From 1st to 5th of May the 28th International Polar Conference was held in Potsdam and stood under the motto “Polar regions, Climate change and Society”. During the normally bi-annual meeting, the Polar Conference offers a platform open to all reseachers and interested layperson. Scientists, students, educators and others with interests in the wider cryosphere came together discussing projects, outreach activities and how to “motivate” new generations of polar researchers. Special evening lectures address the interested public.
This years venue was the science park „Albert Einstein“ on the renowned Potsdam Telegrafenberg. About 180 participants were on site, a third of them were Early Career Researchers (ECRs). In total there were about 80 presentations and 60 posters.
Our board as well as many of our members were present at on site. As in previous years, APECS Germany has contributed to the conference in various ways.
Workshop for ECRs: The “bumpy road to publish a paper”
To kick-off the conference, the APECS Germany board organized a workshop on “the bumpy road to publish a paper”. Participants learned about publishing peer reviewed articles and, most importantly, had the opportunity to ask questions and exchange thoughts. What is the publication process like from the editors’ point of view? What are typical problems? Why is an article rejected?
For answering such questions, we invited two experienced editors. We would like to thank Jens Turowski (Associate Editor Earth Surface Dynamics) and Donovan Dennis (Co-chief-editor Polarforschung) for answering our questions and sharing their valuable insights regarding the publishing process. With more than 25 participants and based on the feedback we got: this workshop was a great success and it was really nice to organize a workshop in person again!
APECS Germany during the conference
During the conference, APECS Germany was present with a small but very busy booth. Besides showcasing our recent and planned activities, our conference stand turned out to be a starting point for many discussions during coffee-breaks. Thank you for your interest, we hope to share more information about our upcoming projects soon! We also found time to not only meet some APECS members for the first time in-person, but also to chat with our ex-officios or even co-founders. Since APECS Germany is now around for several years, it is always exciting to connect with people, who shaped our network at another time.
Many of you were also present at our ECR social gathering on Monday evening. What a great opportunity to enjoy the beautiful Potsdam weather and to have some after-hours refreshment on campus. Many thanks to the AWI Potsdam Dok-Team for Co-organizing this.
Besides all this networking, let’s not forget about the many exciting scientific contributions to the conference. For most ECRs it was the first in-person conference in a very long time. Shoutout to our board members Lena Nicola and Erik Loebel who had one of their first in-person conference presentations.
Finally, we would like to thank the DGP for organizing this meeting and for inviting APECS Germany to contribute to the organization. We are already looking forward to the next Polar Conference in about two and a half years. In the following you will find a picture gallery with some impressions of mentioned activities.
