Sessions for early career scientists

A huge variety of General Assembly sessions will be of interest to early career scientists (ECS) and our ECS session shortlist is filled with the courses and meetings that have a strong ECS focus.

As soon as the conference programme is finalised and available on the General Assembly website, you can use the online tool to generate your own personal programme by selecting specific presentations or sessions. You can synchronise your saved schedule with the conference mobile app or generated a PDF to be printed.

For some inspiration from other early career scientists, be sure to check out the Outstanding ECS Lectures throughout the week.

Meet the EGU

Make sure you make time to meet your division president, or attend your division’s meeting to find out more about what’s going on within your field and in the EGU. You will also have the opportunity to meet the Union Early Career Scientist Representatives Daniel L. Evans and Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, and Simon Clark, the EGU Project Manager and ECS contact at the EGU Office. This is your opportunity to discuss issues specific to the ECS community with them. Look out for the Meet EGU section in the conference programme to find opportunities to meet with other members of the Union.

Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation Award

In addition to the Union and Division awards available to early career scientists, those who are students (current and recent undergraduates and postgraduates, and current PhD candidates) are also eligible to apply for the Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award. The OSPP Award is given to the first authors on posters or PICOs presented at the EGU General Assembly. For information on how to nominate scientists for EGU awards and medals, please check our nominations page and the guidelines for proposal and selection of candidates.

General Assembly Mentoring Programme

EGU offers a mentoring programme for novice conference attendees, students, and early career scientists at its annual General Assembly. The programme aims to facilitate new connections that may lead to long-term professional relationships within the Earth, planetary and space science communities. We anticipate the programme to be a rewarding experience for both mentees and mentors, so do consider signing up.

Early Career Scientists’ Corner at the Opening Reception

A gathering point for early career scientists provides the opportunity to meet like-minded fellows, especially if it is your first time at the General Assembly or you are coming alone.

Early Career Scientists’ Forum

The EGU is a bottom-up organisation: early career scientists' opinions are important for the development of the General Assembly and the EGU as a whole. The ECS Forum is the opportunity for ECS attendees to provide feedback on the Assembly and learn how the Union supports the ECS throughout the rest of the year. The ECS Forum is scheduled later in the week. At EGU24 the ECS Forum is scheduled for Thursday 12:45-13:45, Room 3.29/30. Lunch is provided.

Early Career Scientists Networking

The Assembly provides spaces for the ECS to build their network and meet old friends. Networking spaces are available at the EGU Booth (Hall X2 - Purple Level), the Networking Zones (Suite C, Red Level and Terrace G, Purple Level), and the Jobs & Careers spot (Purple Level). You can discover networking events on the Assembly programme in the Networking and Pop-up networking programme pages; attendees can organise their own events using the Pop-up networking scheduler. Throughout the Assembly there are key networking events relevant for all ECS attendees, such as the First-time Attendee Networking event and the ECS Networking Reception, all of which can be found on the ECS session shortlist.

Early Career Scientists’ Networking Reception

Working in academia is a far cry from your average 9 to 5, and early career scientists (ECS) are often faced with questions that cannot be answered from a textbook. How do I balance research with other activities like science outreach or demonstrating? How do I strike a good work-life balance? Where should I focus my research? Alternatively, the academic route may not be for you and you may want to explore other geoscience career paths, but aren't quite sure where to start.

This EGU-hosted reception, with drinks and light snacks, aims to bring together ECS, award-winning researchers, members of the Union Council, and selected industry partners. The aim is all for participants to interact and establish connections in an informal setting. This reception offers an opportunity for ECS to find answers to the questions above and for established scientists, in and out of academia, to share their experience with researchers in the early stages of their career.

No registration is required to attend the reception. Note that the event has a maximum capacity and attendees will not be able to join if full.