ATTO Workshop September 2019
From September 16th to 20th, scientists of the ATTO project met in Manaus for our 2019 workshop. This was already our third workshop, although we never had one on this scale before. Unlike before, the focus of this meeting wasn’t so much on technical or administrative topics. Instead, we dedicated it to scientific exchange. As a result, many of the over 100 participants were MS and PhD students. The National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) hosted the workshop at the Bosque de Ciencia on the INPA campus.
During the 2019 workshop we dedicated a large amount of time to poster sessions in a relaxed atmosphere. That way, many participants had the opportunity to present their work and had time for personal exchange with project partners. In addition, we placed another emphasis on interdisciplinary breakout sessions for topics where the research questions of different working groups overlap. Their goal was to create synergies in order to fully exploit previously untapped potential of our unique project and existing infrastructure. Both were very well received, and many lively discussions took place over the course of the entire workshop. And, as it so often happens in science, those discussions led to uncounted new research questions. The consortium wants to follow up on these in the coming years.
We would like to have all posters and presentations uploaded to the ATTO data portal. This is voluntary but will be a useful way for others within the ATTO project who could not attend the workshop to get to know what you are working on and potentially to make connections and start new collaborations.
ATTO Workshop June 2018
From June 18th to 20th the leading ATTO scientists gathered at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany, to discuss future research at ATTO. The institute’s managing director Prof. Susan Trumbore, who is also the German coordinator for the international ATTO project, had invited the almost 60 scientists from 20 research institutions and universities to Jena. The purpose of the meeting was to jointly compile the most urgent scientific questions that should be addressed in the coming years.
For three days, previously established and newly formed, cross-cutting working groups discussed the current state of their research, their planes and goals for the future, as well as giving updates on infrastructure and scheduling. Their results will be summarized in a new science plan and expedition license. Additionally, the new ATTO data portal (www.ATTOdata.org) was presented at the workshop after discussing and agreeing on a new data policy.
And because strong personal relationships are the foundation of excellent science, the multinational research team made the most of their rare time together and extended the meeting into the evening hours with dinner and drinks to socialize and get to know one another better.
ATTO Integration-Workshop October 2017
On October 4th and 5th, ATTO researchers gathered at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA / MCTIC) in Manaus, Brazil. INPA researcher Carlos Alberto Quesada and project coordinator on the Brazilian side hosted ̴50 of the project’s leading scientists of different nationalities to strengthen the relationship between the scientists working at research institutes and universities in Brazil, Germany and other countries. Such in-person workshops are also crucial to improve the scientific collaboration of the project by updating one another on their progress and discussing how to best integrate the different aspects of their research.
One of the main outcomes of the meeting was the shared vision to create a new generation of researchers to work at ATTO. To achieve this goal it is necessary to establish a training and education program and to attract fellowships and postgraduate programs geared towards Amazon research at ATTO. Both German and Brazilian partners will contribute to this effort, which will in turn strengthen the true scientific collaboration between the research institutes in both countries.