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BAMOS Sept 2017
We also heard an insider perspective into the process of putting together the IPCC Assessment Reports from a leading author, Professor Nathan Bindoff, after which Professor Matt England spoke about his experiences( both good and not-so-good) in communicating climate science to the broader community.
Tutorial
The tutorial for the Winter School was led by Dr Dietmar Dommenget from Monash, introducing us to the Monash Simple Climate Model. Using the model, we tested our knowledge of the climate system piece by piece, learning how each component interacts. Some students then made use of the model later in the week to inform their answers to the superproblems( for example, modelling how the climate changes when there are no oceans).
Survive your PhD
The importance of maintaining good mental health during the postgraduate research experience was also discussed in a Survive Your PhD workshop, run by recent UNSW graduate Dr Willem Huiskamp. In the workshop, Willem talked about his own PhD experience, after which we received advice from a UNSW psychologist and a panel of academics from the ARCCSS who spoke about how they’ ve managed the particular stresses of academic work.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, it was time for students to present our answers to the super-problems. Not every problem was solved, but some groups got very creative, with IPCC and Star Wars themes appearing in their presentations. Overall, the Winter School was a great week, with interesting seminars and plenty of opportunities to meet and catch up with other postgraduate students from the ARCCSS.
On behalf of all of the students who attended, I’ d like to thank ARCCSS’ s Graduate Director, Dr Melissa Hart and Ms Swa Rath for organising the Winter School, and all of the academics for their great lectures.
Article adapted from Sarah’ s ARCCSS blog.
Top: Stephanie Jacobs leads a class of the greenhouse gas dance Middle and bottom: The winners of the group projects Images: Alvin Stone / Willem Huiskamp