Summer School on Speleothem Science in Brazil: a unique training experience for
our PhD student Iva
After a longer break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the speleothem science community members were finally gathered again at the fifth, long awaited, Summer School on Speleothem Science (S4). The event exceeded all our expectations thanks to the amazing organizing committee who managed to host the event in São Paulo, Brazil and despite the challenging location, to bring together students and experts from all around the world. The S4 event was held from the 6th of August to the 13th of August and it took place at two different locations – the city of São Paulo and PETAR state park. For those not familiar with the S4, it is a student-led training school aimed for both PhD students and early career researchers studying in the field of speleothem science.
The first part of the summer school took place at the Insititute of Geosciences at the University of São Paulo and included a comperhensive all-day programme of lectures and workshops held by world-leading experts in the speleothem science field such as prof. Francisco Cruz, prof. Haiwei Zhang, dr. Andrea Borsato, prof. Nicolas Strikis, prof. Kathleen Johnson, dr. Giselle Utida and many more. The lectures covered a variety of topics, starting from the basics of stable isotope geochemistry to very complex topics such as U-series dating or paleomagnetism. Several workshops were held: speleothem petrography, age-depth modelling and time series analysis were we applied the theoretical knowledge previously learned at the lectures.
One of the best parts of this training school were certainly the poster sessions where it was our turn to present our research to other colleagues and experts. The title of the poster I was presenting on behalf of our UNLOCK-CAVE research group was: „Investigating high-resolution palaeoclimate variability in South Central Europe by using speleothem record from Nova Grgosova cave, Croatia“. This was an amazing opportunity to communicate with the experts and start a discussion on potential difficulties that we are facing at the current stage of our research.
After three fulfilled days in São Paulo, it was time for a slightly less official part of our trip that took place in PETAR (Parque Estadual Turistico do Alto Ribeira), a region renowned for its beautiful caves. The programme included visits to six caves: Caverna do Couto, Caverna Laje Branca, Caverna do Morro Preto, Caverna de Santana, Caverna Alambari de Baixo and Caverna do Diabo. Each of these caves has a unique morphology as well as beautiful speleothems of impressive shapes and sizes. The field trips were followed by lectures in the evening hours and casual get-together at our beautiful lodging.
For PhD students starting their PhD journey, such as myself, events like this are of great importance not only for learning, but for meeting colleagues engaging in different speleothem science fields and expanding your network for future potential collaborations.