This was the MeteoXchange Conference 2025

The virtual MeteoXchange conference, organised by early career scientists from several European countries, was held for the fourth time at the beginning of April. For two days, young scientists from all over the world had the opportunity to exchange ideas and present their scientific research in the fields of atmospheric sciences. Bachelor’s and Master’s theses as well as doctoral projects were presented.

The conference is ideally scheduled to practise presentations and posters for the EGU conference taking place a few weeks later. Thanks to our sponsors Copernicus.org and the European Meteorological Society (EMS), very attractive prizes could be awarded this year: For the best poster a free participation at the EMS Annual Meeting in Ljubljana in September, and for the best presentation a free publication in one of the Copernicus Open Access journals. Congratulations to the winners! This year we once again received support from the EMS Awards Committee, which selects the Outstanding Poster Award during the Annual Meeting in order to nominate the best poster for the MeteoXchange conference. All oral presentations were also judged by a small jury. In addition, all participants had the opportunity to take part in a vote, which was also taken into account for the selection.

In preparation for the conference and the upcoming abstract submission deadline, Julian Alberto Giles (University of Bonn) gave a short introduction entitled ‘How to conference?’ During this year’s conference there were many excellent presentations, two poster sessions and two keynote lectures by Stephanie Mayer (NORCE Climate and Environment and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research) and Damjan Jelić (Founder of Next Generation Science Leader initiative). The number of participants is increasing from year to year, the positive feedback from participants and the quality of the presentations are motivation enough to continue the concept next year.

There is no provisional date for the next conference yet. The organisation is expected to start in September. If you are interested, please contact the organisation team at info@meteoxchange.de or join the mailing list so you don’t miss any updates.

Stories from our two award winners about their participation in this year’s conference will hopefully inspire even more young scientists to take part in next year’s conference themselves. Giulio Bongiovanni (University School for Advanced Studies Pavia) reports: “Attending the MeteoXchange conference was a truly enriching experience. Presenting my work and discussing it with such a diverse and engaged audience was very rewarding. I received insightful feedback and gathered many ideas for the future development of my work. The event provided an excellent platform, Gather, allowing for a realistic simulation of an on-site conference. Although the meeting was virtual, the careful organization and the used platform facilitated connections among people to exchange ideas, present ongoing research, and interact with fellow researchers engaging in open and stimulating discussions. This was particularly clear during poster presentations, and, from my PhD experience, I can say that I noted no clear differences between the two modes, and thus I can strongly recommend MeteoXchange for all early-career researchers. Personally, I particularly appreciated the interdisciplinary nature of the topics covered by the conference, aligning to the most recent lines of climate research, with a high quality of contributions from all participants. I also recognize the big efforts in organizing the keynote presentations, providing an incredible enrichment for all attendants and are one of the most valuable aspects of the meeting. Initiatives like MeteoXchange are thus extremely valuable in supporting early-career researchers, helping them to connect with the wider scientific community, and creating a bridge towards further research steps. I am very grateful to the organizing committee for this opportunity, and I look forward to meeting many of you at the EMS conference in Ljubljana!”

Melanie Fülster (MSc student at ETH Zurich): “In April I had the pleasure of attending the 4th MeteoXchange Conference. While I was initially unsure how an online conference would compare to an in-person event, I was really impressed with the experience—and especially with the platform, Gather.Town. Every participant had a little avatar they could customise and use to explore the conference area. This made it possible to browse posters and approach other participants just like you would in a physical venue and was much more fun than a normal video conference meeting. The online format had another benefit: It was incredible to get to listen to presentations from such an international and diverse cohort. The quality of the presentations was outstanding, with talks covering a wide range of topics—from the boundary layer to the stratosphere, the poles to the tropics, and deserts to glaciers. It is an honour to be awarded the Best Oral Presentation Prize given the high standard of work that was presented. I would like to thank the organisers for their excellent work, which made the conference so successful and enjoyable. We were given plenty of information on “how to conference” both before and during the event, the session chairs did a fantastic job of sticking to the schedule, and they had a good overview of the “room” during Q&As. I cannot recommend attending the next MeteoXChange conference enough. There are not many opportunities for early-career researchers to participate in such an international exchange in general, but on top of that you can do it from the comfort of your home and without any conference fees! Trust me, it will be worth it.”