In December 2023, San Francisco welcomed 25,000 researchers from across the globe to celebrate “Wide. Open. Science.” at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, AGU23. Among them were nearly 100 attendees from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, representing a variety of science areas, including environmental sciences, biology, national security sciences and computational sciences. The end-of-year meeting is a chance for attendees to share leading innovations and ideas, which can also spur enthusiasm for the year ahead.
Below, some of the ORNL AGU23 attendees share their thoughts on this year’s meeting and how they’re looking at the future of geophysical sciences in their areas.
Forrest Hoffman
Group Leader
Computational Earth Sciences Group
Computing & Computational Sciences
What were your biggest takeaways from AGU23?
It was gratifying to see so many of ORNL’s early career researchers eagerly presenting their science to such a large and diverse audience.
It’s also clear research groups all over the world are embracing machine learning for data science and modeling in the Earth and environmental sciences. Many teams are developing and applying foundational models for a variety of scaling and prediction applications. These applications are all enabled by high performance computing like we have at ORNL.
How does “wide open science” apply to how you’re thinking about your research goals for the next year?
Our projects have had more chances to share the excitement we have around free and open-source software that we develop, like DOE’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model, tools like the International Land Model Benchmarking package and the open data we curate and distribute for the global research community, like the simulation output available on the Earth System Grid Federation. One can easily argue that if codes and data are not open, they do not embody the principles of science.
It is clear today’s research community craves more ways to access and analyze data. They expect to have tools and libraries that are scalable, reliable and easy to use. These needs are driving priorities for new developments in Earth System Grid Federation technologies we are developing at ORNL and our partner laboratories.
Ben Sulman
R&D Staff
Plant-Soil Interactions Group
Environmental Sciences
What was your experience like at AGU23?
I had some great interactions with potential collaborators who are collecting measurements from a broad range of field sites and are interested in connecting with other researchers who can integrate their data with models. I was especially excited to see a lot of great measurement work being done in forested wetlands and marshes around the Southeast.
How does “wide open science” apply to how you’re thinking about your research goals for the next year?
I think being willing to share data opens many opportunities for faster scientific progress and greater impact that goes beyond any individual project or researcher. Building those connections, being proactive about communication and sharing allows us to take advantage of those opportunities.
Colleen Iversen
Director, NGEE Arctic
Lead, Plant-Soil Interactions Group
Environmental Sciences
Did you have any “aha” moments at AGU23?
Taken together, I think that the scientific discoveries of the international Arctic community are pointing us toward the next generation of science experiments at high latitudes.
How does “wide open science” apply to how you’re thinking about your research goals for the next year?
Wide open science is foundational for our scientific success. We openly share data with teams across the Arctic and the world, and we are increasingly sharing lessons learned on developing a culture of safety, data sharing and inclusion.
The opportunities to develop relationships in person and to learn from the next generation of Arctic scientists are some of the things that make AGU special.
Budhu Bhaduri
Division Director
Geospatial Science and Human Security
National Security Sciences
Did you have any “aha” moments at AGU23?
Listening to Amitav Ghosh’s keynote address on the first day was an amazing experience. The way he told the story of criticality of human dimension on climate adaptation was truly revealing. I realized that engineered mitigation and adaptation strategies are destined to fail unless implemented with community involvement as a cornerstone.
How does this year’s theme, “wide open science,” apply to how you’re thinking about your strategic leadership goals for the next year?
Clearly, human security is a key component of climate change and climate resilience. While ORNL’s human security research is mostly focused on national security applications, we will certainly integrate open science topics such as climate-induced migration, vector-borne diseases and water security in our 2024 strategy. We will ensure the topics are relevant and aligned with research agendas of civilian agencies, including NASA, NOAA, EPA and the State Department.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science. — Audrey Carson
