SOLAS Summer School
University of East Anglia & Plymouth Marine Laboratory
I had the incredible opportunity to spend three weeks at the SOLAS summer school in Tamandaré, Brazil.
SOLAS, which stands for Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study, is an organisation that brings together atmospheric and ocean sciences to study the air-seainterface, including physical, chemical, and biological perspectives, and even policy. It is a large, global network with many scientists around the world.
Every few years, they organise a summer school (normally somewhere warm with very nice beaches around), where leading lecturers from around the world come to teach a cohort of about 50 early career scientists.
In the first week, we had many lecture-style sessions, including aerosols and the sea surface microlayer. I also had the chance to present my work on air-sea concentrations and flux observations in the North Atlantic from a cruise I went on last summer. Sharing my work with so many experts and like-minded students was incredibly enriching.
The second week included many practical sessions, such as new sampling methods, learning how to use satellite data, and, new for me, how policy, science, and society tie into SOLAS. It was a topic I had not explored before, and the sessions guided by Eric van Doorn and Ellie Harrould-Kolieb were very insightful.
In the last week, we were divided into groups and had to complete a group project. The condition was that we couldn’t work with people from our own institution, on a topic we were already familiar with, or using tools we had used before. The idea was to push us outside our comfort zones, and it was one of my favourite parts of the summer school. I got to work with an amazing group of people while teaching ourselves new skills based on the lectures and practicals from previous weeks. Our project focused on the effect of dust deposition from a large dust storm called “Godzilla” and the chlorophyll-a response using satellite data.
My favourite part besides the science was undoubtedly the people and the lifestyle in Tamandaré. We were students from all continents, and they were the most amazing people; I hope to keep seeing throughout my career. Life in Tamandaré, a small beach town, was wonderful. We stayed at CEPENE (National Centre for Research and Conservation of Northeast Marine Biodiversity), which was just two minutes from a beach with palm trees, and we went on many swims and runs. We had an amazing kitchen team that made us traditional Brazilian food every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And, apart from their incredible cakes, you could go to the mango tree just outside and grab the juiciest mangoes I have ever tasted.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. I am leaving with a great network of early career researchers, and I have learned so many things that will be useful not only for my PhD, but throughout my entire career. I am very grateful to the Challenger Society for making this experience possible.
Awardee Profile:
Irene is a second-year PhD student at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of East Anglia. Her PhD focuses on VOC and CO₂ air-sea exchange, and how it is affected by sea ice and whitecaps. She is an observational scientist, using instruments on shipborne platforms alongside data analysis techniques to quantify gas fluxes and their drivers.
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