Meteorological Society of New Zealand (MetSoc) 2023 Annual Conference
The below article has been provided by Nava Fedaeff, President of MetSoc.
We had a remarkable week at our annual conference in Wellington in November 2023. There were 138 people registered. We ambitiously squeezed in 70 talks (featuring 16 student presenters), three keynote addresses, two workshops, a panel discussion, poster sessions, an AGM, and two social functions—all in three days! The diversity of content was truly enjoyable, and reconnecting with familiar faces while forging new connections added to the richness of the experience.
I want to extend my congratulations to our latest Kidson Medal Winner—Luke Harrington. Luke was awarded the 2022 Kidson Medal for work presented in his paper “Investigating event-specific drought attribution using self-organizing maps”, which was published in JGR Atmospheres. The Edward Kidson Medal recognises a scientist who has made a significant contribution that has advanced the science of meteorology and/or climatology.
Prizes were also awarded for conference presentations. These were:
- Best Lightning Talk: Nic Cullen (“What have two decades of continuous meteorological observations from Brewster Glacier revealed about glacier-climate interactions in the Southern Alps?”)
- Best Poster: Hayden Young (“Urban flask measurements of CO2 and CO at different site types in Auckland, New Zealand”)
- Best Student Talk: Kim de Vantier (“Using crowdsourced weather data to analyse hot temperature extremes in Dunedin, New Zealand”)
- Best Talk: Mark Schwarz (“Diagnostic analysis of the Auckland Anniversary flood of Jan 2023, with a view to its predictability”)
- Best Talk: Ciaran Doolin (“Exploring meteorological thought in 19th century New Zealand through transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute”).