Congratulations to Philipp Stadler, Yiming Wang and Eva van Gorsel, winners of this year’s Imaggeo photo competition!

Winning image: Frost by Philipp Stadler

Second place: Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Third place: Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel.

Imageo photos are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. 

The selection committee received close to 200 photos for this year’s EGU Photo Competition, covering fields across the geosciences. The stunning finalist photos are below and they are being exhibited in Hall X (basement, Blue Level) of the Austria Center Vienna, where you will also find voting terminals.

Do you have a favourite? Vote for it! The results will be announced on Friday 12 April during the lunch break.

Gypsum Dunes by Robert Wills

Mendenhall Glacier by Daniele Penna

Mirror, mirror by Anna Nadolna

Greenland Ice Sheet by Andrew Sole

Smooth Ice by Kay Helfricht

Colourful hydrovolcanism by Stephanie Flude

Regrowth after fires by Eva van Gorsel

Icebear Rising by Yiming Wang

Frost by Philipp Stadler

Climate change is in our hands by Stephanie Flude

Black Sand Vortex by Yiming Wang

 These images are distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence and are available in Imaggeo, the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press. 

Many of the EGU General Assembly higlights will be streamed live, so if you can’t make it to Vienna this year, you can still watch the Union Session on Curiosity’s first results (US1), the Great Debate on fracking, several medal lectures and all the press conferences at the 2013 General Assembly live on the conference website.

To watch a session, simply click on the link that appears next to its entry on the full webstreaming schedule (available here). Videos will also be available on demand after the Assembly, and if you’d like to watch past year’s sessions, you can do so on EGU TV or the Union’s YouTube channel.

If you are a journalist or a freelance writer or science blogger interested in watching press conferences via webstreaming, you may ask questions to panellists using Skype, or on Twitter, using the hashtag #askEGU. For more information, please check the Webstreaming page on the EGU 2013 Media portal.

The Austria Center Vienna (ACV), the Assembly venue, is not far from the city centre and can easily be reached from the airport and central train station.

The ACV is located next to the Kaisermühlen/Vienna Int. Centre metro station

The ACV is located next to the Kaisermühlen/Vienna Int. Centre metro station (U1 line, direction Leopoldau from the city centre). Wiener Linien, Vienna’s public transport agency, provides a travel planner on their website, including information about getting to the city centre from the airport by train.

A regular bus service also connects the airport with the city – bus 1183 (stop 4, Wien Kaisermühlen VIC – Wagramer Straße) stops just outside the ACV.

Further travel information – including about where to find taxis at the airport – can also be found on the airport’s website. Additional information about Vienna’s public transportation system, including about fares and how to buy tickets, can be found here.

Once you’re in, you can navigate your way to your first session of the day using these maps of the Austria Center!

The enormous space and time scales that Geology covers makes teaching it a challenge, one best overcome by field experience, but it’s a rare thing for a school to be able to explore Geological wonders on the other side of the world. So what if someone brought it to you?

Olivier Galland (who we had the chance to interview in December), together with Caroline Sassier, set up an educational project (The Andean Geotrail) centred on their cycling adventures in the Andean mountains. Seventeen schools followed their 8,000 kilometre journey from Lima to Ushuaia, as they blogged their way from one geo-highlight to the next.

The stunning photos from their travels are being exhibited at the General Assembly (Exhibition Gallery on the First Floor, Green Level) – it’s definitely worth dropping in!

Caroline Sassier on the The Andean Geotrail project, lost in the immensity of the Bolivian Altiplano. Photograph: Olivier Galland.

The General Assembly can be an excellent source of information for those of you looking for jobs or doctoral positions. Apart from the regularly updated online job postings, the Jobs & Education Market (Hall X, basement) provides a forum for young scientists to meet and chat with potential employers, and to get informed about available positions posted on the nearby notice boards.

If you’re looking to pick up some skills for job applications, why not attend the “How to apply for a job” short course (SC9/EOS13, #EGUjobs) and take home tips on how to best convince your potential employer that you have the right knowledge and skills for the job.

Further, you can brows for jobs or doctoral positions using the jobs portal on the EGU website. Employers may submit their job announcements free of charge here.

Panoramic view of the Austria Vienna Centre (source: Wikimedia)

There are 14 short courses at the EGU General Assembly 2013. 

Short courses are great opportunities to learn about a subject or further your knowledge in a particular area. The short courses at this year’s General Assembly are listed below.

