We are glad to open our seismology advent calendar with this blog! Welcome to the State of the ECS, where our ECS members reflect on the year.

Hello! Katinka here, writing from a snowy Zürich. Days are shorter, many layers of clothes are needed, and the last scientific effort before Christmas is being pushed for, because 2023 is ending! We as ECS have had a wonderful year, and I’m so happy to see how our team has expanded with many new enthusiastic members. Even now in September, two more members joined our team to help on the blog side: Alex and Aron! They’ll introduce themselves in this blog. I’ve had a productive year working on many fieldworks with fiber-optics (blog posts will follow soon! 😉 ), and I’ve had a great time meeting all of you at EGU. I want to thank all the members of our team for their fantastic contributions this year, I feel like we are really growing. I wish the reader a merry Christmas, happy end of the year and hope to see you all submit your abstracts for EGU24 in January!

Hi there, Dinko here.Last time we spoke after the EGU GA, I expressed my excitement about the new members joining our team. I’m thrilled to report that our new team members have been making remarkable contributions, and our team is going really well. On a personal note, I’m currently going through the stressful time of applying for new postdoc positions as my current one is coming to an end. So my days are filled with sending emails, crafting motivational letters and research statements and admittedly, sometimes facing those dreadful “we regret to inform you” responses. But as they say, c’est la academic vie! Luckily I have our Job Portal to always be aware of recently advertised open positions.
And finally, our team has been busy preparing an engaging Advent Calendar for this year. So get ready for a festive countdown filled with entertaining and interesting seismo content.

New academic year, new position, new projects, new duties and aspirations! This is how the last months of my life and career can be summarised in a few words. As I started my new postdoctoral appointment at University College London, I am obviously enthusiastic for this beginning and the opportunities that emerge by working in one more different place throughout my career. Opportunities that come always with a cost, as another academic relocation shows that we should collectively count steps, as scientific community, in order to ensure that the early-career path is accessible to everyone, not only those who can afford its cost, either financial or personal. Being part of the EGU Seismology ECS group is always crucial, in order to see the big picture and understand our role in the broader adventure of science. This is necessary to carry on and a good reason to make efforts for making this group’s contribution more impactful. In personal level, these were some good reasons to accept an invitation to continue Dinko’s legacy as Seismology’s ECS representative after the next EGU General Assembly. In addition, I chose to open more widely the discussion on topics related to our career development, by participating as a candidate on the ongoing EGU elections for our next Union-wide ECS representative. However, I am mostly eager to realise the goals that we set in our group. Stay tuned to see what I mean, or even better join us and be part of it!

Hi all! I’m Alex, and I’ve just entered the second year of my PhD at University College London (UCL). I’m working on applying machine learning (ML) techniques to improve and speed up probabilistic seismic source inversion. Having come from a physics and ML background, learning about seismology and becoming involved in the field has been a fascinating experience. I was fortunate enough to join the UPFLOW (https://upflow-eu.github.io/) recovery expedition, collecting Ocean Bottom Seismometers from the mid-Atlantic, right at the start of my PhD. Having pulled the instruments out from the ocean floor, cleaned them and checked the data quality with my own two hands, I now have the fun of grappling with the data in Python. Couldn’t have done that in physics!I’ve joined the EGU Seismology ECS team to help continue the ML blogs and become more involved in the community. I’m always on the look out for ML applications seismologists are interested in, so if you’ve got an idea for a blog, drop me a line!

Hey, it’s Aron! Here’s my 2023 Update: I developed a method to quantify if the magnitude distribution of earthquakes is changing, went to EGU (obviously), sat a lot in front of my computer programmed, struggled quite a bit but finally defended my research plan successfully. Apart from that I enjoyed my first summer in Switzerland, put some focus on language learning and practiced a couple of new songs on my Ukulele. The most important items on my to-do list for this year are: eat a lot of roasted chestnuts and don’t miss any Christmas party. Wish me luck!

Hi! It’s Laura Reilly, Reflecting on 2023 it has been a very busy year! I started my new role as Community Seismology officer at DIAS in Dublin in March. One of the pivotal moments so far was attending my first geophysics conference (EGU) one month after I began my new role. It was an invaluable experience, offering insights, networking opportunities, and exposure to cutting-edge research in the field. I joined the SM group after attending and I have been assisting the social media and blog teams I have been busy organising public events and workshops, and distributing Raspberry Shake seismometers to my Quake Shake community.  As the holiday season approaches, I find myself reflecting on the whirlwind of a year that has passed, what a journey it has been! From the bustling early days of setting up my outreach program, Quake Shake, to its official launch in November. Beyond that, being a part of the SM committee added an extra layer of joy to my professional life. Collaborating with the blog and social media teams, I had fun crafting engaging content, from blogs detailing the excitement of the Geo Movie Cup to crafting eye-catching posts for Instagram and Twitter. As I wrap up the year, I’m eagerly anticipating what the new year will bring and im looking forward to what we will produce in 2024. Wishing everyone a Nollaig Shona Duit (Merry Christmas in Irish) and a Happy New Year!

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