The PoreLab Junior Forum was established by and is run by the juniors themselves. The main goal of the PoreLab junior forum is to bring together the group of PhDs, postdocs and early career researchers of PoreLab, new and old, with the objective of allowing them to better know each other and share their respective work and scientific interests.
The PoreLab junior forum is particularly important to PoreLab, also because it serves to bind the two hubs in Oslo and Trondheim together. The center has two physical locations but is indeed a single center. The forum extends possibilities for collaborations and networking. The Junior forum meets usually twice a year. Because of the restrictions under the pandemic, the gatherings have been somehow disrupted in 2020, 2021 and 2022: the 5th junior forum was organized online in November 2020, the 6th junior forum was held at UiO in November 2021 and the 7th junior forum took place in October 2022 in Trondheim.
Both nodes, PoreLab NTNU and PoreLab UiO, has its Junior Forum spokesperson. Her/his main task is to coordinate the organization of the PoreLab junior forum. She/he acts as a bridge and contact person between the leadership at PoreLab and the juniors. The spokesperson represents the members of their campus in issues that concern the operation of the center that need be addressed by the PoreLab leaders.
8th Junior Forum, 9 November 2023, Oslo
The 2023 Forum meeting was held at PoreLab Oslo on November 9 and was attended by junior members from both PoreLab Oslo and Trondheim. The activities were initiated with coffee and greetings, followed by lunch. Presentations regarding the junior members’ current research topics were organized in the afternoon. Attendants who had presented in previous junior forum events were encouraged to give briefer talks, while new members had more time to introduce their plans of research in PoreLab. The duration of the presentations was not strongly constrained and ample time for discussion after each presentation was allowed.
After the presentations, some time was allocated for discussion related to possible ways junior members could collaborate more with each other’s research, specially involving members of different hubs. Besides that, the current format of the PoreLab Lecture series was debated, lading to suggestions for increasing the attendance off the talks.
Thereafter a mingling activity involving a general knowledge Quiz was organized and most of the attendants had dinner together at a restaurant in the city center, which was followed by some shuffling board games at an arcade bar. Postdoctoral fellow Paula Reis who was in charge of the organization of the 2023 edition of the PoreLab junior forum summarized the event as follow: “While not very structured, the format of this year’s event worked well and led to a lot of interaction between all attendants. Altogether, this Junior Forum edition successfully promoted both scientific and social engagement between PoreLab’s younger members, which is fundamental for us to fully benefit from our multidisciplinary joint center.”
Agenda is here
7th Junior Forum, October 2022, Trondheim
The 7th junior forum took place in October 2022 in Trondheim. The program started with a presentation from the senior members, followed by an introduction of new members. Ingrid Heggland, senior research librarian at NTNU and expert on open Access gave a presentation on: “Open Science – what, why and how?”. Some time were reserved for a discussion among the juniors on “What happens after PoreLab?”. Social activities were organized by the end of the day with a dinner at the restaurant Bror Bar in Trondheim followed by a gathering at a minigolf.
6th Junior Forum, November 2021, Oslo
The junior forum meets regularly and normally twice a year. Because of lock-down and restrictions on gathering, it was impossible for the juniors to meet physically in the spring 2020 and 2021. The 5th junior forum was organized online in the fall 2020.
At last, the juniors managed to meet physically during the fall 2021. The 6th PoreLab junior forum was held at the University of Oslo for a full day. The program started with a tour in the laboratories, followed by a short introduction of all new recruits. Catherine Taylor Nordgård, Vice-dean for innovation at the faculty of natural science at NTNU, gave an online presentation on “Intellectual Property Rights within innovation”.
Social activities were organized in the evening with a dinner and shuffleboard games.
