Looking over the crowd listening intently to someone describe plankton blooms for 15 minutes it was hard not to wonder whether I was trapped in a room full of hard-core nerds, but the majority of people attending looked like regular people excited about their work and not the stereotypical scientist geek.
The North Pacific Research Board held its annual science conference in Anchorage this past week—the Alaska Marine Science Symposium.
Over 800 scientists and members of the public attended, listening to talks on subjects ranging from sea-ice monitoring to Bering Sea corals to the breeding biology of polar bears.
Workshops were conducted on topics such as learning how to be a better communicator and techniques for tracking sea mammals, and scientists met to plan their group research projects.
What’s the point of a scientific conference?
1) Learn about what’s new and hot in your field of interest
2) Share current ideas
3) Have a chance to connect with other researchers
4) Plan large group (collaborative) research projects
5) Job contacts and interviews also often take place at conferences
There are a lot of real-live scientists at conferences like this one, but they’re for curious student, too. Next year, four students from the Pribilof Islands will be attending the Alaska Marine Science Symposium, meeting scientists to share what they’ve learned about seabirds through the Seabird Youth Network.