Hello!
In my last blog post I wrote about the transformation from polar night to lighter days. A
couple of weeks ago the sun showed itself in Longyearbyen, and we are now moving towards
the midnight sun. Although I’m used to the polar night in Tromsø, seeing the sun again has
been such an incredible feeling, and you can almost feel this different vibe amongst everyone
here.
Since last update I’ve started with the planning of a webinar that’s being held in May. As a
response to new challenges posed from the pandemic, SIOS started a webinar series with
monthly webinars of different topics. I’m happy to be part of the organization of this next
webinar, where the theme will be terrestrial biology. The webinar will consist of different
speakers that can share their research in the Arctic as well as potential knowledge gaps within
the field. Since I’m also part of a research project (AB207) about Svalbard reindeer, I have
the possibility to participate as a speaker in the webinar and share my findings in the project.
This will be a great opportunity to gaining new skills like how to communicate science.
During these weeks I have also learned more about coding on website, including how to
incorporate images, which is completely new to me. By reading through FAQs from the State
of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report of 2020, I’m making weekly Facebook
posts with answers to the questions. The report highlights research conducted in and around
Svalbard within SIOS, and when reading the different chapters I feel my understanding of the
Arctic environment and its challenges increases. I would characterize most of my work tasks
as communication, and they contribute to a learning curve where I’m slowly getting better at
how to communicate in different settings. This time working at SIOS and learning what it’s
all about, I’m getting a better understanding of how different scientific fields can work
together in order to fully comprehend the state of the Arctic.
The next weeks I will continue working on social media and publishing some videos on
YouTube. I will also peak into data management and continue working on the next webinar.
Write you later!
Maren
