Ocean Sciences 2016: New Orleans

Anna Belcher

NOCS

Ocean Sciences, 2016 in New Orleans was a nonstop week full of great presentations and discussions. As the largest international conference that I have attended (rumours range from 3,000-6,000 attendees!), it was really an amazing experience to be exposed to so much great science! I gave a presentation in the Ocean Carbon Pump session and felt privileged to have had the chance to present amongst such world renowned scientists and I had some really interesting discussions with people after the talk.



Over the week there were a huge number of parallel sessions across a broad range of topics, which after taking a bit of time to figure out exactly which sessions I wanted to attend, really gave me the chance to get up to date with all the exciting new work going on. The spread of talks has really helped me put my work into context within the wider oceanographic setting.  There were some really engaging workshops during the week on outreach and public engagement and I have left with some new ideas to pursue and some new contacts to help me develop my own outreach activities.

 As a final year PhD student, it was great to be able to get my face out there and make some new contacts from all across the globe. Hopefully this will put me in a much better place for finding a job once I get my thesis finished. I would really like to thank the Challenger Society for providing me with a Travel Award to support my attendance.

Profile:

I am a third (and final) year PhD student at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and my work revolves around the biological carbon pump. I look at the processes controlling the rapid loss of particulate carbon in the upper mesopelagic of the ocean, in particular looking at the roles of bacterial respiration and zooplankton.

Twitter:

A fantastic week packed full of stimulating talks, posters and discussions #lovescience #OSM2016