A Career Development, Networking, and Mentoring Event was held from 4pm-7pm on Sunday, May 13, at the Boise Centre as part of the 33rd Conference on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology/12th Fire and Forest Meteorology Symposium/Fourth Conference on Biogeosciences.

The event had a focus on specific issues female scientists in the early stages of their career might face, but the event was open to all and we hope it will be interesting, regardless of gender identity or career stage.

As part of this event, we  paired participants in small (2 to 6 people) mentor/mentee groups, with a mix of senior scientists and early career scientists in each goup. We  also tried to pair people by their specific interests (academic positions vs industry vs government scientists, work life balance, funding opportunities, etc). We then lead a discussion session (ca 90 minutes), where we posed some general questions, helping the participants in the small groups to get to know each other, followed by more concrete career advise questions, which the participants could discuss in their small groups. We hope this facilitated a meaningful and in-depth discussion of the topics each participant is personally interested in and hopefully resulted in some lasting connections that can be helpful down the road.

Following the guided discussion session was an open networking reception where participants could continue their discussions and mingle with other participants outside of their smaller subgroups.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this event, please contact Elke Eichelmann ([email protected]).