#AGU20 will help Shape the Future of Science

This year’s Fall Meeting theme is Shaping the Future of Science, designed to focus on how the decisions we make today will affect tomorrow. Each week of #AGU20 is designed around this theme, and will hit on major areas outlined in AGU’s strategic plan and its vision for the next 10 years.

In week one, which runs 1-4 December, we will be focusing on issues at the forefront of creating a more diverse and inclusive community, from supporting our indigenous scientists and working with indigenous communities to addressing diversity and racism in geoscience and academia.

• Plenaries will feature scientists and members of these communities, including panels with scientists and indigenous community members from the Amazon, a conversation on racism in academia and a plenary talk by Freeman Hrabowski, who has focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and empowered culture at UMBC.
• Sessions and scientific workshops will focus on solutions science, or how we can take our science from being useable to being used, and delving into the new science of GeoHealth, where geoscience meets health and environmental sciences.
• We will finish the week with a Town Hall on AGU’s new strategic plan, which lays the groundwork to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable geoscience community, while also moving our science forward.

Week two is the core week of #AGU20, when scientific sessions and posters begin. This week is all about honoring and recognizing our community, kicking off with a Science Roll Call of AGU sections and members around the world, and including our annual honors tribute. This week is also all about science – from discoveries to solutions – and the ongoing theme of working toward greater diversity and inclusion in the geosciences.

• Our plenaries this week feature former astronaut and STEAM advocate Leland Melvin; two female polar ambassadors from “Hearts in the Ice,” who spent 9 months collecting data and teaching remotely on the ice sheet; Infectious disease expert Rita Colwell, whose new book focuses on sexism in science; NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan; and a special plenary around COVID-19 with Dr. Howard Frumkin, an internist and epidemiologist.

The last week of AGU, with more scientific sessions, posters and town halls, will continue with similar themes to week two, while also featuring plenaries on science communication, community science, and the global issue of diversity, equity and inclusion.

• Plenaries will be from Andrea Wulf, author of a biography of Alexander Von Humboldt; community science with John Fitzpatrick; and a panel discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion from an international AGU perspective.

We will wrap up #AGU20 with a panel discussion facing the reality we are all facing – how institutions are dealing with the challenges of COVID-19.

By 17 December, we will be filled to the brim with science and inspired about working together to continue to advance our science into the next decade and beyond.