|
President ContactPresident's Message
Fall Meeting 2011: One for the record books
20 December 2011
Every December for the past 44 years, something very special has happened in the world of Earth and space science — AGU's Fall Meeting — and 2011 was a very special year indeed.
For the first time in Fall Meeting history, attendance passed the 20,000 mark--22,167, to be exact. Attendees hailed from 94 countries and 29 percent of them were students. For five straight days, the City of San Francisco became the 'City of AGU'. Clerks at area hotels wore 'Welcome AGU' buttons. Local restaurants and grocery stores Tweeted greetings to meeting attendees. For blocks around the Moscone Center, the sidewalks teemed with a sea of pedestrians wearing AGU badges. And inside the Moscone Center, the excitement was palpable.
As president of AGU, I felt privileged and honored to be a part of it all.
While there were hundreds of inspirational and notable moments throughout the week, a few stood out for me personally…
- Best-selling author Simon Winchester gave an outstanding presentation at the inaugural Presidential Forum.
- Astronaut and AGU member Andrew Feustel's lecture on the "Adventures of a (Geoscientist) Astronaut: Nuts, Bolts, and Repairs in Earth Orbit" was inspiring, as was Hiroo Kanamori's lecture on "Bridging the Gap between Science and Practice in Seismology –Lessons from the 2011 Tohoku-oki Earthquake."
- Following her well-attended Union Agency Lecture on "Predicting and Managing Extreme Events", Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator and Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, officially released the agency's new scientific integrity policy during one of our more than 20 press conferences (read the press release). This was particularly timely given that AGU hosted a Town Hall earlier in the week to solicit member input on updating and revising our own policy on scientific integrity.
- We honored 79 of our colleagues for their outstanding contributions to geophysics. This included the first presentation of our new Climate Communications Prize, which is sponsored by long-time AGU member and Fall Meeting exhibitor, Roy Young and his wife Rosa Venezia of Nature's Own (read the press release).
- We had a visit from former Vice President Al Gore, who attended the Earth Observations from the L1 session on Thursday, 8 December. In addition to making some brief remarks during the session, he also took the time to meet with the AGU Executive Committee afterward (read the Eos story).
We featured a robust scientific program of more than 6,000 oral presentations and more than 12,000 poster presentations. There were more than 20 Town Hall meetings, and a variety of workshops covering topics such as: communicating climate science; navigating the NSF system; communicating with Congress; and improving networking skills. Also, we also hosted events like Exploration Station, a family science event designed to showcase AGU science, and the 2nd annual AGU Fun Run, where nearly 500 participants added a little physical exercise to the week’s mental exercise regimen.
We increased the programming targeted to student members by adding a breakfast, a career networking lunch, a social mixer, and special Section/Focus Group events specifically designed to encourage student involvement. Also, we continued our Bright Students Training as Research Scientists (BrightStaRS) program, which provides a forum for high school students to present their own research results in a dedicated poster session. And this year, for the first time, we asked AGU Fellows to volunteer as mentors for the program and to shadow the students for parts of the meeting.
We added several new technologies in 2011 to improve the overall Fall Meeting experience. There was a mobile app and increased video on demand offerings. We also added a new ePoster portal that allowed authors to display an electronic version of their poster on the Fall Meeting Web site and engage in dialogue with those who viewed it. By the end of the meeting, 2218 posters had been uploaded!
News from the Fall Meeting was disseminated in many different forms as well. We had more than 150 journalists register for the meeting and news outlets around the world carried hundreds of their stories. We also had more than 30 bloggers actively covering the Fall Meeting and, at last count, there had been more than 8000 tweets using the Fall Meeting hashtag – #AGU11.
CEO Chris McEntee, President-elect Carol Finn and I met with leaders of eight scientific societies* to advance existing collaborative agreements or to establish new ones. I also met with a group of Korean Earth and space scientists who would like to establish a Korean Geophysical Union modeled after AGU. These partnerships help us to promote common objectives on behalf of our members and our science.
In addition, we also announced the creation of a new award, the Space Weather and Nonlinear Waves and Processes Prize, which recognizes cutting-edge work in the fields of space weather and nonlinear waves and processes, and is being made possible by a generous contribution from AGU members and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) California Institute of Technology scientists, Bruce Tsurutani and Olga Verkhoglyadova (read the press release)
As we close out the books for 2011, and begin looking forward to 2012, I want to thank all of those involved in planning and organizing the Fall Meeting for helping to make this the largest and most successful event in AGU's history. Without all of your hard work and dedication, none of this would have been possible. I also want to thank our attendees for making the pilgrimage to San Francisco to share their science and learn from one another. You are helping to carry out AGU’s mission of "promoting discovery in the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity".
Make sure to mark Thursday, 6 December through Monday, 10 December 2012 on your calendars for next year's Fall Meeting! Also, please give us your feedback on the 2011 Fall Meeting, since each year we try to improve the program to better meet your needs.
I look forward to seeing you again in San Francisco in 2012. In the meantime, I wish you all a happy holiday season and a safe and prosperous new year.
Mike McPhaden
*Asia Oceania Geophysical Society; Asociación Latinoamericana de Geophysica Espacial; Brazilian Geophysical Society; Chinese Geophysical Society; Ethiopian Geophysical Union, International; European Geosciences Union; Geological Society of America; Japan Geosciences Union