Last Thursday the Geography Department at Newcastle hosted the annual NEQUA (North East Quaternary) Postgraduate Symposium, an event open to all physical geography postgraduate students from Universities in the North East. The event was a fantastic opportunity to meet fellow postgraduate students from different Universities within all stages of their postgraduate study.

In total there were 11 postgraduate students from Newcastle, Northumbria and York. Each student gave a short 10-15 min about their research, which encompassed any area of Physical Geography. Topics ranged from deglaciation and climate change in Antarctica to snow levels in the Alps! The conference enable an excellent opportunity for postgraduates to present their research and meet others in a relaxed and friendly environment. Following the end of the conference we had a wine reception and talk by Professor Martin Siegert from Bristol University who discussed recent research into the glacial history of East Antarctica. We then went on to continue our discussions in the pub!

My first experience of a postgraduate conference was fantastic! In particular, as there are relatively few postgraduate physical geographers within the Newcastle department, it was great to meet other students within the same field. Attending conferences as a postgraduate student is definitely something I would recommend, especially if you intend to follow a career in research once you have completed your study.