The Messenger

Maintaining Scientific Discourse During a Global Pandemic: ESO’s First e-Conference #H02020

Authors
  • Anderson, Richard I. [European Southern Observatory (ESO); ORIGINS cluster, University Observatory Munich, Germany; Laboratory of Astrophysics, Institute of Physics, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland]
  • Suyu, Sherry H. [Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany; Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany; Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taipei, Taiwan]
  • Mérand, Antoine [European Southern Observatory (ESO)]

Abstract

From 22 to 26 June 2020, ESO hosted its first live e-conference, #H02020, from within its Headquarters in Garching, Germany. Every day, between 200 and 320 participants around the globe tuned in to discuss the nature and implications of the discord between precise determinations of the Universe’s expansion rate, H0. Originally planned as an in-person meeting, we moved to the virtual domain to maintain strong scientific discourse despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we describe our conference setup, feedback gathered from participants before and after the meeting, and lessons learned from this unexpected exercise. As e-conferences will become increasingly common in the future, we provide our perspective on how they can make scientific exchanges more effective and inclusive, and also climate friendly.


Dates
Created: 2021-09-01/2021-09-30
Length
6 pages

Cite this article:

Anderson, R., Suyu, S., Mérand, A.; Maintaining Scientific Discourse During a Global Pandemic: ESO’s First e-Conference #H02020. The Messenger 184 (September 2021): 31–36. https://doi.org/10.18727/0722-6691/5242