San Diego, California, United States
PROGRAM: Oceanography

I attended the Ocean Sciences Meeting on 17-21 February 2020, in San Diego, California. The Ocean Sciences Meeting is the flagship conference for the ocean sciences and the larger ocean-connected community. More than 4,600 attendees from around the world presented and shared their research findings about the world’s oceans. During this five-day conference, I was able to attend different oral and poster sessions and learn about a wide range of researches. Meanwhile, I seized this great opportunity to meet colleagues and old friends, as well as explore the beautiful city.

My PhD dissertation is focused on how the Arctic carbonate system and biogeochemistry dynamics respond to warming and accelerated sea-ice loss and relevant air-ice-sea physical environmental changes. At this meeting, I presented the results of my second chapter of my dissertation “Summertime evolution of net community production and CO2 flux in the western Arctic Ocean” to people with different background. I was encouraged that a lot of people I met at my poster showed great interests in my Arctic carbon cycle research and they provided a lot of constructive and thoughtful comments. Talking with other professionals in the related field was incredibly rewarding. One of the challenges I met in my study was to explain the biogeochemical process from a perspective of physical oceanography. Instead of reading the published articles, I have met and learnt directly from the author, who was working on the current circulation in my study area. That was a wonderful moment when your hypothesis was confirmed by an expert in this field.

I really appreciate the support of Graduate Student Travel Award. Attending the Ocean Sciences Meeting was unforgettable and beneficial experience for my PhD journey and my pursuit of a career in academia.