I realize the last blog post I completed on Journeys of Dr. G was from my summer trip to Alaska in 2016. That was a fantastic time, and I do hope to go back there someday! Unfortunately, my remainder of 2016 did not quite go as planned.

I did make it to the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, at the end of September. While there, I gave a talk in a Women and Geology session titled Who Am I? Just a Female Geoscientist Taking #365scienceselfies. I also chaired a session on Implementing Discovery-Based Research Experiences in Undergraduate Geoscience Courses and Curricula, a follow-up from the National Academy of Science convocation where I was a co-organizer. Unfortunately, my talk was scheduled the same time as the session I was to co-chair! I had some very understanding session co-conveners that were willing to fill in for me as I zipped across the convention center to give my talk, then zip back to finish out the session. I also blogged about the 2016 GSA Presidential Address: Mission-Driven Geoscience over at my GeoEd Trek Blog with AGU.

At the GSA meeting, I wasn’t feeling so well. Turns out I came back and a month later, I was in the hospital for surgery (on Halloween!). Fortunately, I was able to gain my strength back and felt well enough to head to the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco in December. I was extremely happy that my husband was able to come along with me – turns out that I wasn’t as healthy and as strong as I thought I was (and he knew this, of course, and knew I was stubborn enough to try to do this meeting alone and without any support). Note to self – health comes first, there will always be conferences later!

At AGU, I wrote blog posts that focused on summarizing keynote lectures and other sessions of interest:

• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – Prince Albert II of Monaco
• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – 2016 Arctic Report Card
• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – a science pep rally by Gov. Jerry Brown
• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell
• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – Extreme climate events from 2015
• Dr. G’s #AGU16 Spotlight – Marcia McNutt and Convergence in the Geosciences

I also presented two posters – It Starts with a Hashtag… the #365scienceselfies Project and Developing Student Science and Information Literacy through Contributions to the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Wiki – presented on a panel that was the AGU-JpGU Great Debate: Geoscience and Society. Below is the description of the panel:

The 21st Century witnessed an apparent increase of large natural disasters. In fact, it has been reported that the total amount of damages from 2000-2009 was five-times larger than that from 1980-1989. It seems that the global population increase and rapid urbanization has made the natural disasters more complex in nature. In such a context, what is the role of geoscientists? How can we motivate the younger generation to study the geosciences? We anticipate a particularly stimulating session, as it will investigate a situation that is playing out in two countries with different educational and societal contexts.
The first Great Debate session was held at JpGU 2016 and was mainly Japan-oriented, with some U.S. insights, and most of the panelists came from Japan. The second session, at AGU’s 2016 Fall Meeting, is mainly North America/U.S.-oriented, with some insights from Japan, and most of the panelists coming from North American.

My fellow panelists included Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University, History of Science, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA; Yoshisuke Kumano, Shizuoka University, Graduate School of Science & Technology, Shizuoka, Japan; and Peter B Kelemen, Columbia University of New York, Palisades, NY.

I also mentored an undergraduate student attending AGU for the first time and a graduate student interested in science communication, while presenting as part of the GeoCUR workshop on how to get started in undergraduate research. (yes, even as I type this, I realize this was way too much to take on right after surgery!).

But 2017 has gotten off to a much better start health-wise. There are of course more conferences and events to blog about – with some fun things planned along the way! More posts from the first half of 2017 coming soon….