The Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM) is known to be the flagship for the ocean sciences that takes place every two years in the United States. In 2020 the conference was held in San Diego, California, between February 16th and 21st. With more than 6300 participating scientists it is the largest conference within the ocean sciences community. From the interactions between the tropical oceans with the warm atmosphere to the interaction between the polar oceans with sea-ice and calving glaciers, the OSM provides the possibility to meet people from all ocean-related fields of research. Oral sessions, poster presentations, workshops, open panel discussions (called Town Halls), or social activities; there are a lot of opportunities to get in touch with other scientists in different settings.
Personally, being able to participate in the OSM was an excellent opportunity to network with all the people working in my field of research. I also had the chance to meet with my supervisor Paul Myers from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. We discussed my project and the planned research stay in Canada during my PhD. Often conferences also allow for catching up with people who you met earlier in your scientific career. In this case, I enjoyed meeting with Vasco Müller, a successful ArcTrain Alumni of the first cohort, whom I first met in 2015 during a research cruise on Maria S. Merian. All in all, I left San Diego with many new thoughts and ideas for my project, making the conference a time worth of remembrance.