The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU) play central roles in nurturing the next generation of geoscientists. Students and young scientists make up about one-quarter of the unions’ active memberships [American Geophysical Union, 2013; European Geosciences Union, 2014], creating a major opportunity to include a new generation of geoscientists as more active contributors to the organizations’ activities, rather than merely as consumers

Berghuijs, Wouter

Dogulu, Nilay

Floriancic, Marius

Harrigan, Shaun

Kipnis, Evan L.

Müller, Hannes

Pohle, Ina

Saia, Sheila M.

Sedlar, Frank

Smoorenburg, Maarten

Teutschbein, Claudia

van Emmerik, Tim

Berghuijs, Wouter R.

Institutionelles Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover

Creating Community for Early-Career Geoscientists: Student involvement in geoscience unions: A case study from hydrology

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                          Berghuijs, W., Harrigan, S., Kipnis, E. L.,  Dogulu, N., Floriancic, M.,Müller, H., ... van Emmerik, T. (2015). Creating Community for Early-Career Geoscientists: Student involvement in geoscience unions: A casestudy from hydrology. Eos, 96.Peer reviewed versionLink to publication record in Explore Bristol ResearchPDF-documentUniversity of Bristol - Explore Bristol ResearchGeneral rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the publishedversion using the reference above. Full terms of use are available:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms.htmlTake down policyExplore Bristol Research is a digital archive and the intention is that deposited content should not beremoved. However, if you believe that this version of the work breaches copyright law please contactopen-access@bristol.ac.uk and include the following information in your message:• Your contact details• Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL• An outline of the nature of the complaintOn receipt of your message the Open Access Team will immediately investigate your claim, make aninitial judgement of the validity of the claim and, where appropriate, withdraw the item in questionfrom public view.1  Developments of student involvement in geoscience unions: a case study 1 from hydrology  2 Authors: Wouter R. Berghuijs1*, Shaun Harrigan2, Evan L. Kipnis3, Nilay Dogulu4, Marius 3 Floriancic5, Hannes Müller6, Ina Pohle7, Sheila M. Saia8, Frank Sedlar9, Maarten 4 Smoorenburg5, Claudia Teutschbein10, Tim van Emmerik11 5 1: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK 6 2: Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units (ICARUS), Department of Geography, 7 Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland 8 3: Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 9 Wyoming, USA 10 4: Department of Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey 11 5: Institute of Environmental Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, 12 Switzerland 13 6: Institute of Water Resources Management, Hydrology and Agricultural Hydraulic 14 Engineering, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany.  15 7: Chair of Hydrology and Water Resources Management, Brandenburg University of 16 Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, Cottbus, Germany   17 8: Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New 18 York, USA 19 9: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 20 Michigan, USA 21 10: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden 22 11: Water resources section, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University 23 of Technology, the Netherlands 24  25 *Correspondence to: Wouter R. Berghuijs, wb14708@bristol.ac.uk 26 Format: AGU EOS Opinion  27 Resubmitted: 26th June 2015 28 29 2  The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU) play 30 a central role in nurturing the next generation of geoscientists. Both organizations are now 31 explicitly expanding their bottom-up organizational structure to include early career 32 members1 (hereafter, ECM), by appointing student (AGU) and early career scientist (EGU) 33 representatives. As this is a recent development, it is unclear what role these representatives 34 can play and how this role will evolve over the coming years. 35 As ECM in the hydrological sciences, we here provide a case study on how bottom-up 36 initiatives, working closely together with the newly appointed representatives, help to 37 improve the development of student and post-doc members, and provide opportunities to 38 increase their contribution to the geoscience unions. Additionally, we call for a conversation 39 on how ECM can best make use of the created opportunities to proactively engage with the 40 Unions’ activities aiming at the development of their youngest members.  41 Growing Opportunities for Early Career Members 42 The AGU and EGU have a long history of actively supporting students by providing reduced 43 conference fees, recognizing outstanding students, and awarding travel grants. The 44 representation of these members has been improved with the recent appointment of 45 representatives for the different scientific divisions within both AGU and EGU. This is an 46 important development, as these representatives will serve as the link between Union 47 divisions and its ECM. However, as Union’s do not want to constrain bottom-up initiatives, 48 precise aims and goals of these representatives have not been defined.  49 But what is the potential and what are the most important tasks of these new representatives? 50 With approximately one quarter of the Unions’ active membership being students or young 51 scientists [1, 2] there is an opportunity to more actively include a new generation of 52 geoscientists also as contributors of the Union’s activities, rather than merely consumers. 53 Hence, the representatives should think, discuss, define and communicate what their 54 objectives are and how these objectives can be achieved. Opinions on these objectives may 55 differ per person, field of study, or geoscience organization, and are likely to change over 56 time. Rather than providing a blueprint for what should be done, we try to catalyze this 57 discussion by providing an example of how this process is evolving within the hydrological 58 sciences community.  