A dedicated student session at the 2023 Natural Hazards Research Forum has helped support impact-focused higher education research in the natural hazards sector and enhanced the wide range of research being completed by postgraduates and early career researchers.
The Natural Hazards Research Forum was hosted by Natural Hazards Research Australia at RMIT University in May. It was the Centre’s annual research forum, bringing together people from natural hazards research, industry, government and community to share knowledge and learn from each other. A key focus of the Forum program was postgraduate and early career research, which was featured across the three days with dedicated student presentations, posters, research workshop engagement and networking opportunities.
In the morning of Day 1 of the Forum, the Centre hosted a special student session that brought all Centre-funded postgraduate and early career researchers together.
“It was a great opportunity to hear directly from the next generation of natural hazard researchers,” said Prof Deborah Bunker, the Centre’s Chief Science Officer, who opened the day with a welcome and overview of the Centre’s higher education program.
“Our postgraduate and early career researchers are doing exciting and wide-ranging work across a range of natural hazard-related disciplines, and this session allowed us to meet them all in person, hear what they’re doing and understand how we can better support them as they progress through their research careers.”
Featured as part of this session were:
- a presentation from Dr Marco de Sisto from RMIT University on how to give your research impact
- a ‘research speed dating’ opportunity for students to meet each other and share their ongoing projects
- a presentation from the Centre’s communication team members Bethany Patch and Radhiya Fanham on how to communicate effectively for impact-focused research
- a workshop on climate science for natural hazards researchers, led by John Clarke from CSIRO.
Phoebe Quinn, one of the Centre’s funded postgraduates and a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, attended the session and highlighted its benefits.
“The research speed dating was a great way to learn about the fascinating work that students from all sorts of backgrounds and disciplines are doing,” Phoebe said. “It was also really useful to practice talking about my own project and compare how it landed with different people.”
Many postgraduate and early career researchers also gave short presentations on their research throughout Day 2 of the Forum, to the hundreds of delegates in attendance.
You can learn more about the Forum and access the student presentations and posters here.