Hosted a seminar today ….

… my first one in the department and it was fun. Not that it is difficult, but it was a nice experience to get in touch with the speaker and facilitate the session. I will be on again in two weeks – more practice 😉 but getting a little more insight and getting to know the people and what they are doing is good.

The speaker was excellent – talking about gas hydrates buried in the sediments of the oceans (e.g. off Vancouver Island). As I am no expert in the field I appreciated the clarity of the talk and the illustrations to explain rather complex processes and procedures. It is not often that a speaker adapts so well to the level of knowledge of his/her audience. The lively discussion that was going on already during the talk was a good indicator of its quality.

Link: USGS

Being on the department’s seminar committee …

… is a fun thing. In the last 6 weeks we have put together the departmental seminar for the current academic year. One professor and 3 graduate students and a postdoc (me being the latter) solliceted names from department members and hammerd out a schedule for this year. We even got a grant from the postgraduate student society to supplement the meagre budget reserved for speakers.

So now everything is on track and the first speakers are coming in. I will be the contact point for three of them – organising the talk, student-lunch and other meetings with faculty and graduate students/postdocs. It should be fun.