Resources for Student and Early Career Attendees
Student and Early Career Scientist Conference
AGU will host the 6th annual Student and Early Career Scientist Conference the day before Fall Meeting begins, Sunday, 8 December! This year's theme will be "Tackling Grand Challenges: An Early Career Scientist Perspective." This is a ticketed event, so prospective attendees must purchase a ticket when registering for Fall Meeting. The registration fee is $40. Space is limited so be sure to register early.
More details, including the conference agenda, are available on our Fall Meeting workshops page.
Note: Tickets for this event can be found through the attendee registration process under "General Workshops."
Register and join us at Fall Meeting 2019
Join us in San Francisco as we celebrate our Centennial and bring together our diverse community of Earth and space scientists.
RegisterConference schedule
Location: Parc 55, Cyril Magnin Ballroom L4
08:00 – 08:45 a.m. Registration
08:45 – 09:30 a.m. Welcome
09:30 – 10:30 a.m. Panel discussion
Science Technology for Geoscience in the Past, Present, and Future
Rapidly evolving technology will continue to shape scientific research of urban environments to the ocean floor to the depths of space. Its influence on development will have global impacts. In this session, we ask what does this mean for early career scientists and how can we use these to advance the geosciences?
Elizabeth MacDonald - Space Weather Scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Rolf Hut - Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology
Shane Glass – Program Manager, Google Cloud Public Dataset Program
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. Coffee Break and Gallery Walk
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Morning Breakouts (Choose 1 of 6)
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Afternoon Breakouts (Choose 1 of 6)
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Networking in Practice and Preparing for the Centennial Stage (see below for list of activities and special breakout session)
Workshop breakouts:
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Working with Communities to Solve Local Challenges (a.m. and p.m.)
Join AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange staff for this workshop to learn and practice the skills needed to build effective relationships with communities to address critical local needs in climate change, natural hazards and natural resources. In this workshop Thriving Earth Exchange staff will help participants identify barriers to co-creation of science and teach ways to overcome these barriers, provide concrete strategies that scientists can employ to make community science projects a success, and teach participants how to scope community science projects through hands-on interactive activities that allow them to practice strategies and techniques. -
Speaking Up: How Bystanders Can Change the Conversation in STEM (a.m. and p.m.)
Ever wondered “Why didn’t I say something?” after witnessing bias? Deciding whether and how to respond to bias is complicated. Attendees will learn about what motivates people to speak up, the challenges faced when doing so, and strategies for effective responding. PowerPlay Interactive Development’s team of improvisational actors will provide scenarios for discussion and practice intervention. -
How to be an Effective Mentor and Mentee (a.m. and p.m.)
Mentoring (and being mentored) is an important component of the growth and development of students and early career professionals. However, many of us have never been trained how to do it effectively. In this session, you will learn the fundamentals of effective mentoring relationships and practice practical skills to improve your current mentor-mentee relationship through engaging activities. You will also become familiar with AGU’s mentoring resources. -
Handling Data: Data Management Techniques (a.m. only)
A picture is worth a thousand words – especially when trying to find relationships and understand your data, which could include thousands of variables. In this session, we will learn how to keep track of and process data to effectively convey information to our audiences. -
Science Communication Fundamentals: An Interactive Tour (a.m. only)
What’s the value of doing science communication (scicomm), and what are the essential skills you need to do it effectively? In this highly interactive workshop, you’ll learn more about how to: develop your own scicomm goals; connect with your target audience (including journalists and policy makers); recognize and reduce jargon; tell science stories to humanize yourself and your research; and develop compelling and memorable messages that you can tailor to your audience of choice. -
Drafting Journal-Ready Manuscripts: Best Practices (a.m. only)
Publishing peer-reviewed papers is a well-known and grumbled about metric for success of graduate students. For many it determines your post-grad school career path, where you may be judged based on publications. Submitting journal-ready manuscripts is a practiced skill, not an innate one, here we hear from journal editors on what makes a good journal paper and their best practices. -
Machine Learning Applications in the Geosciences (p.m. only)
With rapidly evolving technologies and growing volumes and varieties of available data, there is a need to cheaper, faster, and more accurate computational processing. Systems can learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions through machine learning (ML) with minimal human intervention! In this session, we will learn about commonly used ML algorithms and how to apply them in our research in geoscience. Attendees must bring a laptop to the training.
Chaopeng Shen – Associate Professor, Penn State University -
“Yes, and …”: Applying Improv Theater for Science Communication (p.m. only)
Scientific research is not complete until it is communicated to the scientific community and shared with the general public. While you know everything about your research, not everyone else does. As the expert in the room, your challenge is to effectively communicate your science based on a variety of factors such as your audience and location. While this can be daunting, it can become far less intimidating by applying a few simple strategies. Join this engaging workshop to learn how improv theater techniques may help you to successfully communicate your science. No previous theater experiences required!
Gifford Wong – Research Staff Member, IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute -
Writing Track: Grant Proposals and Manuscripts (p.m. only)
The point of a grant award is impact rather than the money! So, the real point of a grant proposal is to rally the necessary resources to help the nonprofit fulfill its purpose. Get to hear straight from the source about what it takes to set apart your proposals and manuscripts from others.
