Group photo of the PATA Days attendees

Graduate Old Members’ Trust Travel report – Chia-Hsin (Wendy) Tsai (2018, DPhil Earth Sciences)

The 2022 international workshop on Paleoseismology, Active Tectonics and Archeoseismology (PATA Days) is a small meeting, with only 150 participants, and focuses specifically on paleo-earthquakes-related topics. It used to be held every two years but the previous one in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID. Thus, I am grateful for the generous fund from UNIV OMT to support my participation in this long-waiting meeting. Since this meeting is full of experts in faults and earthquakes and is focusing on my niche, this has been a great experience to broadcast my DPhil study on active tectonics in Central Asia.

Presenting my talk

I presented my very first in-person talk at an international meeting for my DPhil journey and I got useful feedback and discussion afterwards. Since all the participants resided in the meeting venue, which is an isolated village in the French countryside, we got to know everyone and could have conversations with almost all the participants. The size and the theme of this meeting were just perfect so it allowed us to chat with each other and understand the research that they are doing. As a student, I particularly enjoyed the time when I could talk to senior researchers in a relaxed and interactive vibe in this meeting. I met faculties who I have known because of their famous papers, and I discussed my work with them. I am grateful that they always patiently gave feedback and encouragement. Moreover, I also met new friends from different stages of career and from various countries such as Korea, Ecuador and Indonesia. I even got invited for giving talks in their institutes. In terms of networking, this trip is surely rewarding.

Huge cracks in an old mill caused by the 1909 earthquake

Besides the general meeting format, this workshop also planned two field trips for us to visit the places where historical earthquakes in 1909 and 2019 had hit in Southern France. We visited the old town to hear residents sharing what they experienced during the earthquake. We observed the damages caused by the quakes in the buildings and also the infrastructures of reinforcement in the houses now. We also visited the trenching sites where the scientists excavated and found the faults. In sum, this has been a wonderful trip for great science, field trips and in-person gathering.

I am very grateful for having the support from the OMT travel grant to participate in the 2022 PATA Days.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports. Find out more about the Chalet des Anglais on our Chalet page.

Published: 25 November 2022

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