IRTG Travel Grants Programme

PhD researcher Melanie Lauer joined her (AC)³ project fellows in Potsdam

My name is ‚Watschel‘, and I have the pleasure of supporting Melanie during the last months of her PhD. As Melanie is writing her Ph.D. thesis, I offered to tell you about her research stay at the Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI) in Potsdam.

In August, Melanie came for five weeks to Potsdam to work on two main tasks: writing her Ph.D. thesis and working on the climatological study about the influence of different weather features (like atmospheric rivers, cyclones, and fronts) on precipitation in the Arctic.  As I come from Antarctica, I was very interested in Melanie’s topic. However, as I am not an expert in this field, Melanie had the opportunity to discuss her current state of the Ph.D. thesis, as well as her new results for the climatological study with Annette and Sofie. The meetings were very helpful and constructive and helped Melanie to shape the structure of her Ph.D. thesis. Also, the discussions about her current results related to the climatology of atmospheric rivers, cyclones, and fronts and their influence on precipitation were very interesting. During her last week, she had also the possibility to join two group meetings. In one of them, she had the possibility to present her research to a wider audience. The people were very interested in Melanie’s research and asked some questions. Back in Cologne, Melanie is now finalizing her results and she is optimistic that a draft for her second paper will be ready end of October.

Finally, it was a wonderful opportunity for Melanie to go to Potsdam to meet Annette, Sofie, Lars, other (AC)³ people, new faces, and Einstein (a cat living on Telegrafenberg). The research stay helped a lot to improve the structure of the Ph.D. thesis, to find a focus for the second paper, and to strengthen the relationship within the E04 project. Apart from research, we had the possibility to explore the Telegrafenberg, and Potsdam with its beautiful lakes (possibility of kayaking and swimming) and parks. This helped a lot to clear the head.

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