BAMOS Dec 2024
8 Article
Australian Academy of Science Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Conference on Atmospheric Dynamics : looking back at a successful event
Dr Martin Jucker , University of New South Wales ( martin . jucker @ unsw . edu . au )
Some of the conference ' s participants . Photo montage by Dr Martin Jucker
Once upon a time , in a land far away , close to sixty brave climate scientists came together to hear and talk about the intricate workings of the atmosphere . The time was between the 20th and 22nd of August in the year 2024 , and the land was the traditional land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people in today ’ s CBD of Melbourne .
The purpose of the gathering was to come together and tell stories about the atmosphere and how it works . But it was just as much about coming together as a research community and finding common ground to define what the atmospheric dynamics community finds most important , and where our research should go in the next few years .
The formula for the conference was simple : three days , three international keynote speakers , three national invited speakers , a few short talks a day , and loads of discussion . The keynote speakers kicked off each day with an overview of international research on tropical circulations ( Juliane Schwendike , University of Leeds ), the representation of atmospheric dynamics in Earth System Models ( Isla Simpson , National Center for Atmospheric Research , Boulder ), and the dynamics of extremes ( Kai Kornhuber , International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis , Vienna ). The Australian invited speakers took us into each afternoon with talks of the dynamical connection between Rossby waves and extreme weather in Australia ( Michael Reeder , Monash University ), global teleconnections
( David Karoly , University of Melbourne ), and how atmospheric dynamics and climate models can connect to society ( Christian Jakob , 21st Century Weather ). Twenty-five talks then went into more detail on all aspects of atmospheric dynamics , showing an astonishing breadth of research conducted within the Australian community .
Even though this was an edition of the Australian Academy of Science Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Conference series , this was the first of hopefully many more national conferences dedicated to atmospheric dynamics . We are grateful for the broad support across the Australian climate science community . We thank the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes , the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century , and the ACCESS-NRI for their generous financial support , and AMOS for their in-kind organisational support .
The core of the conference was plenty of time for discussions in plenary , groups , or during tea , lunch break , and the social event . We wanted to start a community and have people in the same room to talk to each other — more of a gathering than a conference . What first seemed like an outdated approach to conference organisation — not having an online option — was a deliberate decision and turned out to be one of the most appreciated aspects of the conference . We wanted people to be there in person , and interact in person , and we are happy we