Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund Report – Nikki Sridhar (2020, DPhil Earth Sciences)

This July I attended the annual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference, hosted in Lyon, France. This was the first time I was able to present my PhD work (in poster format) to the wider cosmochemistry and meteorite community, and I received lots of invaluable feedback and comments, which I hope to implement in the future!

The talks and posters relating to my session were particularly interesting and allowed me to get a better picture of the state of our field, and the new, exciting research being carried out across different groups. Goldschmidt also allowed me to finally meet collaborators and network with other researchers in my field, which was a great experience.

Since the conference is so large and spans so many disciplines, I also enjoyed attending talks in unrelated sessions, with highlights including determining the ages of river sharks via the isotopic compositions of their vertebrae, and determining food chains and dietary habits of Pleistocene taxa! This gave me an insight into the wide-ranging and wonderful applications of isotopic geochemistry, which is an opportunity that is probably unique to such a large conference!

In-between the numerous talks and record-breaking heat, I managed to explore some of the historic centre of Lyon, as well as try some traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, and watch the Bastille Day fireworks from the city centre. This opportunity was only possible through the generosity of the OMT travel grant, which allowed me the opportunity to attend my first, large, in-person geochemistry conference.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 20 October 2023

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