CLIMATE AND EARTH
SYSTEM SCIENCES
Photo: UHH/Denstorf
8 January 2024
Photo: Vito Avakumović
G'day SICSS,
Vito here, checking in from the Land Down Under.
I have successfully settled in for a year in Melbourne as a participant in a joint-phd program between Uni Hamburg and Uni Melbourne. As a joint-phd student, I have an opportunity to experience working on my PhD in two different settings, on two different sides of the world. Needless to say, the opportunity is exciting on a personal level but also a great way to expand my network and advance my career. In the last three months that I have been here, I have learned so much and met many extraordinary people, and I am looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring.
I am situated at Parkville Campus at Uni Melbourne, which is the main and the oldest campus of the University (yes, UniMelb has a couple of campuses spread around the city), located just north of the Central Business District (CBD), where the heart of the city is. The campus was established in 1853, and its architecture is a beautiful blend of old and modern architecture. In Uni Melbourne, I am administrated at the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES), a new school that came as a merger last year.
Upon arrival to the campus for the first time, I was warmly welcomed by my Melbourne supervisor, Prof. Tom Kompas, who showed me around and introduced me to my new home department. Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity and Risk Analysis (CEBRA) is a group of first-class scientists who work on issues of biosecurity, focusing on stakeholder and policy-making advice. With Tom, I will be focusing on large-scale climate-economic modeling using a highly resolved intertemporal CGE model, making it unique in terms of computability and size. Besides being great scientists, CEBRA colleagues are a group of fun and interesting people who are pleasant to be around. They have accepted me as one of their own, for which I am really grateful.
Since CEBRA is a team of biosecurity experts, I reached out to Melbourne Climate Futures (MCF) to see if there is any way I could engage with them. As a result, I was welcomed to be a member of the MCF Academy, an interdisciplinary cohort that brings together PhDs and early career researchers who work on climate change and sustainability-related issues. Being a part of that cohort, besides that it is a great opportunity to meet fellow climate researchers, helps me with keeping track of my work with biweekly meetings where people report on their progress and their well-being. The academy offers many different workshops that I will be happy to attend at the start of the next semester (February).
All in all, this is just a small snapshot of what has been going on. As a person who has never left Europe, being here is an invaluable experience, with every day bringing something new. There is a small interesting story about how I got to come here in the first place. I remember having a conversation with my friend one day in early 2022 about how I would like to go somewhere far, far away, and how it would be also convenient that I know the language. Funnily enough, Australia never came to my mind at the time. The very next day, I received an e-mail from Alex (Dr. Alexandra Franzke) about this opportunity to go to Melbourne.
Hence, I would like to thank and acknowledge the SICSS office for introducing me to this opportunity and helping me take the first steps towards it. Ever since I started my master's program at MICSS in 2018, the SICSS office has been nothing but supportive.
Last but not least, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation (a big, big shoutout) to Prof. Hermann Held for his outstanding support throughout the whole process and his dedication to making my journey easier and more enjoyable.
Final thought. Doing a joint-phd so far from your home brings some challenges on the table, but what is life without them? After all, a PhD is all about challenging yourself: go out of your comfort zone, explore, figure it out! I am definitely looking forward to coming back to Hamburg with a life-changing year behind me.