Presentations, and Wrapping Up

Whew, was that a nerve-wracking experience. We just finished our last presentation in front of the PIs, mentors and our sponsors at NASA -- 12 minutes apiece, plus 3 minutes for questions, AGU style. While it was stressful to talk about a topic that I had only been thinking about for less than a week, when I got up there, I was not as nervous as I expected to be, just because I was so excited about the results I found. Although we only had a short amount of time, everyone pulled together to really help each other, teaching each other how to use ArcGIS to overlay our sampling sites on maps and listening to each other practice over and over and over again. 

The friendly audience

Moreover, I was so impressed by all of the talks -- these students really ran with the data to produce some fantastic findings. Notwithstanding my own bias, the Air Team talks were incredible; I was so proud of my fellow team members, especially given our timing issues. The NASA reps were also very impressed: they offered to send not one but two students from each group to AGU to present their findings at the NASA booth. We find out in a couple of weeks who the lucky students will be. 

The Air Group post-presentations

Now, I suppose it's time to offer my farewell, but I find it difficult to sum up the excitement, frustrations, challenges and glories of the past six weeks. I came in hoping for research experience that could evolve into a qualifying exam project but came out with an expanded view of the type of resources available to me and of the level of research I can accomplish. I hope I will not lose touch with the numerous incredible scientists and mentors that I had the opportunity to work alongside, and perhaps even work with them again in the future. It still amazes me how cohesive of a group we were throughout this process. I also wanted to thank NASA for investing in these scientists from all disciplines in order to encourage them to pursue earth science research. 

Finally, I want to thank everyone who took the time to read about our adventures. I hope I imparted at least a fraction of the experiences I had. 

Kat, clear.

Our last pep-talk!

(All photos in this post courtesy of NSERC)