This is one of a series of blog posts on the Journeys of Dr. G blog for the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting. Feel free to read my posts for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Seems like this happens every year… and it does! For students that had me as a professor in Fall 2014, they know that part of my annual routine when it comes to the “research hat” I wear as a faculty member is attending and presenting at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco (the city the meeting is held in every year). Last year, I blogged about #AGU14 here on Journeys of Dr. G and on my AGU blog, GeoEd Trek. This year, I was especially busy getting prepared for this gathering of 23,000+ scientists from across the globe, with lots of campus activities, getting students ready for their take-home final exams (which I blogged about at GeoEd Trek – with Chipotle serving as the inspiration!). For this week, I’m giving a poster presentation, an oral presentation, leading a lunchtime Town Hall panel, presenting at a workshop, participating in the Sharing Science program and blogging panel, serving as a mentor to two people… needless to say, I’ll be busy! Tomorrow I begin with a full day workshop for Heads & Chairs (details to follow in tomorrow’s post!).

But first, a quick side bar… after my 6+ hour flight from Philadelphia, I landed in San Francisco Airport and was led through a maze of hallways to try to get to baggage claim. When I entered a terminal I had never been in before, I looked up and was “wowed” by what I saw:

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The artwork hanging from the ceilings looked familiar to me. It took some time to find the sign on the wall, but I was pleased to see that I was correct! I recalled that a few years ago, I saw a recorded TED Talk by Janet Echelman titled Taking Imagination Seriously. Seeing how fishing net could be transformed into enormous sculptures that look so light and “flow” so effortlessly… her talk is worth the 9 minutes, as well as taking some time to look up at the San Francisco Airport to see her exhibit Every Beating Second. Why should my students back in Media care? Janet has an exhibit coming to Philadelphia in 2016, titled Pulse! Learn her name now, and be prepare to be inspired!

But now, time to put my science hat on and to start following the hashtag #AGU15 on Twitter! And for my students that are curious to follow the science at the conference, note that AGU has Social Media Guidelines for the conference for what can and cannot be posted online (something I’m seeing appear at more and more conferences – in addition to a conference Code of Conduct and Scientific Integrity/Ethics Policy).