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Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences
Kevin Becker
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Kevin Becker about his participation in the Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on Organic Geochemistry, Holderness, NH, USA, 28 July - 3 August 2012
The Organic Geochemistry Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and Conference (GRC) took place between the 28 June and the 03 August 2012 at Holderness School, Holderness, NH, USA.
The GRS was especially organized to provide early-career scientists (graduate students and post-docs) the opportunity to present their latest, unpublished work and to exchange ideas in a highly stimulating, informal atmosphere prior to the GRC. The focus of this meeting was the assessment and application of organic tracers and proxies, as well as the development of analytical techniques leading to new discoveries in organic geochemistry and beyond.
During this seminar I had the opportunity to present my recent findings in an oral presentation, which was selected from the submitted abstracts. My presentation was entitled "An improved analytical method for the analysis of bacterial and archaeal ether lipids" and was held in the session “Analytical advances”. The talks lasted 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion, giving a lot of time for both a broad presentation of a specific field and a discussion of details. The oral presentations were well complemented by poster sessions, during which all participants presented their unpublished work.
The GRS was held in conjunction with the GRC. In contrast to the GRS, the GRC brought together scientists with diverse expertise and perspectives, performing state-of-the-art research in this rapidly developing and dynamic field. However, the number of participants was low compared to other conferences like the International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG), which provided an excellent environment for getting in contact with like-minded people as well as with the experts. The sessions at the GRC were diverse, ranging from new concepts and analytical approaches that advance knowledge in areas including molecular-level to global-scale (bio)geochemical processes involved in organic matter exchange between the biosphere and geosphere to deciphering organic signatures preserved in geological archives in terms of past biological activity and environmental conditions. Presentations were made by invited, leading scientists in the field of organic geochemistry at the core and on the periphery of the discipline. Here, the duration of the talks ranged from 25 to 30 minutes followed by a discussion time of 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the session, giving even more time for presenting and discussing the research of specific fields of organic geochemistry compared to the GRS. All other participants presented their research on a poster. My poster had the same topic as the oral presentation held at the GRS. This allowed me to present the newly developed method for lipid analysis to a broad audience of organic geochemists and resulted in fruitful discussions with scientists from academia and industry.
I strongly recommend GRCs to other students, as these informal meetings with their relaxed atmosphere, framed by social activities, provide an excellent opportunity to get to know leading scientists and graduate students and to exchange ideas about current research issues, which is highly stimulating for one’s own work. After the conference, I also had the possibility to visit the organic geochemistry groups at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woodshole Oceanographic Institute, where I got insights into the research of these leading institutes in the field of organic geochemistry.
I thank GLOMAR for funding for this conference trip. The participation in the conference definitely pushed my research forward, because the GRS/GRC gave me the opportunity to discuss aspects that are relevant to my work with researchers from different disciplines and specializations in the field of organic geochemistry who work on the same or related topics.
The GRS was especially organized to provide early-career scientists (graduate students and post-docs) the opportunity to present their latest, unpublished work and to exchange ideas in a highly stimulating, informal atmosphere prior to the GRC. The focus of this meeting was the assessment and application of organic tracers and proxies, as well as the development of analytical techniques leading to new discoveries in organic geochemistry and beyond.
During this seminar I had the opportunity to present my recent findings in an oral presentation, which was selected from the submitted abstracts. My presentation was entitled "An improved analytical method for the analysis of bacterial and archaeal ether lipids" and was held in the session “Analytical advances”. The talks lasted 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion, giving a lot of time for both a broad presentation of a specific field and a discussion of details. The oral presentations were well complemented by poster sessions, during which all participants presented their unpublished work.
The GRS was held in conjunction with the GRC. In contrast to the GRS, the GRC brought together scientists with diverse expertise and perspectives, performing state-of-the-art research in this rapidly developing and dynamic field. However, the number of participants was low compared to other conferences like the International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry (IMOG), which provided an excellent environment for getting in contact with like-minded people as well as with the experts. The sessions at the GRC were diverse, ranging from new concepts and analytical approaches that advance knowledge in areas including molecular-level to global-scale (bio)geochemical processes involved in organic matter exchange between the biosphere and geosphere to deciphering organic signatures preserved in geological archives in terms of past biological activity and environmental conditions. Presentations were made by invited, leading scientists in the field of organic geochemistry at the core and on the periphery of the discipline. Here, the duration of the talks ranged from 25 to 30 minutes followed by a discussion time of 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the session, giving even more time for presenting and discussing the research of specific fields of organic geochemistry compared to the GRS. All other participants presented their research on a poster. My poster had the same topic as the oral presentation held at the GRS. This allowed me to present the newly developed method for lipid analysis to a broad audience of organic geochemists and resulted in fruitful discussions with scientists from academia and industry.
I strongly recommend GRCs to other students, as these informal meetings with their relaxed atmosphere, framed by social activities, provide an excellent opportunity to get to know leading scientists and graduate students and to exchange ideas about current research issues, which is highly stimulating for one’s own work. After the conference, I also had the possibility to visit the organic geochemistry groups at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woodshole Oceanographic Institute, where I got insights into the research of these leading institutes in the field of organic geochemistry.
I thank GLOMAR for funding for this conference trip. The participation in the conference definitely pushed my research forward, because the GRS/GRC gave me the opportunity to discuss aspects that are relevant to my work with researchers from different disciplines and specializations in the field of organic geochemistry who work on the same or related topics.
