Scientific students conference in Lithuania

Lithuania had the seventeenth scientific students conference for GLOBE program and Baltic Sea Project participants! 

It is symbolic that the seventeenth conference had seventeen registered teams. So the most dedicated teachers and their students had no troubles to prepare great reports working remote, nor having exceptional weather of this year. 

As the GLOBE program has been working closely with the US Embassy in Vilnius for a few years already, ambassador Bob Gilchrist himself welcomed the opening of the conference and welcomed the active involvement of the participants in the program. 

Representatives of the Baltic Sea project also were not left - the topics of the conference guests this year were more than ever related to water research. 

They started with the report of Nemira Žilinskaitė. The researcher shared her story, which began with similar competitions at the school and led to the prestigious University of Cambridge, and the position of ambassador for the synthetic biology competition iGEM in Europe. Salomėja Vanagienė, the chairwoman of the Lithuanian Young Scientists' Union and PhD student at the Nature Research Centre, shared her insights from her reseach about algae and how they reflect the history of the Earth. Julius Morkūnas, project manager of the Lithuanian Ornithological Society and lecturer at Klaipėda University, introduced the audience to researches of endangered seabirds in the Baltic Sea. 

Among the scientists presentations, the young researchers presented their own works. They consisted of phenological observations, which is already becoming a tradition, as well as studies of the atmosphere, biodiversity, or even microorganisms. 

Finally, the full-day conference was closed by Almantas Kulbis, Head of the Nature and Ecological Education Department of the Lithuanian Centre of Non-formal Youth Education. He was glad that even under quarantine conditions, the desire to learn and teach did not fade, and the desire to share the joy of discovery with each other was only growing. 

All that remains is to wish for ideas and inspiration for each other! 

Until next year!

Gretė Vaičaitytė