5th Junior Forum, November 2020, online
The 5th PoreLab Junior Forum should have been held in Oslo during the spring 2020. Due to the rapid development of the pandemic, the Leader Group at PoreLab decided to postpone our gathering ( Junior Forum + PoreLab workshop), planned originally on 20-22 April, 2020. The Covid situation were not better during the fall 2020 and unnecessary physical gatherings were still strongly discouraged. The 5th Junior Forum was therefore entirely digital and all were encouraged to follow the talks from their own computer, either at the office or from home.
The 5th PoreLab junior forum took place on November 10th, 2020. The final program for the event can be found below. Focus during this forum was on the new PoreLab members both in Trondheim and in Oslo . There was as well presentations from invited speakers.
4th Junior Forum, October 2019, Trondheim
The 4th PoreLab Junior Forum was organized at PTS1, Valgrinda, NTNU, Trondheim, on October 25th, 2019. The presentations covered a broad range of topics with some invited speakers coming from NTNU as well as from SINTEF and Equinor. The agenda is enclosed below.
3rd Junior Forum, March 2019, Oslo
The 3rd PoreLab Junior Forum took place at the University of Oslo on March 21st, 2019. The Junior Forum has established itself as an important platform for the integration of the junior members from both PoreLab hubs (Oslo and Trondheim). Juniors reported that this 3rd forum was successful and that the format is working fine. It is important to reserve a few days per year such that the juniors from both Oslo and Trondheim meet and work together.
Read more here
2nd Junior Forum, September 2018, Trondheim
The 2nd PoreLab Junior Forum was held in Trondheim in the PoreLab facilities on the 20th and 21th of September, 2018. Again, the goal was to improve the connection between the two different locations of PoreLab, which is an important priority for us. It allows to get to know each other and find additional synergies. The forum took place on two days.
PhD candidate Marco Sauermoser who organized the event summarizes it as follow:
The 2nd PoreLab Junior Forum was held in Trondheim in the PoreLab facilities on the 20th and 21th of September. Again, the goal was to improve the connection between the two different locations of PoreLab, which is an important priority for us. It allows to get to know each other and find additional synergies. The forum took place on two days. The first day, several PhDs and PostDocs presented their current research and gave a short introduction about themselves for new PoreLab members, which lead to fruitful discussion. On the second day we went to the laboratories of PoreLab and made a visit to NTNU’s NanoLab.
Again, the forum showed, that by having these simple forums two times a year, the big distance between the offices can be overcome at ease and we can work together as we were in one location. The expertise of different members of PoreLab can therefore be combined, showing the big strength of this center of excellence. Furthermore, it is important to see, which experiments can be done within the research group.
In the laboratories we saw a variety of different experiments:
. Core sample experiments like permeability measurements, flooding and enhanced oil recovery experiments.
. Micro-CT experiments for the non-destructive investigation of core samples
. Microfluidics setups for the imaging and analysis of flow and saturation
. Fuel cell test station for performance curve measurements
After the visits of the PoreLab laboratories, we had the pleasure of having a look at the clean rooms in NTNU’s NanoLab. Here we were shown different sorts chemical and physical methods, including coating, lithographic processes and imaging with different forms of microscopes.
Summarized it can be said, that the 2nd PoreLab Junior forum was a big success and the tradition will be kept also in 2019.
1st Junior Forum, March 2018, Oslo
The 1st PoreLab Junior Forum took place in the Physics Department, University of Oslo, in March 8th and 9th 2018. The main goal of the forum was to bring together the community of PhDs, PostDocs and early career researchers of PoreLab into a single venue, with the objective of allowing them to better know each other personally and share their respective work/scientific interests.
The Forum was divided in 2 days, the main event with presentations and posters happening on the first day and a lab tour happening on the second.
The importance of such a forum is particularly stressed in the case of PoreLab, since the center is physically divided in two local hubs, Oslo and Trondheim. It is very important to make it clear, particularly to the newest members, that although the center has two physical locations, it is indeed a single center, and collaboration between the groups should not be stopped due to the physical distance. The Junior Forum helped to create the feeling of a single united center. Very explicitly, new collaboration opportunities between NTNU and UiO members have already started as a result of the Forum.
