New EGU Media and Communications Officer

Bárbara Ferreira, the newest staff member of the EGU office in Munich, has recently started working as the Union’s Media and Communications Officer. She will coordinate media-related and science information communications between the EGU and its membership, the working media, and the public at large.

Before joining EGU, Bárbara worked as a science writer at the European Southern Observatory, based in Garching near Munich, and at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology in London. Her studies include an undergraduate degree from the University of Porto (Portugal) and a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK), which she completed in 2010. On her free time, Bárbara keeps a Nature Network blog, Dinner Party Science.

Bárbara can be reached at +49 (0)89 2180-6703 or media@egu.eu.

Job Vacancy at the EGU Office, Munich

The European Geosciences Union (EGU)
is seeking to appoint a
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

The EGU is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the geosciences and the planetary and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide. The EGU has a General Assembly which attracts over 10,000 scientists each year, a diverse portfolio of 15 scientific journals which use an innovative “open access” format, a number of thematic meetings, and education and outreach activities.

The Media and Communications officer will coordinate media-related and science information communications between the EGU and its membership, the working media, and the public at large. Responsibilities include the set up and operation of a press office, development of a progressive communications plan for relevant scientific information display and dissemination, editorship of the EGU newsletter, and onward development and management of the EGU website and social media tools. Activities can involve the use of classic as well as new methods of disseminating media and interacting with the various stakeholders.

The successful applicant will have the following: an academic degree (e.g., MA, MSc, PhD), preferably in communication science, journalism, or the geosciences; professional experience in science journalism; evidence of ability to build a dynamic network of contacts within the EGU scientific community as well as in the working media; expert command of English.

The Media and Communications Officer will work under direction of the EGU Executive Secretary and the EGU Council. Work will take place in the EGU Office in Munich, Germany, with support of a computer programmer and a web developer. The position will be for three years initially, with a probation period of one year, and will be renewable for consecutive periods of three years. Remuneration is according to the German public service pay scale and can be up to E13 TV-L, depending on expertise and experience.

Applications should include

• CV including a summary of relevant experience and expertise.
• Letter of motivation and statement of vision for EGU Media and Communications (maximum two pages).
• Contact details of three referees.

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Philippe Courtial (email: executive-secretary@egu.eu).

Applications should be submitted by email in a single file to Dr Philippe Courtial.

Review of applications will begin 1 June 2011 and will continue until the position is filled.

A start date will be negotiated with the successful candidate and the position will preferably start within 3 months after interview.

Contact:
Dr Philippe Courtial
EGU Executive Office
Luisenstr. 37
80333 Munich (Germany)
executive-secretary@egu.eu
Phone: +49 (0)89 2180-6549

A pdf of the vacancy details (as above) is also available.

Perspectives from EGU GA 2011 (6)

This year on the EGU General Assembly blog there will be guest posts from participants about their research and their impressions of sessions. These are personal points of view not EGU corporate views. If you would like to contribute a research or session viewpoint, please email us.

This perspective from the European Geosciences Union General Asembly 2011 is from Thomas Smith about how to maximise your poster presentation. Thomas’ research was presented in NH7.2/AS4.14/BG2.17 Fire in the Earth System: Impacts and Feedbacks.

iPosters

In a world of multi-touch interfaces, e-readers, and televisions the size of cinema screens, it is not hard to imagine the day when the poster boards at the EGU general assembly are replaced by large, interactive devices, automatically downloading their designated poster for each day from “the cloud”. In the mean time, I decided that I would compliment my paper poster with an online interactive poster (iPoster!).

With three days until my poster presentation in the session on ‘Fire in the Earth System: Impacts and Feedbacks’, I was offered the opportunity to present my poster as a summary in the oral programme of the session. Whilst struggling to summarise my poster in four Powerpoint slides, it occurred to me that it would be much better to simply exhibit the poster as a Prezi, a navigable, zoomable, interactive poster, complete with photo and video galleries. Not only did this go down well in the poster summary, but it also proved useful when describing my research in the poster session itself. If you have a poster presentation, but feel that animations or videos are important to communicate your research, this is a very good way of integrating the audiovisuals with your poster.

