British Hydrological Society's Peter Wolf Early Career Hydrologist's Event

On the 25th and 26th of March 2013, Imperial College hosted the British Hydrological Society's Annual Peter Wolf Early Career Hydrologist's Event

The delegation composed of early career researchers from UK universities, research institutes, and water consulting companies. Non-UK delegates specially travelled from ETH Zurich, the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. All in attendance actively participated in discussions during the oral and poster sessions and conversations continued over the tea breaks. Everyone was treated to a 3-course evening meal at the Radisson Vanderbilt hotel, where most were accommodated for the night.

The symposium saw Prof. Howard Wheater back at Imperial College to give a keynote speech, in which he talked about his current role as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security. His discussion on the ongoing research activities at the University of Saskatchewan gave a different perspective on the topics of interest and what are at stake in North America, for example, algal blooms of immense magnitude and different regulations by states that results in legal issues at the borders. The second keynote speaker, Dr. Eleanor Blyth, a land-surface scientist at the UK Centre of Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), gave an engaging talk on her engineering education, the choices she made throughout her career, and bridging between corporate and independent working styles in her current position at CEH.  Bob Sargent, President of the British Hydrological Society, closed the event and gave prizes for the best posters and presentations. In all, the event was social and successful.

Special thanks to the British Hydrological Society for providing generous funding and to Imperial College staff (Angela Frederick, Fionnuala Ni Dhonnabhain, Steve Hullock, Dr. Wouter Buytaert, Gianluca Guadagno, Fu Mei Chen and Caroline Detchenique) for ensuring a smooth-running event.

Prize Winners were : 1^st Prize, Presentation – Susana Ochoa (Imperial College); 2^nd Prize, Presentation – Andrew Chiverton (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology); 1^st Prize, Micro Presentation – Jon Mackay (British Geological Survey); 2^nd Prize, Micro Presentation – Jonny Ritson (Imperial College); 1^st Prize, Poster – Simon Moulds (Imperial College); 2^nd Prize, Poster - Valentina Noacco (University of Bristol) .

On the 25^th and 26^th of March 2013, Imperial College hosted the British Hydrological Society’s Annual Peter Wolf Early Career Hydrologist’s Event. This annual event allows early stage researchers and junior consultants from industry to meet up and discuss their work in an informal setting, getting to know others in the field and developing writing and presentation skills for their future careers. The event is named in honour of Peter Wolf, a pioneering hydrologist and founder of the Imperial College Hydrology MSc Program, so this year’s event represented something of a homecoming. The event was held in the Environmental and Water Resource Engineering Section and organised by Zed Zulkafli and Mike Simpson.

Reported by Zed Zulkafli and Mike Simpson