2023 C-CoMP Annual Meeting

C-CoMP recently hosted its second Annual Meeting at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, MA, with 63 members attending in-person and 11 members attending remotely. A majority of our attendees were early career researchers, including our first and second cohorts of C-CoMP Bridge-to-PhD fellows (opens in new window), graduate students, postdocs, and C-CoMP Postdoctoral Fellows (opens in new window). We also welcomed our two new C-CoMP Faculty Fellows (opens in new window), Mara Freilich (Brown University) and Sarah Hurley (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Climate School).

Our meeting activities were broadly designed around the theme of ‘conversation’ to kick-off Year 3. The meeting started on Monday evening (10/02/23) with a keynote presentation given by Dr. Chris Reddy on the subject of communicating science, followed by dinner and conversation. 

The next day (10/03/23), after an enthusiastic welcome from director Dr. Liz Kujawinski, co-director Dr. Mary Ann Moran recapped research from our second year. Her presentation was followed by four individual presentations highlighting research progress during Year 2 of the Center. We began planning research for Year 3 in smaller project groups to discuss ideas and identify deliverables along the central themes of modeling and exometabolites. The groups re-assembled to hear a second keynote presentation about team science from Dr. Stephen Fiore, a member of C-CoMP’s External Advisory Board. Members then visited six co-occurring round-table sessions designed to encourage conversation around topics relevant to C-CoMP research. Our first full meeting day ended with a poster session.

On Wednesday (10/04/23), Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, the chair of our External Advisory Board, gave a keynote presentation about her research for the Department of Energy National Labs, emphasizing the importance of team science for tackling large and complex issues. The remainder of the morning and early afternoon was spent in a second set of smaller project group discussions. A second poster session was held during lunch. Later in the afternoon, attendees separated into breakout groups to provide opportunities for informal professional development discussions; Bridge-to-PhD fellows met with graduate students to discuss graduate school and postdocs met with C-CoMP PIs, technical staff, and several members of our External Advisory Board to ask questions in an ‘ask-me-anything’ format. To end the day, Dr. Erin Dolan, C-CoMP’s Diversity Coordinator, led a professional development session about communication and authorship.

The last day of the meeting (10/05/23) began with three breakout sessions – a meeting among C-CoMP PIs, a meeting for technical staff involved in C-CoMP, and a WHOI mooring and rigging tour for Bridge-to-PhD Fellows, graduate students, and postdocs. The final Center-wide project session focused on developing ideas for communicating C-CoMP knowledge via outreach, finding audiences, and building external partnerships. 

After all the conversations along research, professional development, and team science themes, we are excited to launch into Year 3 of C-CoMP!