Conference: Rocky Mountain Geobiology Symposium 2024

Conference: Rocky Mountain Geobiology Symposium 2024 Abstract

The Rocky Mountain Geobiology Symposium (RMGS) is a geobiology conference focused on early career scientists in the Rocky Mountain region. This annual event has been an invaluable educational and networking resource for geobiologists from over 20 institutions, including academia and industry. We are excited to continue to support the Rocky Mountain geobiology community by hosting a sixth RMGS in April, 2024.

We have three primary goals for this next RMGS, all with a focus on early-career geobiologists. First, to continue to build and connect the geobiology network across the Rocky Mountain region, and grow participation from institutions in the middle Rio Grande corridor. Second, to provide an opportunity for early-career geobiologists to showcase their work and receive feedback from their community. Third, to facilitate conversations between academics, industry professionals, and researchers.

The 6th RMGS will be held at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (“New Mexico Tech” or NMT) on April 20th, 2024, and will be free to attend. NMT is a public teaching and research university located in Socorro, NM, a town of approximately 9,000 that is 75 miles south of Albuquerque. It is a tradition for this symposium to be student-organized, and our organizing committee consists of graduate and undergraduate students from New Mexico Tech’s Biology and Earth and Environmental Science Departments.

Our primary goals are to continue to build and grow participation from the region, highlight and provide opportunities for early-career geobiologists, and create networking opportunities among academics, industry professionals, and government researchers. In-line with the symposium’s emphasis on early-career scientists, all talks and most posters will be given by students and postdoctoral researchers, with the exception of the keynote speakers.

We have invited three keynote speakers from institutions outside of the Rocky Mountain region to present their research with attendees with the goal of showcasing the variety of topics and research opportunities encompassed by the field of geobiology. We anticipate participation from academics and industry professionals, including attendees and presenters from Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) and Sandia National Lab (SNL), and hope to foster new research collaborations as well as graduate school and postdoctoral opportunities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.