59                                                  1 Student and postdoc members; exact definitions different for EGU and AGU. 3  A Case Study from Hydrology 60 During the 2012 EGU General Assembly in Vienna we identified that there was no 61 organizational structure for the involvement of ECM in the EGU Hydrological Sciences 62 Division, nor were they very actively involved within the division. It was clear that with so 63 many of them being part of the division, there was enormous potential to increase ECM 64 involvement. Not only to enhance their own conference experience, but also to improve their 65 contribution to the organizing part of the hydrologic community. This was the key motivation 66 behind the establishment of the Young Hydrologic Society (YHS) in October 2012. 67 YHS is a bottom-up initiative to engage ECM from across the globe with an interest in 68 hydrological sciences and aspires to function as an umbrella organization for many aspects 69 important to early career hydrologists. It is an independent organization, not solely founded 70 within a single Union. This allows that ideas and sessions can be transferred seamlessly 71 between different conferences.  72 The organizing committee is composed of volunteers currently spanning across three 73 continents. The representatives within the AGU and EGU hydrology divisions are among the 74 active members of the YHS team. This involvement facilitates good communication and 75 cooperation between any initiatives in both unions.  76 To ensure activities represent the need of a broader group than the organizing team, the YHS 77 hosts an annual public meeting at both the AGU Fall Meeting and the EGU General 78 Assembly. In this meeting we invite ECM and together evaluate objectives, define goals and 79 create opportunities for people to get involved. Based on these meetings five current 80 objectives have been established: 81 1) connect hydrologists early in their careers, 82 2) organize events to enhance the professional development of early career hydrologists,  83 3) provide central information platform for early career hydrologists, 84 4) create awareness of current and future research topics within hydrology, and 85 5) make hydrological science more accessible for involvement of early career 86 hydrologists. 87 To achieve these goals we created a website to provide notification of upcoming conferences, 88 workshops, events, free online lectures, and other relevant information. There is also a 89 4  number of social media platform including a LinkedIn group, Facebook group and Twitter 90 account that keeps all members, friends and followers digitally connected. 91 Additionally, the YHS organizes sessions, short courses, and social events at the AGU Fall 92 Meeting and the EGU General Assembly. An example, aimed at increasing the awareness of 93 present challenges in hydrological science, is ‘Meet the expert in hydrology’. This session is 94 an open discussion with experienced scientists on current and future research challenges 95 within (and beyond) hydrological science. To create further awareness of future research 96 challenges, the Water Science Pop-Ups are organized. This session invites particularly those 97 embarking on a career in hydrology to share their vision on the future of water science with a 98 5-minute TED-style presentation. The Water Science Pop-Ups was first organized at the 2013 99 AGU Fall Meeting, nearly doubled in participation and attendance for 2014, and now also 100 runs at the EGU General Assembly. At the 2014 Fall Meeting, YHS put together the 101 inaugural AGU Student and Early Career Science Conference [3]. This full day conferences 102 is now an annual event including networking, workshops, and discussion sessions where 103 students interact with senior scientists. 104 This overview of activities illustrates how initiatives can contribute to enhanced involvement 105 of ECM in geoscience organizations. Yet, we realize these initial activities have been 106 developed in a somewhat ad-hoc manner and there is always room for improvement.  107 Start the conversation to move forward  108 The example from hydrology may give an indication of how ECM initiatives can evolve and 109 could be replicated by other divisions. However, the example from hydrology, to a large 110 degree, does not answer what the full potential of ECM involvement is, and what the most 111 important tasks are of the representatives.  112 We call for a conversation that addresses these questions. Early career members, including 113 their representatives, and the leadership within the geoscience Unions should ask themselves 114 and another: what can the Unions do for the ECM, and what can the ECM do for the Unions? 115 Current goals seem to include enhanced networking opportunities and organization of short 116 courses, but probably there are uncovered opportunities far beyond that. 117 5  With the current the free role that the Unions give to the representatives some ad-hoc short-118 term contributions are made. Given the representatives short terms of service (1-2 years) and 119 that they are often operating individually, has the risk that contributions are perishable.  120 Involvement of ECM in geoscience unions is not a panacea to all challenges faced by those 121 embarking on a career in geoscience. But, given the current support from the unions, it is the 122 ECM’s responsibility to get organized and make the best use of this opportunity. To make the 123 most valuable contribution, objectives should both encompass short-term improvements that 124 spur momentum and long-term change to more actively engage ECM enthusiasm and 125 creativity in shaping a better geoscientific future. 126 127 6  References 128 1. American Geophysical Union (2013) Expanding our reach: 2013 annual report, available 129 at http://about.agu.org/annual-report/ 130 2. EGU General Assembly 2014 statistics available at http://www.egu2014.eu/ 131 3. van Emmerik, T. (2015), Fall Meeting’s first student and early career conference, Eos, 96, 132 doi:10.1029/2015EO024053. 133 Acknowledgments 134 We thank (and owe success) to supportive leadership, generous speakers, and dedicated 135 organizers at Early Career Science programs for AGU and EGU, especially Gerrit de Rooij, 136 Eric Wood, Paul Cooper, Efi Foufoula-Georgiou and Kara Smedley. 137   138 Author contributions       139 W.R.B, S.H, and E.L.K outlined the manuscript. All authors contributed to writing.  140 

Creating Community for Early-Career Geoscientists:Student involvement in geoscience unions: A case study from hydrology

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Creating Community for Early-Career Geoscientists:Student involvement in geoscience unions: A case study from hydrology

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