This is to support the Graduate Climate Conference (GCC) to be held at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, November 1-3, 2013. The goal of the GCC is to provide a discussion forum for graduate students undertaking research on climate and climate change in an array of disciplines, including atmospheric, biological, earth and ocean sciences. Each year participants share new techniques and avenues of research, discuss recent findings and their implications, and consider the major questions in the future of climate research. The format is designed to encourage new climate scientists to become acquainted with the details of diverse areas of climate research and to place their own research in the broader context of the climate science community. This opportunity allows graduate students to familiarize themselves with the breadth of climate science as well as the enormous range of tools available to help answer complex questions. This opportunity allows graduate students to familiarize themselves with the breadth of climate science as well as the enormous range of tools available to help answer complex questions. Approximately 90 graduate students selected through a competitive process, will attend the GCC. Applications from mathematics and physics departments, with the goal of stimulating an interest in climate science problems in students who may not have considered this field before.
The 2013 Graduate Student Climate Conference was held on Nov 1-3, 2013 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. There were 106 participants (46 percent of whom were female), including some from overseas. The program, running from Friday afternoon to noon Sunday, consisted of nine talk sessions (generally one and a half hours long) and three mixed-discipline poster sessions. The conference was single-session format, allowing all participants to attend all talks, and attendance was abut evenly split between speakers and poster presenters. The primary objective of this conference was to expose graduate students in the climate sciences to the full breadth of science, and relevant policy, through the eyes and work of their peers. The absence of older, more established, scientists encouraged brave questioning during and following the tallks, and facilitated the development of peer collaborations that will serve the progress of the climate sciences well for decades to come. The conference provided students with an opportunity to deliver a conference length talk in front of a friendly and broad audience of their peers. Each student was provided with a full list of the email addresses of the participants, to facilitate further collaboration. The abstracts of all talks have been published on a website, http://gradclimateconf.mit.edu/abstracts.
