45th IAH International Congress: “Groundwater and Life: Science and Technology into Action”, Daejeon, Korea

The 45th IAH Congress, held in Daejeon, Korea, was again a momentous occasion to meet and socialize with early career hydrogeologists, especially from East Asia.

ECHN Annual General Meeting

The ECHN activities started on Monday afternoon with the Annual General Meeting (AGM). About 25 attendees were present, most of whom were keen to learn more about how the network operates.

The AGM was the occasion to present the new chair, Jared van Rooyen from South Africa  and co-chair Stefania Stevenazzi (Italy). The Steering Committee and ECHN as a whole would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our outgoing chair, Carlos Maldaner, and co-chair, Rui Hugman, for their incredible contributions to the growth and success of the ECHN. The continued efforts of our steering committee members allows for many opportunities for Early Career Scientists in groundwater and your hard work has not gone unnoticed.

ECHN Social Function

As soon as the AGM finished we all moved to the themed venue for the traditional ECHN Social Function. A large number of early careers, mid -career and  senior members took part of the meeting, making it a massive success! Attendees were challenged in drawing hydrogeological concepts , from the easiest t like “ confined aquifer”, to the hardest ones like “water stress”. We called this game “PictoHydro”, and each team had to guess as much words as possible drawn by the illustrator in 1 minute.

Best ECHN oral and poster presentations

Among all the excellent scientific contributions from early career hydrogeologists running for the best oral and poster presentations, we were pleased to congratulate:

–     Suraiya Fatema (Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany) – Best oral presentation,

–     Batdemberel Bayanzul (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan) – Best poster presentation.

ECH Key Note

This year the congress was closed by a keynote lecture from an early career hydrogeologist. Jared van Rooyen shared his experience in the use of social media for promoting scientific research. The lecture was well received by the congress participants, noting down tips and experiences Jared shared, and we certainly know that early careers will enhance their communication skills through the social media in the near future..