Every year, this week-long conference, held by AGU, is anticipated by scientists around the world and is noted as the world’s largest earth and space science convention. As a sophomore majoring in Earth and Environmental Sciences with a passion for the cryosphere, I was very eager to attend this meeting.

This past summer I participated in the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an 8-week academic and expeditionary program during which students traverse the 75-mile distance across the Juneau Icefield from Juneau, Alaska to Atlin, British Columbia participating in long-running surveys of glacier dynamics and mass balance, state-of-the-art scientific research, academic lectures, and independent research projects.

A team of nine students including myself gathered water samples on the Juneau Icefield and analyzed them for their isotopic content. A poster for our project titled A Survey of Spatial and Seasonal Water Isotope Variability on the Juneau Icefield, Alaska was created and presented at AGU. Because I have never attended a science conference before, this conference was an excellent opportunity for me to showcase the results from my summer research and to meet others within the scientific community. Furthermore, I am currently in contact with a research scientist to discuss opportunities for me to get involved in his research this summer on the Wolverine Glacier in Alaska.