WEM doctoral candidate Ms. Pragya Pradhan shares her experience participating in Student 4 student summer school (S4SSS 2022) in Obergurgl and Innsbruck, Austria (5-9 September 2022) and International Mountain Conference (IMC 2022) in Innsbruck, Austria (11-15 September 2022). The summer school was organized and moderated by Ph.D. students of the University of Innsbruck. There were five focus groups in the summer school: Mountain Atmosphere, Mountain Biology, Natural Hazards, Tourism and Glacier-Climate-Hydrology. Pragya writes:

I was the participant in the focus group Glacier-Climate-Hydrology. We were 22 Ph.D. students from different nations ranging from -2 to 3000 m. We had an interactive session and discussed topics ranging from climate change, climate change impact on glaciers and hydrology, glacier modelling, climate modelling and many more. From all the discussions, we found a common problem that all researchers face, i.e., access to good quality observed and climate data. We understand the importance of climate data input in our research work and modelling.

We also met lecturers (Fanny Brun, Lindsey Nicholson, Jakob Steiner & Fabien Maussion) at the Department of Atmospheric and Cryosphere Sciences ( ACINN) of the University of Innsbruck. We had an interactive and fun panel discussion on the importance of remote sensing data and observed field data.

    Here we all, ordered in the altitude of where we are born from left (-2 m) to the right (3000 m).

I was fortunate enough to get a lifetime opportunity to participate in summer school and meet researchers from different corners of the world. Everyone in the school was very motivated and happy to share their research work with all of us, sharing the problems they faced during research. I want to thank our five moderators, Lilian Suchster, Annelies Voordendag, Patrick Schmitt, Jan Niklas Richter, and Zarka Mukhtar, for being so helpful, patient and cooperative with us throughout the session and discussion.

                       On the terrace of the AICNN Department with summer school students and lecturers

Following with summer school. I also got an opportunity to attend International Mountain Conference (IMC 2022) in Innsbruck, Austria, from 11-15 September 2022. It was an overwhelming experience to attend such a big conference, meeting all the Professors, senior researchers, early career scientists, and early career researchers on one platform. I got an opportunity to share our research on a poster presentation on the topic “Assessment of changes in flow regime under climate change in different physiographic regions of Koshi River Basin (KRB), Nepal.” The constructive comments and suggestions received from the early career researchers were very much fruitful for me and gave me the motivation to work more towards the new findings in the field of climate change and hydrology. Furthermore, it was an excellent learning and networking opportunity to meet with researchers from a diverse community and travel around Austria and some fascinating European cities. I want to thank my advisor, Prof. Sangam Shrestha, for providing me with the opportunity and a platform to engage in such a useful event.

Click here to read the blog post prepared by all focus group students published on Innsbruck Doctoral College Mountain Climate and Environment website

Click here for more information on International Mountain Conference (IMC 2022)