MARUM Research Academy

From September 7 to 11, the European Association of Organic Geochemistry hosted the 32nd biennial International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry in Porto, Portugal. This year’s meeting brought in 500 participants from all over the world, contributing posters and oral presentations covering diverse topics ranging from the paleoclimate reconstruction of marine and terrestrial environments to the re-evaluation of analytical methods in geochemistry to advancements in the generation of petroleum and gas.

Coming into this conference, I felt uncertain and anxious, because this was my first conference in this field. I had many worries: Would I feel like an outsider? How would my research measure up? However, when I got there, I immediately felt very welcomed by my other colleagues who were attending. I had the opportunity to present my poster entitled, “Holocene climate and vegetation changes on the Tristan da Cunha Islands of the South
Atlantic”. During my poster session, it was nice to see and talk to so many others in similar positions in their career as myself, hear about their progress and their struggles, and see the work that they were presenting. I thought it was also very helpful to be able to discuss my research with others who were further in their careers, who offered advice, questions, and suggestions that early allowed me to reflect on my work and how it could be improved.

Beyond my poster session, however, I also enjoyed several series of oral presentations and plenaries, of which my favorite was, “Environmental Concerns: Petroleum & Plastics”, a topic quite different from my own research focus. This session highlighted research that is being done on microplastics and their impact on different ecosystems, and I found it to be quite eye-opening and inspiring.