Based on a Report submitted to the Endowment Committee by: Tim Lichtenberg – University of Groningen, The Netherlands
The Rocky Worlds II Conference was held at the University of Oxford, UK, July 2022. The Meteoritical Society Endowment Fund provided travel support for four graduate students and early career scientists from underrepresented countries. The conference had 105 in-person participants and around 70 online participants. It covered a variety of topics including meteoritics, planet formation and exoplanets. The workshop atmosphere was very dynamic and positive, and the workshop participants throughout reported a high satisfaction with the interdisciplinary spirit, and emphasis on interaction between the participants in poster sessions, plenum discussions, and afternoon debate activities.
Because of strong community interest, the organising teams decided to continue the conference series. The Rocky Worlds III conference will take place in January 2024 at ETH Zurich in Switzerland: https://www.rockyworlds.org/
In addition, to account for the changing nature of scientific conferences in a post-pandemic world with a changing climate, and to enable a global audience to participate in the exciting and expanding research on rocky planets at the interdisciplinary interfaces of astronomy and geoscience, we have installed a monthly virtual seminar series with speakers from around the world: https://discussions.rockyworlds.org
Submitted by: Rhian Jones, Chair of the Endowment Committee
Visit this webpage to learn more about grants supported by the Meteoritical Society Endowment Fund.