Monthly Archives: October 2013

Just one week until GCC 2013!

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The 2013 Graduate Climate Conference is only a week away, and we’re super excited! By this point, all participants should have received an email with all the final logistical details needed to attend the conference. The most important details are:

  • If you were awarded a travel grant, remember to bring all your travel-related receipts, and if possible your boarding pass/ticket.   You wil be able to fill out a reimbursement form at the conference
  • If you requested a place to stay on Thursday night and/or Sunday night, you should have received information about the person/people who will be hosting you.  We’ve asked hosts to contact you individually to work out the details of getting to their place, etc.
  • Unless you are driving directly to Woods Hole or will already be there, we’ve assigned you a mode of transportation to get to the conference from Cambridge/Boston.  Again, check your email for the details.  Most people are leaving from Ames St. at 10 AM on Friday.  More details can be found on the logistics page.
  • The email that we sent out had an error regarding poster sizes!  The maximum size for poster should actually be 48″ x 36″.
  • We’re having a Halloween party on Saturday night!  Bring your best climate-themed costume and an affinity for pumpkin-themed beverages.

We look forward to seeing all the participants next week!  If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask us at gcc-2013@mit.edu.

Introducing our keynote speaker: Caroline Ummenhofer

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Ummenhofer_photoThe GCC 2013 Executive Committee is pleased to announce that the keynote address at this year’s conference will be given by Caroline Ummenhofer of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Caroline will be speaking about her experiences with the transition from being a graduate student to holding a faculty position, as well as communicating climate science to external audiences.

Caroline Ummenhofer received a Joint Honours B.Sc. in Marine Biology and Physical Oceanography from the University of Wales, Bangor, UK, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics, specializing in climate modeling, from The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. Her PhD thesis received the Uwe Radok Award in ocean/atmosphere/climate science by the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Caroline was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems, held a Vice-Chancellor Postdoctoral Fellowship at UNSW, and was a Visiting Fellow with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Hobart, Australia. Since 2012, she is an Assistant Scientist in the Physical Oceanography Department at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, USA. Her research interests include interannual to decadal climate variability, the hydrological cycle, monsoon dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interactions, droughts, extratropical climate, hydroclimate paleo reconstructions of the last millennium, and the effects of climate variability and change on agriculture. In particular, her research focuses on Indian Ocean dynamics, its variability and role for regional rainfall variations and droughts in the surrounding countries, spanning from seasonal to decadal timescales. Her research on the importance of a re-occurring Indian Ocean temperature pattern for Australian rainfall was awarded the prestigious 2008 Land & Water Australia Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation and is meanwhile routinely used by the Department of Agriculture and Food in Western Australia as one of five key indicators of growing season rainfall for farmers. A key goal of Caroline’s research has been to bridge the gap between ocean and climate dynamics and its impacts on end users. As such, she aims to provide practical outcomes of use to stakeholders in the agriculture and water management sectors, interacting with media, farmers’ organizations, and the broader public.