Natasha Udu-gama - Senior Specialist for the Thriving Earth Exchange, AGU
Caitlyn Hall - Graduate Research Associate, Arizona State University and AGU Thriving Earth Exchange Fellow
Stephanie Goodwin - Director of Faculty Development and Leadership, Wright State University
David Kayne - University of New Hampshire, PowerPlay Interactive Development
Andria Ellis – Education and Community Engagement Specialist, UNAVCO
Jorge Ramos – Associate Director for Environmental Education, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford University
Petrus van Oevelen - Director, International GEWEX Project Office; Principal Scientist, Universities Space Research Association
Shelley Stall – Director of Data Program, AGU
Colin Smith – Associate Info Processing Consultant, Environmental Data Initiative (EDI), University of Wisconsin
Olivia Ambrogio - Sharing Science Program, AGU
Shane Hanlon - Sharing Science Program, AGU
Robert Pincus, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
Randy Townsend - Senior Program Manager of Publications, AGU
Marilyn Meadows - Program Manager of Publications, AGU
Joel Gongora – Data Scientist, Elder research analytics and data mining consulting
Dapeng Feng – Graduate Research Assistant, Penn State University
Yuhan Rao – Postdoctoral Research Scholar, North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, North Carolina State University
Christopher Hayes – Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi
Holly Barnard - Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
Corrina Gries - Principal Investigator, Environmental Data Initiative (EDI)
Leonardo Regoli - Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan
Networking session
During the afternoon Networking Session, there will be many opportunities to refine the professional skills you have learned throughout the day. You may sign up for a Grand Challenge Presentation in the Centennial Central Theater, get your professional headshot taken, connect with a mentor, and much more! There will also be a bonus breakout session during the afternoon Networking Session, "Scrutinizing Science: Peer Reviewing Manuscripts."
Scrutinizing Science: Peer Reviewing Manuscripts (3:30 – 5:00 p.m., during afternoon Networking Session only)
Peer reviewers are the unsung heroes of publishing research. While oft complained about, their role is to ensure that new research or ideas hold up to the scrutiny of experts in the field. Scientific progress depends on trusted information and without peer reviewers, low-quality manuscripts may reach the broader scientific community and degrade the perception of scientific rigor. In this session you will learn to navigate the peer review process and how to become an effective peer reviewer yourself to foster a strong geoscience community for this and the next generation of researchers.
Mike Liemohn - JGR Space Physics
Laurent Montesi, Editor-in-Chief, JGR Planets
Ben Bond-Lamberty, Associate Editor, Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Marilyn Meadows, Program Manager, Publications, AGU
Applications are open!
Evaluation criteria and requirements
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1Be a current AGU student member
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2Be an enrolled high school student, two- or four-year undergraduate student or graduate student at an accredited academic institution
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3Have successfully submitted an abstract prior to filling out your travel grant application. You must include your abstract reference number on the application
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4Be a first author presenting a paper or poster at Fall Meeting
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5Demonstrate sufficient funding resources to cover your meeting registration and travel expenses
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6Demonstrate strong scientific merit in your abstract to application reviewers from your Section
Applications are now open!
Eligibility and requirements
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1Be enrolled in high school or undergraduate studies
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2Be interested in exploring or pursuing a career in energy and environmental science
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3Submit an abstract before submitting the scholarship application
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4Include a personal statement in your application describing how the scholarship will further your career goals
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5Include a recommendation letter from a professor or research advisor
Apply for the Berkner Travel Fellowship
Evaluation criteria and requirements
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1You demonstrate sufficient resources to fund expenses (meals, local travel, and incidentals) and can be reimbursed after the meeting
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2Your application demonstrates a clear understanding of how you will make the most out of the Fall Meeting experience
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3Your submitted (or Meeting) abstract demonstrates scientific merit
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4Special consideration will be given to female applicants
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5Special consideration will be given to those who have never traveled to the United States
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6Special consideration will be given to those who are in their final year of their degree program
- Eligibility for Berkner Fellowships is limited to AGU members under the age of 35 who are citizens of countries designated by the World Bank as “low” or “lower-middle” income per capita.
- You must also currently reside in a World Bank “low” or “lower-middle” income per capita nation and not be currently studying in the U.S. Your country of residency does not need to be the same as your country of citizenship.
- You must have submitted an abstract prior to the travel grant application and be able to provide the abstract reference number. You should be first author presenting a paper or poster at an AGU Meeting.
- Recipients attending in-person: In-person attendees must provide documentation confirming that the US is authorizing travel from their home country and that Covid-19 travel regulations allow them to attend the Meeting. Recipients will be reimbursed for all costs associated with attending the Meeting. Eligible expenses include meeting registration, hotel accommodations, airfare, visa fees, poster printing fees, and personal expenses. AGU will coordinate airfare and hotel accommodations for recipients.
- Recipients attending virtually: A grant in the amount of $1500 USD will be disbursed to reimburse costs associated with virtually attending the Meeting. Eligible expenses include purchasing or renting technology (WiFi hotspot, laptop, laptop accessories, computer software), transportation to access technology, housing to access technology, dependent care, unpaid leave/lost wages, etc. An additional $1000 USD will be disbursed to cover educational expenses (tuition, program fees, housing, loans, transportation, personal expenses).
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Student volunteer program
Participating in the Student Volunteer Program is a great way for students to get a behind-the-scenes look at how AGU manages such a large meeting while also earning free student registration for at least eight hours of volunteer time.
Applicants are not guaranteed a volunteer position. Only a few dozen positions are available, and volunteers are selected based on their suitability for the available positions.
Please note that the Research Vessel Sally Ride Docent Volunteer Program requires a 12-hour commitment and has a separate application form. See below for more details.
Contact AGU if you have questions about this program.
Apply for a Student Volunteer position
Deadline for applications is 24 October, 11:59 p.m. ET.
Apply nowSee available student volunteer positions
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