Department of Maths and Stats local
Department of Maths and Stats local
The Department has set up a postgraduate travel bursary in memory of Ozgur. It is open to all postgraduate research students who have at least one Supervisor based in the Department and two bursaries of up to £500 each are available to apply for to help with travel and related costs associated with a research visit and/or conference. There will be a call for this each year.
Danny McCulloch – This funding allowed me to attend the Cloud Feedback Modelling Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) in Boston. This conference is specifically aims to directly address the improvement of modelling clouds in climate and weather models. In my research, I am investigating the remote effects of large-scale circulation (atmospheric circulation on a continental-ish scale) on subtropical low clouds using Global Climate Models (GCMs). Attending this conference allowed me to broadcast my findings to the wider cloud community. In doing this, I was able to make contacts in the USA that I, had it not been for this conference and grant, would not have had the opportunity to engage with. I am now taking on-board advice I received at the conference and am applying this to a paper which I am writing up about my work. I also aim to use the contacts made at CFMIP to pursue collaborations with USA-based colleagues. This will take place after writing up the paper but will likely involve a project and/or future post-doctoral opportunities. I am extremely grateful for the funding and believe that it has provided a substantial direct benefit to my research and academic career.
Daniel Williams – Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be granted the Ozgur Akman Postgraduate Travel Bursary, which enabled me to travel to and attend the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Conference 2024 in Vienna, Austria. EGU is a prestigious annual conference covering a wide range of Earth-related and planetary research areas, including my own area of atmospheric dynamics and climate. Whilst at the conference I acted as a session convener and was additionally able to present results from my recently published first paper; it was a great opportunity to catch up with researchers as well as discuss ideas with new ones. The bursary money allowed me to cover all conference registration fees as well as my travel costs. Since I prefer to avoid flying where possible, I was able to make use of an Interrail pass to travel from Exeter to Vienna all the way by train: first to London, then via Eurostar to Brussels, and finally by the Nightjet sleeper train all the way to Vienna. Travelling this way allowed me to share the journey with three other researchers and good friends at Exeter, which provided for a great travel experience whilst reducing overall costs (and also allowing us to make a quick stop to enjoy the delicious ‘friteries’ of Brussels). Without the funding from this bursary I would not have been able to attend EGU. I am therefore most grateful to the department for awarding me this travel bursary in memory of the late Professor Ozgur Akman.