Marie Curie conference
Despite not getting enough sleep the first half of the week, I still managed to get up early both Thursday and Friday to take the train to Turn for the Marie Curie Conference. I decided not to bother getting a hotel there, but rather did it as two day-trips. This was actually easier on Thursday, since I tried for the 6:40 train, so the temp for the 35 minute walk to the train station was still nice and reasonable. Alas, it turns out to not be possible to purchase tickets for that train (which was a high-speed train with an ultimate destination of Paris), so I wound up having to wait for the 08:00 train. That one got me to Turin a bit after 9:00, so I missed the first part of the program, but don't feel too bad about that. Today I opted to sleep in and catch the 08:00 train on purpose, and missed less of the first talk of the morning as I already knew where I was going and how to get there.
The conference venue was interesting. The building was built in the 1920's as a Fiat manufacturing plant, and it is HUGE. In the 1990's an architect took charge of converting it to a mulit-use facility, including conference venues and shopping malls. Much to my delight, it is also air conditioned, which is a good thing. Thursday's sessions didn't end till nearly 7pm (at which time the poster session was to have begun, but I opted not to stay for them), so the worst of the heat of the day was over for the 45 minute walk from the site to the train station (I'd taken a bus there in the morning, but couldn't be bothered waiting for one for the return). Today's session ended at 13:00, so the heat of the day was in full swing. It was 37 C according to the sign I passed. Fortunately, I started out feeling fine as I'd been in a cool room all day, and I kept to the shade as much as possible, and put my (wet!) hat on my head every time I had to cross a patch of sunlight (like when crossing streets). I also drank plenty of water and stopped for some gelato on the way, so the walk was doable without too much suffering.
When I reached the train station there was a huge crowd waiting at the machine to purchase tickets, so I joined one of the lines at random and waited; striking up a conversation with a fellow conference attendee (conference bags are such a good ID marker). While we were talking the woman at the front of my line suddenly collapsed (probably from the heat!). The people standing closer to her immediately started doing what they could to help by putting her feet up, putting a bit of padding under her head, fanning her with business papers, and even putting a small dribble of water onto her forehead. She wasn't out for long and soon opened her eyes, but was in no shape to get up, and looked very out of it. Those of us who had been in that line shuffled over to a new line, and no one attempted to use that machine while she was laying in front of it (I'm not clear if she'd been about to purchase tickets, had just purchased them, or was in the middle of her transaction, since I wasn't looking at her when she fell). After a bit the train station employees came round with a wheel chair, and took her somewhere else to recover, but before they did the people helping her used her phone, with her permission, to call someone to let them know what her status was. Seeing this really underscored for me the importance of all of those steps I'd taken to keep from overheating during my walk.
I enjoyed parts of the conference, but as I posted to my geo-blog, I wasn't very happy with two of the sessions. I was very happy with today's funding session--it looks like the EU does have funding available to which I could apply to do research in Norway. Now I just need to do the research on exactly which program(s) apply to me, and come up with a good proposal. I also did a speech, which seemed to go over very well. My two colleagues from the c2c Research team who also attended the conference seemed surprised to find out that my abstract was one of the ones chosen for talks instead of posters.
I have a couch surfer coming tonight for a couple of days, so don't know when I'll be on line next. Then I've got the week to try to get caught up on uni work before flying to Germany for the Academia Della Danza.
The conference venue was interesting. The building was built in the 1920's as a Fiat manufacturing plant, and it is HUGE. In the 1990's an architect took charge of converting it to a mulit-use facility, including conference venues and shopping malls. Much to my delight, it is also air conditioned, which is a good thing. Thursday's sessions didn't end till nearly 7pm (at which time the poster session was to have begun, but I opted not to stay for them), so the worst of the heat of the day was over for the 45 minute walk from the site to the train station (I'd taken a bus there in the morning, but couldn't be bothered waiting for one for the return). Today's session ended at 13:00, so the heat of the day was in full swing. It was 37 C according to the sign I passed. Fortunately, I started out feeling fine as I'd been in a cool room all day, and I kept to the shade as much as possible, and put my (wet!) hat on my head every time I had to cross a patch of sunlight (like when crossing streets). I also drank plenty of water and stopped for some gelato on the way, so the walk was doable without too much suffering.
When I reached the train station there was a huge crowd waiting at the machine to purchase tickets, so I joined one of the lines at random and waited; striking up a conversation with a fellow conference attendee (conference bags are such a good ID marker). While we were talking the woman at the front of my line suddenly collapsed (probably from the heat!). The people standing closer to her immediately started doing what they could to help by putting her feet up, putting a bit of padding under her head, fanning her with business papers, and even putting a small dribble of water onto her forehead. She wasn't out for long and soon opened her eyes, but was in no shape to get up, and looked very out of it. Those of us who had been in that line shuffled over to a new line, and no one attempted to use that machine while she was laying in front of it (I'm not clear if she'd been about to purchase tickets, had just purchased them, or was in the middle of her transaction, since I wasn't looking at her when she fell). After a bit the train station employees came round with a wheel chair, and took her somewhere else to recover, but before they did the people helping her used her phone, with her permission, to call someone to let them know what her status was. Seeing this really underscored for me the importance of all of those steps I'd taken to keep from overheating during my walk.
I enjoyed parts of the conference, but as I posted to my geo-blog, I wasn't very happy with two of the sessions. I was very happy with today's funding session--it looks like the EU does have funding available to which I could apply to do research in Norway. Now I just need to do the research on exactly which program(s) apply to me, and come up with a good proposal. I also did a speech, which seemed to go over very well. My two colleagues from the c2c Research team who also attended the conference seemed surprised to find out that my abstract was one of the ones chosen for talks instead of posters.
I have a couch surfer coming tonight for a couple of days, so don't know when I'll be on line next. Then I've got the week to try to get caught up on uni work before flying to Germany for the Academia Della Danza.