From December 11th to 15th 2023, the American Geophysical Union held its annual meeting in San Francisco, California. The meeting reunited more than 25.000 scientists from more than 100 countries to share their research.

Awarded a mobility grant from the IRTG, PhD candidate José Vicencio Veloso was able to participate in the conference in a poster session, presenting its research related to the Atacama Desert and rainfall, now in review at the JGR Atmosphere Journal.

According to Vicencio, this was one of the best conferences ever attended, especially considering the good organization and the high level of discussions. Every day, thousands of researchers presented their posters in a room the size of a stadium in two different shifts (from 8:30 to 12:30 and 13:00 to 17:00).

Part of the special aspects of the conferences is making connections with researchers from other countries, sharing new research topics, and discussing potential future works. As a foreign researcher, Vicencio also met his old colleagues, friends, and supervisors from the Universidad de Chile and Universidad de O’Higgins after almost 3 years abroad.

 Author: José Vicencio Veloso

The IRTG fellowship provided me with the opportunity to work with the entomological collection from the Atacama Desert, housed at the University of Cologne, throughout the year 2022. These samples and facilities were essential for the completion of my PhD thesis project, which focuses on diversification and evolutionary patterns in coleopterans from the southern Atacama Desert. The results obtained during my time in Cologne were presented at the Chilena Entomological Society Annual Meeting 2023 in Chile, and I am currently preparing a publication on Gyriosomus diversity, which will be the first publication stemming from my thesis.

My stay in Cologne was a stimulating experience that afforded me the opportunity to work within the AG-Predel research team, renowned for its significant contributions, and to share with fellow PhD students from the other CRC1211 clusters.

Author: Simón Anguita

Fig 1: Impressions about my stay in Cologne Photo: Simón Anguita		Fig 2: Impressions about my stay in Cologne Photo: Simón Anguita
Fig 3: Presentation of the results obtained during my time in Cologne at the Chilena Entomological Society Annual Meeting 2023 in Chile Photo: Simón Anguita

From Jan. 22^nd to Jan. 27^th 2023 a joint group from ETH Zürich and University of Zürich held the 15^th winter school on light- and electron-microscopy. Awarded with a mobility grant from the IRTG, PhD candidate Niklas Wehmann was able to participate in a one-week intensive training to study the state of the art 2D and 3D electron imaging techniques. The program consisted of daily theoretical and practical units.

From the initial choosing of what sample to analyze, through the entire (complex) preparation for the various techniques, the imaging itself and lastly (3D) processing, the course covered the entire process of obtaining high quality 2D/3D image data.

With networks built and tool kits enhanced, Niklas is now eagerly looking forward to applying the new knowledge to his research within the CRC 1211. With the studied techniques he is now able to investigate the intricacies of mineralogical nanostructures even deeper, revealing some clues of how large landscapes are shaped.

The teaching staff included member of both universities as well as from the industry, while participants flew in from all of Europe or even further away.

Author: Niklas Wehmann