Astro-Seminar: Seba Marino - Lessons learned from Discs on the Exe

Seba Marino is taking the stage at the Fourth floor interaction area of the Physics Building on Streatham Campus this Wednesday, 4 November, for the Astrophysics seminar series. It's a bit of a departure from the usual research talks: rather than presenting new data, Marino is talking about the logistics of putting on a big conference.

He's walking through the phases, the timeline and the funding of Discs on the Exe, the conference he organised, and reflecting on what made it a success and what he'd do differently next time. If you've ever thought about pulling together a professional event, or if you're just curious about how the machinery of academic conferences actually works behind the scenes, this is exactly the kind of thing that usually stays in the organisers' heads rather than getting spoken about in public.

It helps to know who's talking. Sebastián Marino is an Associate Professor and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Physics & Astronomy here at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on exoplanetary systems and their exocometary component: how exocomets form, how they interact with planets and whether they can deliver volatiles to terrestrial planets, which he studies through observations and numerical simulations. He earned a PhD in Astronomy at the University of Cambridge and an MS at the Universidad de Chile, both with highest honours, is the PI of ARKS, the first ALMA large program of debris discs, and received the 2016 Paul Murdin Prize. So while this particular talk is about the business of organising, the context is very much within the field he works in.

The seminar is part of the Astrophysics series, which runs every Wednesday at 13:30 during term time and is organised by Till Kaeufer, Vito Squicciarini and Nils de Vries. This one kicks off at 13:30 on Wednesday 4 November at the Physics Building on Streatham Campus.