This story is about transitioning from being a professional snowboarder to becoming a young scientist. It’s about writing. Writing blog posts and scientific writing. And, it’s about taking you onto a small journey into science with me.
A little bit over a year ago I retired from professional sports. I ended my long lasting and exciting career as a snowboarder and opened a new chapter in life. People were worried, I’d miss my sporting career. But honestly, I haven’t missed anything. The past year has been quite eventful and anything but boring. First I mingled with the coffee business for a few months while driving my studies forward. But after some time, I decided to speed things up at ETH and to quit my coffee jobs. This allowed me to complete all of my Master’s classes by the end of the fall semester and start my Master’s thesis in March. I enjoy science, doing research, being challenged – not on snow but in a cognitive way now. Obviously this enthusiasm has helped me to make a smooth transition from being a snowboarder to becoming a scientist.
Now, my new role as a young researcher is the reason why I decided to revive this blog. Blogging and writing has always been a constant during my time as a snowboarder. I’ve written blog entries for my website, stories for sponsors, newsletters for family, friends and fans. Writing has become something I enjoy. Playing with words, building up a storyline, keeping posts varied and interesting but also sorting thoughts, putting things into perspective and extracting the important factors are elements that I like about it. Writing did not only accompany me as a snowboarder, it is also a big part in science. And this brings me to the reason why I decided to write again. Scientific writing is quite different from the style of writing I did before and my experience is limited. Therefore, to overcome my slightly rocky scientific writing process, I had the idea to start in my comfort zone – with blog posts. My texts in this blog format won’t be well-developed and smooth yet. I’m leaving myself room for small mistakes and little errors. It’s a work in progress. And it should be fun!
So, let me take you on a first dive into research. I’ll briefly tell you about my general research interest and current work.
For the time being, I write my Master’s Thesis at ETH Zurich in the Environmental Physics group chaired by Prof. Nicolas Gruber. The group is part of the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics at the Department of Environmental System Sciences.
My general research interest is to uncover interactions between the physical, chemical, and biological processes that govern the Earth System, and how they respond to both natural and anthropogenic change. One aspect in this context is the phenomenon that climate change gets strongly accentuated by the effects of extreme events. In my Master’s thesis I determine the frequency, intensity and recurrence of ocean oxygen extremes in Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems. I analyze simulations using the ROMS-BEC model for the Pacific Ocean. While I am intrigued by extreme events, I find interest in a broad range of topics at the interface between ocean dynamics, (marine) biogeochemistry and climate. But my interests go as far as climate services, communication and visualization and many forms of interdisciplinary research. Any kind of of cutting-edge research and commitment to push boundaries of knowledge are truly inspiring to me.
I hope I didn’t lose you with the specialised terms in the last paragraph. In my next blog entry I want to talk about my Master’s Thesis topic and give you some background on oxygen extreme events.