4 April 2018:
2017 SCAR Visiting Professor Dr Xavier Crosta has completed his exchange to the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, India. Dr Crosta is a senior scientist at the UMR 5805 EPOC (Environnements et Paléoenvironnements Océaniques et Continentaux), Université de Bordeaux. He was hosted at the NCAOR, by Dr Rahul Mohan. Read the full report here.
Dr Crosta was awarded the visit to India to train five PhD students and post-doctoral fellows on diatom taxonomy, diatom slide preparation and diatom-based transfer function. The group identified the species’ specific characteristics on the microscope, and worked on modern and fossil samples covering different time slices and different regions of the Southern Ocean. Dr Crosta also shared his experience of science with the trainees on aspects such as giving an oral presentation, writing papers and interpreting the data. The numerous discussions Dr Crosta had with the PhD students helped them to refine the objectives of their PhDs and to better select the sediment material they should work on.
During his visit Dr Crosta delivered three public lectures on Antarctic sea ice, late Holocene sea ice dynamics and environmental conditions off Kerguelen Islands. A short interview of him was video recorded by Mr. Rao Rakesh and will be used for Education and Outreach in schools and colleges. Furthermore, Dr. Crosta has decided to share his modern database (the reference dataset allowing estimates of past sea-surface temperatures and sea-ice cover; not published) with NCAOR colleagues who will help develop this modern database by the addition of new surface sediment samples. Immediate outcomes of his visit are joint papers and the co-coordination of a PhD on Southern Ocean Paleoceanography to start in the next few months.
Dr Crosta reflected “The entire visit was a fantastic experience both scientifically and personally. I would say that these kind of extended visits, enabling daily interactions with local colleagues, are pivotal to help developing collaborative networks. In my case, it helped me developing my network towards Asia.”
The SCAR Visiting Professor Scheme is directed at mid- to late-career scientists and academics (more than five years after completing their PhD) whose work contributes to the research objectives of SCAR, offering the opportunity for them to undertake a short-term visit (from one to four weeks) to another SCAR member country to provide training and mentoring. The core purpose of the Visiting Professor Scheme is to build capacity in countries with smaller or less-developed Antarctic research programmes.
A full list of the SCAR Visiting Professors together with the available Visit Reports are available at the Visiting Professors Awardees webpage.