Ancient landscapes, like these recorded as crossbedding in sandstone along the Colorado River, are examples of many topics addressed at AGU.
The crowds were so thick at Fourth and Howard, with scientists in all four crosswalks simultaneously, that traffic came to a halt, the traffic signals seemingly insignificant. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting was back in San Francisco, with thousands of earth, atmospheric, climate change, and other scientists attending from around the globe. They were rushing to sessions ranging from how climate change affects the mountains to the recent Samoan tsunami to nitrogen deposition from the air.There were sessions on the early earth, the earth’s core, planetary plasma, earthquake faults, glaciers, oceans, water tables, and a multitude of other topics.
Over 16,000 scientists attended the AGU 2009 Fall Meeting.
Like most scientific meetings, scientists at AGU present their work either as short illustrated talks in a lecture session, or as posters in a poster session. In either case, a scientist is relating their latest work to an audience of scientific peers in the same or a related field, with a few interested parties from other areas and perhaps a sprinkling of the science press.Generally, the presenter represents a scientific team, funded by a group of universities as well as government institutes and agencies. After a lecture presentation, a scientist generally fields a few questions, which may simply seek more detail, or they may be critical in nature.
Scientists gather at poster presentations in the AGU exhibit hall.
Poster sessions take place in a large hall, with many occurring simultaneously, and colleagues gather at various posters, presenting, discussing, and arguing above the din.In addition to these formal sessions, scientists bump into each other on the way to sessions, or plan to get together for coffee, lunch, at special events and group meetings, even at reunions, tossing ideas back and forth and catching up on scientific and personal news.
AGU makes a large commitment to informing the public by hosting a dynamic press room and holding press conferences in which experts discuss breaking scientific news. The conferences begin with concise presentations and then the floor is opened to questions from the press. Press conferences this year include Groundwater Loss in California and Beyond, Tracking Greenhouse Gases, and Unlocking the Secrets of Night-Shining Clouds.–Anne M. Rosenthal
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/
Posts