No doubt, many of you savvy EGU blog readers are familiar with ‘Prezi’, one of the rising stars in alternatives to the linear presentation style prescribed by the likes of Powerpoint. If not, then you should at least take a look (Prezi Homepage). Prezi is difficult to describe without demonstration, although I shall try. Imagine a Google Earth for your presentation slides; you can begin with an overview contained in the field of view of your audience, before moving into sections, but always within the context of the initial overview; Prezi allows you to customise a route through your text, images and videos, using flashy animation (like moving from location to location in Google Earth) to navigate and zoom around the information you wish to disseminate. As with all developing web-based tools, there are a few issues, particularly with the narrow range of supported video formats, limited text formatting tools and some issues with image scaling (it’s best to convert your images to pdfs). Prezi is free for educational use, however, and the reaction from your audience will be worth that exploratory effort.

So whilst we are stuck with our temperamental printers, unruly paper, and comical dancing acts in front of our poster boards for now, at least it is possible to point to an animated version of the poster on a laptop or tablet screen. How long will it be before iPosters take that step from sidekick on the pedestal to the main board?

My interactive poster can be viewed online.

EGU GA 2011 in the news

Items from the European Geosciences Union General Assembly are featured prominently on the BBC’s Science and Environment pages.

The current top story is about “Thuderstorms numbers calculated”
(link). The top story for some time yesterday (Wednesday) was Climate ‘fix’ may warm, not cool, again directly related to research presented at the EGU General Assembly.

If you spot other news stories about EGU General Assembly in paper, online or other media, please let us know in the comments.

Celebration: 10 years of interactive open access publishing at EGU GA 2011

It’s been ten years since the launch of the first interactive open access journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, followed by a growing number of EGU open access journals covering most fields of geoscience.

A combination of traditional peer review and interactive and public discussion on the internet assures efficient scientific exchange and top quality. High submission rates and impact factors confirm the high value and visibility of the publications, which continue to grow rapidly.

To celebrate the success and achievements of the EGU open access journals, the EGU publications committee and journal editors would like to invite you all to have a drink at the reception tonight!

The reception will be held Tuesday 5 Apr, 19:00, Foyer E (Yellow Level – Ground Floor).

Further information about (interactive) open access publishing at EGU can be found online.

EGGS: The Newsletter of the EGU

A new issue (issue 34) of EGGS was published recently, its available on the EGGS website.

EGGS is also available as an app for some smart phones: Android and iPhone platforms.

EGU Journals: Special Edition of NHESS

The latest edition of NHESS (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences) features a post-face by Münch et al. summarising the special issue which has 22 peer-reviewed papers concerning the GITEWS (German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System) project.

Münch et al. (2011) state how the idea for the special issue of NHESS was formulated at the EGU General Assembly in 2009. The papers cover all aspects of the GITEWS project including the project framework, seismology, ocean instrumentation, GPS, the warning centre, modelling, capacity building, and system integration.

At the EGU General Assembly 2011 a DVD: “We are prepared” will be shown as part of the Geocinema .

Citation: Münch, U.,Rudloff, A. and Lauterjung, J. (2011) Postface “The GITEWS Project – results, summary and outlook”, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11(3): 765-769. doi:10.5194/nhess-11-765-2011

Note: this blogpost was written before the 11 March earthquake of magnitue 8.9 near Sendai, Japan, hence the delayed posting.

European Geosciences Union Publications

The EGU has been a pioneer in open-access publications, the mission statement can be found on the publications page of the EGU webpage. This is alongside EGGS, the EGU newsletter.

There are currently 16 open access peer-reviewed journals, each with their own homepage which can be found on the publications page.

On Fridays, articles from the journals will be highlighted along with research presented at the EGU General Assembly 2011.