really is in the final stretches of his PhD voyage. It’s time to pick the external member of his panel. This role is always a wild card: it could make your viva experience either a 1-hour short ego booster, or a 5-hours long living hell of questioning. He ponders: Who to choose as your external PhD committee member? Dear Abasi, Lots of variables to consider here, and potentially lots o ...[Read More]

TS
Tectonics and Structural Geology

The power and pitfalls of compliments

January 19, 2022
The power and pitfalls of compliments

Part of a good workplace vibe is good contact between colleagues, as well as good contact between you and your supervisor – or between you and your supervisee. A potentially complex ingredient is the power of compliments. Compliments, per definition, are meant well. However, they can backfire enormously, when they are not received in the spirit in which they are meant. Additionally, part of being ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

Continental drift in academia

and January 19, 2022
Continental drift in academia

After spending about three decades in the hustle-bustle of Asian megacities, I landed up in a quiet European town to continue my research work as a postdoc. When you know you will not meet your family soon in person, you know that you will not get the food you love and, the climate that has guided you in the sun and shadow will be very different; you may expect a life struggle. Yet, people have di ...[Read More]

SM
Seismology

seismoART: Visualising earthquakes through their ground motions

January 17, 2022
seismoART: Visualising earthquakes through their ground motions

Martijn van den Ende, a Postdoctoral research fellow at Université Côte d’Azur, takes us through his seismoArt project – a new and colourful way of visualising the ground motions of earthquakes!   First of all: how does it work? Imagine that you have an incredibly steady hand, holding a pen, and a piece of paper on a table. Once you put your pen on the paper, an earthquake happens ...[Read More]

AS
Atmospheric Sciences

Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives

January 15, 2022

Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. In this week’s blo ...[Read More]

CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives

January 14, 2022
Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives

Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. In this week’s blo ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

The Sassy Scientist – The Dark Side (No … Not The Moon One)

January 14, 2022
The Sassy Scientist – The Dark Side (No … Not The Moon One)

Onnem is a big fan of a certain movie franchise about intergalactic space travel, heroism and self-development (with scenes that are depicted not very close by, and which did not occur recently *wink *wink). He smirks: Is there a dark side to obtaining a PhD? Dear Onnem, I think you’ve been spacing out a little too much these days. You’ve actually got things backwards: obtaining a PhD ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives

January 14, 2022
White print on pavement with parent holding kid by the hand

Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. In this week’s blo ...[Read More]

Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology

Challenging racism in the geosciences

January 13, 2022
Challenging racism in the geosciences

The hard truth is, that the geosciences are among the least diverse disciplines in the wide fields of the natural sciences. When we look at the time span from 1973 to 2016, we find that 14,246 PhD degrees were given to white men, while “only” ~5234 were earned by white women in the US. These numbers are already quite shocking, but I promise you it will even get worse: a total of only 163 PhD degre ...[Read More]