by Lou Chevrollier, Marie Bolander and Ate Jaarsma
Just like our purple algae on the ice, we were supposed to colonise the GFZ Potzdam on the 12th of November for the first full team gathering. The covid-19 virus interrupted our plans -and similarly another may prevent the algae from spreading on the ice… that's for Laura P. to discover!-, so we have practiced our Zoom skills instead. Here are some observations from a few of the newest recruits to the team who joined the meeting with the entire group for the first time. We'll take you to our 6 steps tutorial on how to turn a 5hours zoom meeting into a non-boring, and even exciting experience…
- Start the meeting by introducing lots of weird names everyone has to repeat 3 times to get it right. Laura P. took care of warming up our brains by telling us about viruses on the ice, as well as the efforts currently ongoing to culture the famous purple algae. She introduced one of her favourite fungus, which is able to swim and is named Chytridiomycota. Later, Martyn tried desperately to pronounce it correctly… but to be fair, we probably would have also failed, after 4 hours of Zoom.
- Make sure you have a brave member to dare asking for breaks even when the PI chairing suggests we should go on. The problem when you are discussing exciting topics with interested and curious people is that you're very likely to go over schedule. Then, two solutions arise: either you extend the planning or you cut the breaks… There, you need someone to stand up for the negotiation: no way, you can't bargain with snack breaks! Thanks Eva!
- Get the discussion emulsify so much that PhD students want to revise their (freshly created) plans. This is the point where you find out your plan will never be set in stone, and communicating your ideas may leave you with more questions than you had to begin with. But that is a good thing and really confirms that these scientific meetings are worth all the Zoom time. Ate is now on its way to update his plan to an even better one!
- Make space for weird discoveries such as the presence of testosterone on the ice by Laura H. and the possibility of remaining shower-free for 4 weeks of fieldwork (this time we will not mention any name…)
- Listen to the PIs trying to reassure the new PhDs students on their potential apprehension about camping on the ice: "It's not that cold, I was sleeping in underwear!" Thanks Alex, that was the most convincing argument!
- Last but not least: build a team of which members listen to the others, are happy to learn, share, and help
Although we would all have enjoyed this first meeting to happen at GFZ, this online version did not prevent us from sharing our respective works in a positive atmosphere. Getting feedback on our work is essential to make progress, as other members can help spot mistakes, give another view angle on a dataset, introduce new methods or suggest different implications of the results. In addition, carrying a synergetic project, especially in time of covid-19, definitely requires getting in touch with each other to keep a coherent direction and develop collaboration between members. It became clear that the synergy between us is working, as many collaboration ideas have been set out on the spot during these discussions. Having a multi-disciplinary group of people with a wide range of expertise is definitely a great bonus in this aspect. We also discussed upcoming fieldwork, and what to deal with when living on the ice for several weeks. For us fieldwork-newbies, it was reassuring to hear that we can build on the experience of the rest of the team to help us stay warm, nourished, well-rested, polar bear and crevasse safe, but most of all, happy.
At the end of this meeting, we all came to the same conclusion : "I learned so much, and I'm so excited for what's to come!"… and our smiles on the picture below say it all.
Luckily it was still possible to get a group photo (thanks Elisa!), with the bonus of peeking into everybody's home, such as Chris and Eva who were apparently ready for fieldwork…
PS: The Deep Purple team grew quickly over the last few months, and is expanding still, so expect to see the newest members introduce themselves in this blog over the coming time… Stay safe, and tuned!