Short courses represent a refreshing opportunity to learn from the masters (source: Wikimedia Commons)

SC1 Short Course: Tipping Points in the Geosciences (also listed as NP1.5)

SC2 Short Course: Nonlinear Time Series Analysis (also listed as NP1.6)

SC3 Short Course: Predictability in Theory and Predictability in Practice (also listed as NP1.7)

SC4 How to write (and publish) a scientific paper in hydrology (also listed as HS11.1)

SC5 Meet the expert in hydrology – Round tables among young and established scientists (also listed as HS11.2)

SC6 Short Course: How to apply and interpret the Fast Fourier Transform (also listed as NH10.1)

SC7 Short Course on methods and techniques to study soils affected by fire

SC8 Blogs and social media in scientific research (also listed as EOS12)

SC9 How to apply for a job (also listed as EOS13)

SC10 Managing Uncertainty in the Model Web

SC11 Geomorphology workshops for young scientists: Dating techniques in geomorphology (also listed as GM11.1)

SC12 Geomorphology workshops for young scientists: Supervising Master’s and PhD projects (also listed as GM11.2)

SC13 Geomorphology workshops for young scientists: Open access publishing  (also listed as GM11.3)

SC14 Geomorphology workshops for young scientists: Meet the Master

Please note that courses operate on a first come, first served basis, so make sure you arrive early!

Oral Presentations

The guidelines for oral presentations are online. The link also specifies the equipment available in each room (laptop, microphone, laser pointer, ability to hook up your own laptop, etc.). Oral presentations this year are in four 90-minute time blocks, with each talk being about 12 minutes long with 3 minutes for questions. Please be in the presentation room approximately 30 minutes before your time block starts, so your presentation can be uploaded to the provided laptop or so you can connect your laptop to the system.

Austria Center Vienna by night during the General Assembly

Posters

Guidelines for poster presentations are also online. Importantly, the required dimensions of poster boards are 197 cm x 100 cm (landscape). Posters should be hung between 08:00 and 08:30 in the morning using tape available from roaming student assistants. By the start of the Assembly, EGU will have sent your poster location (e.g. XY0439) by email. Locations are also listed online in the programme. You can find the exact location of your poster using the online floor plans. Please retrieve your poster at the end of the day. Those that are not collected will be disposed of.

The Authors in Attendance Time will also have been sent to you. Note that some sessions may have a poster walk-through (in some cases this will be noted in the session details), where authors are asked to summarise their poster with other members of their session in attendance. Other sessions will comprise scheduled poster summaries and discussion.

Time Blocks

Timetabling at the General Assembly is in four time blocks as follows:

TB1 08:30–10:00
TB2 10:30–12:00
TB3 13:30–15:00
TB4 15:30–17:00
TB5 17:30–19:00 (not on Friday)

There is free tea and coffee available in the poster halls in the breaks between TB1 & TB2 and TB3 & TB4.

No-shows

Including your abstract in the conference programme obliges you, or one of your co-authors, to present your contribution at the time and in the mode indicated. If you already know that your oral will not be presented, you are kindly requested to withdraw your corresponding abstract as soon as possible.

How to get to Vienna and what to do when you’re there – a brief, and by no means comprehensive, introduction:

Getting here

Vienna’s International Airport is served by many of the major European airlines. If you would like to consider overland transport (e.g train, car) there is an Information page on the EGU General Assembly 2013 website.

Getting to sleep

Information on accommodation options can be found on the Accommodation page of the EGU GA 2013 website. Other accommodation options include:

• http://www.jugendherberge.at
• http://www.hostels.com
• http://www.hotelscombined.com

Apartments for 2-5 persons from €39 / night / apartment are available on http://www.apartmentnetzwerk.at or http://www.govienna.net.

Getting to know Vienna

The Vienna tourist board has information about Sightseeing, Shows, Shopping, Dining and other information about Vienna on it’s website. A fairly comprehensive list of the museums in Vienna can be found on the Tour My Country webpage for Austria.

Tourist information on Vienna can be found in the Arrivals Hall of Vienna International Airport or at the Tourist Information Centre (Vienna 1) at Albertinaplatz/Maysedergasse, behind the Vienna State Opera that is open daily 9:00 am – 7:00 pm. Brochures can be ordered in advance from your local Austrian Tourist Office.

Since 2005, the EGU General assembly had taken place in Vienna [Source: Wikimedia Commons].

Will this be your first time at an EGU General Assembly? With over 11,000 participants in a massive venue, the GA can be a confusing and, at times, overwhelming place.  To help you find your way, we have compiled an introductory handbook filled with history, useful presentation pointers, and tips about Vienna and its surroundings.  Download it here!

See you in Vienna!