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Francisco Hevia-Cruz presenting part of his doctoral research at the EGU General Assembly 2023 in Vienna.
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 Author: Invited contribution

EAG Sponsored Student Francisco Hevia-Cruz reports back from the EGU General Assembly 2023

EAG sponsored student Francisco Hevia-Cruz arriving at the EGU conference

I was very surprised, mind-blown, by the scale of the 2023 EGU General Assembly, there were so many researchers, posters, and presentations, that it was very hard to decide which sessions to go to and which sessions to pass.
 
Participating in this event was a great experience in several ways. From a professional point of view, I was able to share my doctoral research with geoscientists from all over the globe, and to discuss with the geo-scientific community, which was very encouraging and gave me a lot of confidence in my own work and capacities.
 
This was also a great opportunity to explore further postdoctoral opportunities, for which I talked to several professors from different universities and countries. I found the mentor-mentee program of the conference great to help “break the ice”.

 
It was amazing to see a lot of Chilean colleagues reporting very interesting research from all over the world. I shared with them and with other researchers and PhD candidates from my laboratory in a more informal context, which was great to better understand their work, and also their experiences, apprehensions, and expectations in academia. With some, we even envisaged some possibilities of new research in my home country, Chile, which is an amazing natural laboratory for geoscientists.

Memorial of Salvador Allende, a former Chilean president killed in 1973 by the military, in a park just 300 meters away from the EGU venue
The author in front of the Saint Stephan Cathedral, Vienna Austria.

From a more personal point of view, this opportunity allowed me to enjoy some evenings to walk around Vienna and appreciate its beautiful architecture. I was very impressed by the magnificence of the city. As I’m a sport enthusiast, I went to a couple of parks in the early morning for a touristic jog. It is always fulfilling to know new places, people and cultures.
 
Advice to other students that are planning to attend EGU, I would recommend taking the full-week and to participate as much as possible, particularly in all the Young Researcher activities at the event, to really profit and to share with the scientific community, for me it was very enriching. I also recommend to buy a couple of tickets for the opera in advance, I tried to buy on the day, but they were sold out.
 
I really appreciate the EAG Student Sponsorship, it helped me to cover an important part of my expenses, and made it possible for me to attend the EGU General Assembly. EAG sponsorship also encouraged me in my academic pursuit.

About the Author

Francisco Hevia-Cruz

Francisco Hevia-Cruz

I’m a Chilean geologist, I completed my bachelor and Master studies at the Universidad de Chile, where I made a correlation of major Cenozoic ignimbrites by means of a combined lithofacies and biotite-geochemistry (EPMA) fingerprinting, thanks to a collaboration with a Professor from the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo. After that, I worked for a couple of years in the Chilean national geological survey (SERNAGEOMIN), in their regional geological mapping programe (1:100.000 scale) in the vicinity of the Ojos del Salado Volcano (the highest volcano on Earth) and the desert town of Codpa, Northern Chile. Since October 2020 I have been living in Paris and working on my PhD thesis, entitled “Climatic and landscape evolution of the Azores over the past Million years” at Géosciences Paris-Saclay laboratory (GEOPS, Université Paris-Saclay).
 
Read Francisco’s blog here (in spanish).