IRTG Travel Grants Programme

PhD candidate Alexander Mchedlishvili went for a research stay to the University College London

Throughout June and the first part of July of 2022 I went to the University College London Earth Sciences department to work with Dr. Michel Tsamados, my host-supervisor there and Dr. Alek Petty, associate Research Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) who visited UCL in the later part of my stay. Working on my next paper about atmospheric drag coefficients derived from NASA’s ICESat-2 altimeter satellite, the input from Michel and Alek was invaluable for my work. With said input, I am now on track to submit this publication in the next months as we covered the basis of the scientific discussion we aim to present in the manuscript.
For the time I was in London I was a guest researcher in the group: The Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM). This experience was very valuable in terms of the new insights I have received by presenting my work to a new group that also specializes in sea ice. There I met other PhD students who also specialize in what my project is about and with them discussed the potential of future collaborations. Specifally, I have found students that are also working with sea ice roughness – a topic that only I specialize in in my group at the Institute of Environmental Physics in Bremen. Thus it was very useful to discuss the specifics of my work with experts that have been working with the exact same topic for the past few years.
Lastly, I believe the networking I have done throughout this experience will become valuable in the future and am very grateful to have made so many valuable contacts. Meeting Michel and Alek in person, considering they are co-authors in my next manuscript, definetely helped put everyone on the same page and boost the exchange in communications that is essential for the processing of the manuscrip prior to submission.

A list of all funded travel grants can be found on the IRTG page here.