During their PhD time, several POLMAR students take the chance to participate in expeditions to the Arctic or the Antarctic or attend national and international conferences or workshops. Besides the challenge of working under extreme conditions such as low temperature or limited working spaces on research platforms, the learning of new scientific methods and the opportunity to discuss scientific results with colleagues from all over the world make such activities an unforgettable experience. Additionally, the social and intercultural experience broadens the view and may lead to long lasting friendships and networks.

International experiences remain indispensible for being successful in the scientific community. POLMAR therefore strongly recommends, encourages and financially supports applications for participating in international conferences, workshops or seminars that are related to the respective PhD project.

In the following there will be provided some short reports of POLMAR students on recent activities.

The Outgoing Scholarship granted by POLMAR enabled me to spend 3 months at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Hobart, Tasmania. From October 2010 to January 2011, I could work together with Australian researchers. This was of incredible value for my PhD project, as it is about different physical ocean models of which one was developed by an Australian who is still working there. We prepared the necessary data sets together and adjusted the aged model code to new software versions. Communication was amazingly facilitated sitting next door compared to writing emails to persons in a country that is 10 hours ahead in time! Now a tiny version of the model is running, which I could not have accomplished by myself or at least not in that short period. Living in Tasmania was such a gorgeous experience that I didn't actually want to return to Germany.




Archive 2010