It was a warm and beautiful week in central Europe. Several of us from the PO department had a wonderful time presenting and learning everyone else’s research, while also soaking up a lot of sunshine in Vienna. We were lucky that the weather this year was perfect, and we were happy to see many familiar faces across the pond.

The European Geoscience Union (EGU) general assembly takes place every year around April/May at the Vienna International Centre in Austria – always the same venue. It is a relatively compact space and easy to get around. Many of us were in the Ocean Science sessions – covering the Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Indian Ocean. I was in the Atlantic session on Tuesday, when Senior Scientist Magdalena Andres, Joint Program Student Hiroki Nagao, Postdoctoral Investigator Ali Exley, and I gave talks. Joint Program Student Cora Hersh presented on Thursday, when we also took a group photo.

Personally, EGU is my favorite conference – it covers a wide variety of geoscience and is effectively the AGU equivalent in Europe. But the fact it is at the same venue every year means it is rather predictable, and I like the sense of familiarity in subsequent years. Vienna is also a hub of music and theatre, with its ornate urban landscape reminiscent of the high days as the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Donau Park next to the conference center provides a wonderful place for conference attendees to enjoy sunshine together during the long lunch breaks; there’s a very cute train that operates on a well-defined timetable, as frequently as the Clark-Village shuttle at WHOI. Highly recommend…