Inaugural Midwest Student Conference

Andrew attended the inaugural Midwest Student Conference on Atmospheric Research the weekend of October 7, 2017. This conference was organized entirely by graduate students from atmospheric science degree-granting universities in the Midwest, and facilitated by several faculty members at the University of Illinois.

Keynote speakers for this conference included Dr. Louis Uccellini, the director of the National Weather Service, and Tom Skilling, on-air meteorologist for WGN based in Chicago. “Having the director of the National Weather Service and one of the nation’s premier on-air meteorologists at a student organized conference”, Andrew recalls, “speaks volumes about both the effort put into organizing this conference and how much these leaders in our field care about the youngest members of the community”. Both Dr. Uccellini and Mr. Skilling attended student presentations and asked many questions regardless of the topic being presented.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of this conference was the conference talks themselves. Each talk was designed to simulate an AMS or AGU presentation (12 minute talk with 3 minutes for questions). Every person in the audience was given a feedback form and asked to record their thoughts on the presentation. Presenters were critiqued on everything from voice clarity and composure to content quality and conveying of results to the audience. These feedback forms were emailed to presenters within a few weeks of the conference. Andrew particularly appreciated these forms, that are meant to be constructive and offer advice that isn’t easily attained in other settings.

The next MSCAR conference is tentatively scheduled to take place again next fall and the University of Illinois–Urbana/Champaign is likely to host it again.