Everyone, especially Hannah, has been preparing for this day for months. All the helping hands gather early in the morning to get ready for a great event. It is a special occasion for everyone as this is the first Research Conference in years that can be held in person. By 9:30 am the first participants are arriving and there is a shared sense of excitement. 

The theme of the conference is 'Extreme Weather Events', with three experts in the field giving presentations. After a brief welcome, Dr. Claudia Acquistapace talks about 'what makes a weather event become extreme',  underpinning her theoretical input with exciting facts about the Ahr flood in 2021. As a graduate of the Graduate School of Geosciences she is also an inspiring role model for all the participating PhD students.

Afterwards, the first coffee of the day is served, which some of the participants have been waiting for since the beginning of the programme. Refreshed by the coffee break, it is time for the first poster session of the day, followed by the General Assembly and the election of the Doctoral candidate representatives and their deputies. We congratulate Stefan Schöttle, Camila Riffo Contreras and their deputies Linda Maßon and Mirijam Zickel and thank them in advance for all the work and time they will spend for the community!

Later in the day Dr. Dominik Schmitt and Prof. Dr. Alexander Fekete gave talks on other aspects of extreme weather events. The former came all the way from the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Frankfurt to share his knowledge on the 'Great Blue Hole: a 12.000-year-long sedimentological archive of tropical strom and hurricane frequency'. While he looked at past events, Prof. Fekete's talk on 'Spatial and System Assesment of Disasters and Extreme Events' concentrates on the possibilities of studying such events today. 

A few hours, a few pieces of cake and a lot of coffee later, two more poster sessions had taken place and everyone was invited to vote for their favourite poster. In the end, two results were equal and we can congratulate Sabrina Niemeyer and Markus Rolf for winning the Audience Poster Award 2023 and Anissa Vogel receives the price for the Best Poster of the GSGS Research Conference 2023. Finally, a varied, exciting and enjoyable day comes to an end with a huge buffet of delicious food, cold drinks and time to socialise. 

We thank everyone for coming and making this day possible. Further impressions can be found here.