Last call for applications to the IAGA School in July 2027, South Korea! Applications close 30th September 2026.
See https://iaga-aiga.org/iagaschool/ for details and how to apply.
See also: https://iaga-aiga.blogspot.com/2026/04/8th-iaga-school-july-2027-korea.html
Join the 8th IAGA Summer School in July 2027 in Incheon, Republic of Korea!
Find more information and application process here
We're thrilled to announce that the 8th IAGA Summer School will be conducted from the 10th to 15th of July 2027, in the beautiful city of Incheon, Republic of Korea. As per tradition, the Summer School will take place just a week before the General Assembly, setting the tone for a week filled with learning and collaboration.
The IUGG Assembly is also scheduled to happen in the same city from the 16th to the 22nd of July 2027. The contiguous arrangement of these two events reflects our constant endeavor to facilitate networking and interaction within our community.
Now, here's the part that will truly pique your interest: IAGA plans to sponsor around 20 early career researchers (ECR) to attend the 8th IAGA School! This opportunity is an excellent chance for budding researchers to interact with their peers and get first-hand insights into the diverse range of topics that IAGA covers.
If you're an ECR and this prospect sounds enticing, make sure to fill out the application form and submit it to the head of the IAGA Division you belong to by the 30th of September. It's an opportunity too good to miss, and we don't want you to regret not applying!
We're looking forward to seeing a blend of new and familiar faces at the IAGA School in Incheon July 2027. So gear up, and mark your calendars for this boundto-be-fantastic event! Stay tuned for more updates!
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Barbara Leichter and Ashley Smith
Chair and Co Chair of ICEO (Interdivisional Commission on Education and Outreach) responsible for the Organization for the IAGA summer school
- Division meeting of Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics (EMRP): Wed, 06 May, 12:45–13:45 (CEST) Room 1.34 (lunch included)
- To meet the EMRP Division President (DP) and ECS Rep and team, please check the programme (time still to be defined) for the event 'Meet the EMRP Division Team' at the EGU booth (Hall X2) in the "meet EGU" area.
- Medal Lecture MAL25-EMRP Louis Néel Medal Lecture by Francois Renard and EMRP Division Outstanding ECS Award Lecture by Lucille Carbillet: Thu, 07 May, 19:00–20:00 (CEST) Room N1
- Social Event, EMRP division Dinner upon registration only (secure your spot here) Thu, 07 May, 20:30 onward (CEST) off/-ite (Melker Stiftskeller, 3 Schottengasse 1010 Wien)
We invite you to the European Heliophysics Community (EHC) Townhall Meeting at EGU26, taking place on Monday 4 May, 19:00–20:00 CEST in Room -2.33 (Basement).
Heliophysics — the science of the Sun and its interaction with the solar system — spans a broad and active community in Europe, yet lacks a single organisational home. The EHC was formed to address this, and this townhall is an opportunity get updates and help shape its future.
The agenda includes:• Introduction to the EHC• Forum report and community outreach update• Working groups and membership call• Planning for the 3rd Heliophysics in Europe meeting• Open discussion and outlook
Whether you work on solar physics, space plasmas, magnetospheres, planetary environments, or ionospheric science — if any of this resonates with you, you may be a Heliophysicist, and we'd love to see you there. ALL are welcome.
Best wishes,The convenersCharlotte Götz, Manuela Temmer, Jonathan Rae, Yuri Shprits
..and more short courses here, and networking sessions here!
For an overview, see this post
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- Ashley Smith
IAGA ICEO Co-Chair
Thanks to everyone who filled out the early-career survey that we distributed in winter 2024-2025. The results are in!
This survey is intended to measure the working conditions and career prospects of non-permanent researchers in the international heliospheric and magnetospheric physics communities.
A PDF of the survey results can be found HERE:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16504467
or follow the QR code in this post.
The repo also contains the response data in .csv format, and Python code for plotting.
We are working to write up our interpretation of the results as a peer-reviewed article. We are particularly interested in the challenges faced by post-PhD researchers as they work to advance their careers.
LEARN MORE at the EGU Short Course 1.4: "How are Postdocs Doing? Rethinking the Postdoctoral Experience in Geosciences", Monday, 4 May 2026, 16:15–18:00 Vienna time. We will discuss the survey results to help motivate the panel/group discussion.
For more information, you may contact the survey administrators: khoraites@spacescience.org , giulia.cozzani@cnrs-orleans.fr , eleanna.asvestari@helsinki.fi , maxime.grandin@fmi.fi
There is a proliferation of "AI" chatbots, coding assistants, and, more recently, autonomous agents. There are certainly productivity benefits to be found, but also many risks that we don't understand well. The world of IT and software changes quickly, and with LLMs able to tirelessly churn out millions of lines of code, that pace is increasing enormously. Such rapid change inevitably brings unintended consequences, so what can we do to better prepare ourselves? The first step is awareness.
