Meeting of Young Researchers in the Earth SciencesYoung Solid Earth Researchers of the World Unite!
EOS Transactions AGU (85(16), 160, 2004)
In early January 2004, one of us attended a workshop on "science priorities and educational opportunities that can be addressed using ocean observatories." The attendees constituted a broad group -men and women, scientists, engineers, educators, representatives from the private and public sector- but lacked diversity in at least one important aspect: age. A well-known marine geophysicist (with a published record stretching over 30 years) came to me at the ice-breaker party and said (and I paraphrase): "I'm glad you're here: you're young, you might actually see this project flourish before you retire. There're not enough young people here." At some point or another, every young scientist may have a similar experience.
However many hours one spends in solitary confinement in the lab or behind a desk, science is fundamentally a social activity. Community-building needs to happen early on in the career of a young researcher. Meetings like the popular AGU Fall Meeting are often too massive to get to know many new colleagues. More focused meetings like the Gordon Conferences tend to attract senior scientists first, not only in attendance, but in meeting-room dominance as well. Young oceanographers and atmospheric chemists are the lucky ones; with the Physical Oceanography Dissertation Symposium (PODS) and Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS), they have a forum focused on recent Ph.D.s.
However, the Meeting of Young Researchers in the Earth Sciences initiative (MYRES) attempts to provide a similar framework in the solid Earth sections of AGU. Here's how the recently funded proposed activity works, and how you -young solid-Earth geoscientist- can benefit from it. The MYRES "manifesto" lists its aim as "to further science by accelerating the growth of an interdisciplinary, international, open, and unbiased community of colleagues who interact regularly to informally exchange ideas, data, and tools, and formulate new collaborative research projects." A biennial conference series for junior scientists in geochemistry, geodynamics, mineral physics, seismology, and related solid Earth fields is the first step. The first MYRES conference will be held 12-15 August 2004 in La Jolla, Calif., and will focus on the topic, "Heat, Helium and Whole Mantle Convection." The meeting will be small, with fewer than 100 attendees selected on the basis of a brief statement. Almost all travel and lodging costs will be provided by the National Science Foundation.
At a MYRES meeting, young specialists will educate each other about the issues each of their disciplines can address in the format of a summer school. What you should hope to gain from this is a broader understanding, new ideas for your own specialized research, and new multidisciplinary research initiatives. The workshops are targeted specifically, but not exclusively, to the "younger" members of the community, whatever their age, from senior graduate students to junior faculty. Hence, an environment will be created in which fundamental problems such as mantle plumes or the cause of the K/T mass extinction, assumptions, and paradigms can be openly discussed without submitting to entrenched views. Peer-reviewed keynote lectures by junior faculty or senior post-docs will provide an overview of the current state of a sub-discipline, the key assumptions inherent therein, and the degree to which constraints should be considered "hard" or "soft".
The special environment that MYRES will provide and its grass-roots approach will relax some of the limitations and obstacles to cross-departmental interaction of junior scholars that may exist; not least, by supporting conference fees and travel support for all students. Beyond the individual meetings, the MYRES Web site will provide free access to all instructional material and serve as a community resource year-round.
After its first meeting, the focus of each subsequent MYRES conference (if it continues to be funded) will be to review and discuss another major outstanding problem in Earth science. Each MYRES will be organized by two chairs having a two-meeting tenure; they will decide on the meeting's theme and topics, and will -and this is important- be in charge of promoting MYRES' spirit and adhering to the ideas set forth in the MYRES proposal. Meeting chairs will not convene sessions, but will pick discussion leaders from different disciplines for each day. With their specialist knowledge, these conveners can then either select keynote speakers or give the review lectures themselves.
The first MYRES meeting will have a deep Earth theme, as outlined above, but the scientific focus for each conference will be chosen anew from within the range of issues arising in the solid Earth sciences. Although the topic of each MYRES meeting will have to be sufficiently interdisciplinary and be of general importance to draw a wide range of attendees, it should also be sufficiently focused so that a comprehensive exploration of the constraints and issues at stake can be achieved in just a few days. A fully democratic process with unrestricted submission of conference proposals and a voting scheme after the initial two MYRES meetings will be established. Following the initial deep Earth meeting, the second MYRES -funding permitting- will focus on a crustal dynamics/plate boundary theme, to make sure that the initial two conferences reach as wide a cross-section of the solid Earth community as possible.
MYRES is not intended to replace "traditional" or "professional" conferences; all of us recognize the need for young researchers to defend their ideas before a senior audience. We believe, however, that there is significant scientific, educational, and cultural value in a self-organized gathering of young scientists sharing ideas and challenging dogma.
Solid Earth science won't be what it used to be once MYRES gains momentum through your participation. Watch this space, and go to www.myres.org for more information or to www.myres.org/myres1 to sign up.
Authors
Frederik J. Simons, Princeton University, N.J.; Thorsten W. Becker, University of California at San Diego; James B. Kellogg, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Magali Billen, University of California at Davis; Jeanne Hardebeck, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.; Cin-Ty A. Lee, Rice University, Houston, Tex., Laurent G. J. Montési, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mass.; Wendy Panero, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Shijie Zhong, University of Colorado at Boulder. |