The Virtual Herdman Symposium 2021: Dynamic Earth
This year's Herdman Symposium took place on the 20th and 21st of February and explored the key evolving systems of geoscience through our theme of ‘Dynamic Earth’. Our symposium is an annual public geoscience event aimed at undergraduate students, hosted by the University of Liverpool’s Herdman Society, and attracting over 250 attendees. This was the Herdman Society’s first virtual symposium and the first to be run over two days.
The virtual symposium was a great success, attracting 300 attendees from Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania! Our audience consisted of people from a range of disciplines including A-Level and university students, teachers, and industry professionals as well as local geological societies.
Herdman Symposium 2021 attendees.
The Herdman Symposium is a great opportunity for networking and alumni reunions, and we wanted to make sure that this was still possible in a virtual world. We organised a Discord server for the first time, which was joined by 100 participants and our speakers. Individual channels were set-up to allow people to introduce themselves, discuss the talks and ask questions as part of the Q&A sessions. Participants of the Discord were also able to privately message each other, with quite a few noting that the server was more engaging than for an in-person event.
This year’s Symposium Secretaries introductions on the Discord Server.
This year's talks included a variety of geological topics, presented by six diverse speakers. Thanks to the virtual nature of the event, we were able to invite speakers from not only the UK but the US and Italy too!
On day one we had Dr Jacopo Taddeucci from the INGV tell us all about the hard life of pyroclasts in between a break and a rest. This was followed by the University of Liverpool’s very own Dr David McNamara on the role of geothermal geologists in changing our energy sector. Day 1 concluded with a journey through space with Professor Sonia Tikoo from the University of Stanford with her talk ‘magnetic fields in the inner solar system’.
On the second day, we began with Professor Christopher Jackson from the University of Manchester on the use of 3D seismic reflection data and outlined the key advances in what he believes to be an underused data type. Professor Christine Janis from the University of Bristol then discussed how we can utilise mammal fossils as evidence for changing grassland environments, and their link to climate change. Our final speaker was Dr Gillian Apps from the University of Texas at Austin who gave her talk on how convection churning deep in the Earth’s mantle impacts surface processes, creating dynamic topography.
In a survey we sent out after the event, several attendees praised the organisation of a virtual symposium to keep up with the tradition during these difficult times. They specifically highlight the accessibility of watching the talks from the comfort of their own home. We asked if future symposiums should include a virtual component, with over half of the responses saying yes.
Results from the post-symposium survey.
In replacement for our yearly bake sale to raise awareness for Geology for Global Development (GfGD), we put together a fundraising page: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HerdmanSymposiumGfGD. We were able to raise a massive £474.59 (plus gift aid), the highest in a recent University of Liverpool event for GfGD.
As this year’s symposium was virtual, all the talks were recorded. These are now available through the University of Liverpool Earth Science’s YouTube channel for anyone who could not attend or would like to watch the weekend again: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM3IqsWhqrP8-ZsDX8wIDEjly_YkvT8nc
Jade Hrintchuk and Megan Davies (Herdman Symposium Secretaries 2020/21)