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| Image credit: Futurama, 20th Century Fox |
I was prompted to write this post after reading Scott Shambaugh - "An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me" (reported by The Register). A maintainer of Matplotlib, a popular Python package, rejected a code contribution originating from an AI software called OpenClaw. Someone set up that bot to roam around GitHub and attempt to fix issues it finds in scientific software. Such automated approaches are quite common now, and the resulting influx of verbose pull requests is causing strain and increased workload on big open source projects. The new thing this time was that the bot proceeded to write a blog post complaining about how unfair the rejection was! Scott explains how other bots might read this, potentially having harmful consequences, such as HR using an AI agent to judge people's behaviour based on their public record. (This rabbit hole also led me to Moltbook, a social network for AI agents!)
There are many concerns with AI tools - the environmental cost, cybersecurity problems, IP theft, the impact of cognitive offloading, inequitable access and control, a swamp of other ethical issues, and the annoyance of companies trying to force AI indiscriminately into everything (Copilot?). Yet their continued presence is inescapable. We should think carefully about where and how to apply these tools, and, unfortunately, how to protect ourselves against them.
- Ashley Smith
IAGA ICEO Co-Chair
Hello Readers,
I am Sunil Kumar Ramatheerthan, working at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, both located in Prague, Czech Republic. I am delighted to share my experience attending the IAGA/IASPEI Joint Scientific Meeting 2025, held from 31 August to 5 September 2025 at the Lisbon School of Engineering (ISEL), Portugal.
This conference holds a special place in my academic journey as it was my first scientific meeting where I had the opportunity to chair a session. Taking on this responsibility significantly enhanced my networking opportunities and boosted my confidence as an emerging researcher in the fields of atmospheric and space sciences.
During the meeting, I presented a talk titled “Vertical coupling between sudden stratospheric warming and the European mid-latitude ionosphere” and chaired a session on “Coupling Processes in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere System”, which featured five insightful talks. Although I was a bit nervous at first, I soon became more comfortable and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of chairing the session.
Throughout the conference, I had the chance to engage with several experts working on vertical coupling between the atmosphere and ionosphere. Their valuable feedback on my presentation not only refined my perspective but also led to potential collaborative research opportunities.
The scientific program included numerous interesting oral and poster sessions. I especially enjoyed the poster sessions during the coffee breaks, they provided a great opportunity to explore diverse research topics and engage in informal yet meaningful scientific discussions. As one of the IAGA School participants, I got the opportunity to present my research on camera as part of the outreach project “Lights, Camera, IAGA ECS in Action!”, a science communication initiative supported by the IAGA Outreach Grant and coordinated by Dr. Katia Pinheiro.
There was also a social gathering for early-career researchers (ECRs), organized by the IAGA and IASPEI committees, which provided a relaxed space to discuss career development, networking, and collaboration opportunities.
In the end, this meeting proved to be an excellent platform to share my research, gain valuable insights from both experts and ECRs, and draw inspiration and motivation from the scientific discussions and visions for future work.
Hello Readers,
I am Sunil Kumar Ramatheerthan, a final-year PhD student at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University, both located in Prague, Czech Republic. In this blog, I would like to share my experience attending my first summer school, the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) and International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) school, held from 24 to 30 August 2025 at the Lisbon School of Engineering (ISEL) in Lisbon, Portugal.
The IAGA-IASPEI school was an excellent opportunity to learn, connect, and engage with researchers and students from around the world in the fields of geomagnetism and aeronomy. I arrived in Lisbon from Prague, where I am currently pursuing my PhD. The school began with an informal gathering on 24 August, where I had the pleasure of meeting participants from diverse scientific backgrounds.
The school lectures began the next morning with an excellent talk by Dr. Julie Carlut on the Earth's magnetic field and paleomagnetism, followed by Dr. Anna Morozova’s engaging lecture on ionospheric space weather, which was especially relevant to my research. Her talk provided insights into solar activity, the ionosphere, and the economic impacts of space weather.
The following day featured two enriching lectures and practical sessions, Dr. Ondřej Santolík’s session on plasma waves and Dr. Ivana Klomšková’s on lightning discharges, both of which were technically and theoretically stimulating.
On Wednesday, a joint session with IASPEI participants, led by Dr. Ciaran Beggan, focused on digitizing archive data, where we gained hands-on experience using specialized software tools and working in teams. In the afternoon, we visited the Quake Museum in Lisbon, which offered a fascinating overview of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the experiences of earthquakes, as well as other major seismic events and advances in seismological science. Sharing this experience with both IAGA and IASPEI participants made it even more enjoyable and memorable.
On Thursday, Dr. Chris Finlay discussed magnetic field modeling using data from ground observatories and satellites, followed by a hands-on session with Swarm satellite data using the VirES platform.
On Friday, Dr. Alexander Grayver introduced electromagnetic induction methods in geophysics, providing valuable insights into subsurface exploration. The school concluded with our final practical sessions, the certificate ceremony, and a treat kindly arranged by Dr. Barbara Leichter and Dr. Ashley Smith.
The week ended on a lovely note with a relaxed Tagus riverside dinner, a perfect way to celebrate the learning, teamwork, and new friendships built throughout the program.
Attending the IAGA-IASPEI School 2025 was a truly rewarding experience. I learned a great deal about geomagnetism and space physics, but more importantly, I had the opportunity to meet inspiring researchers and share ideas with people who share my curiosity and passion for the field. It’s an experience I will definitely carry with me as I continue my research journey.
