Greenland Science Week Conference
Today was the first day of the Greenland Science Week conference. I set off for the conference at about 8:00AM and finally got back to my hotel at around 8:45PM. I am once again worn out from a long but productive day!
The conference began with some opening remarks and a plenary discussion on the future of science in Greenland. The panelists responded to questions in Greenlandic, and I used a headset to hear live translations. The conversation covered a number of topics, but was centered around the importance of making local connections and emphasized the vital role of indigenous knowledge in the study of Greenland.
Most of the rest of the presentations throughout the day were in English, and covered so very many topics. I heard from people who study and monitor Greenland’s ecosystems, the impact of colonialism, geophysical processes leading to “pockmarks” (the largest being 800m in diameter!) on the ocean floor adjacent to Greenland’s coast, and so much more! I even had the opportunity to speak with someone who leads the effort to study and create images of the black hole at the center of our galaxy - one of the telescopes that is a part of the project is located in Greeland! In total, there were about 375 participants in the conference, and their areas of expertise were widespread. The one thing we all hold in common is our love of Greenland and it’s people.
After the talks wrapped up for the day, there was time set aside for a poster session. My team presented a poster on our project, QGreenland-Net, and I spoke with many people who were either interested in our work or who already knew about it and were excited to meet with us.
Once again, it was encouraging to hear from people who felt that our work is valuable. I had multiple people get visibly excited when they learned that I worked on the QGreenland project, and were eager to tell me about how they use it in their work. I am so proud to be a part of this project!
Finally, we had a conference dinner that included a variety of tasty foods including reindeer and lumpfish. Everything I tried was delicious. As we wrapped up dinner, a local Nuuk resident gave a talk about the mythology of Greenlandic beasts and spirits, which was rather entertaining!
As expected, I am once again pretty worn out after such a long day. I feel like I have achieved information overload!
Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, and I am looking forward to it. Probably best to get to sleep so that I have some energy for another long day tomorrow!