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BAMOS
Dec 2018
President’s report
Andrew Marshall, December 2018
As we round out 2018 with this month’s issue of BAMOS, I look
back on a very active year of engagement for AMOS. We have
hosted, or partnered in, many regional and national events
and activities with our aim to help improve atmospheric,
oceanographic and climate science outreach across Australia.
These include public talks in Melbourne and Brisbane on past
and future climate (April), panel discussions in Hobart and
Launceston on ocean observations (August), and an information
session in Adelaide on thunderstorm asthma (October). Public
events were also held in Brisbane on forecasting severe
thunderstorms (September) and in Sydney on international
engagement in climate and weather (October), while early
career events bookended the year’s activities in Canberra
(March and November).
Following the success of the AMOS-ICSHMO conference in
February, AMOS ran some exciting mid-year symposia in
partnership with the Australian Marine Sciences Association at
their national conference in Adelaide, and with the WMO High
Impact Weather program in Melbourne. Then following the
release of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C
in October, the Melbourne and Perth regional centres ran public
events proving so popular that the Perth event had to move to a
larger venue after receiving 170 registrations in 12 hours!
We also ran our inaugural National Science Week Video
Competition—Presenting My Local Weather, as part of the
AMOS Education and Outreach Program for 2018 (see page 6).
We received some terrific entries from school-aged children
across the country, seen under the Activities link on our website
(www.amos.org.au). The competition was a wonderful way
to engage with school children and their families, and it was
great to learn about local weather conditions around Australia.
Congratulations to everyone involved and I look forward to
seeing the competition grow in the years to come.
Our relationship with Science and Technology Australia
strengthened again this year as we provided input into their
emerging equity and diversity policy, How-To guides for
members, and strategies for advocating science (and more
broadly STEM). The AMOS Equity and Diversity Committee also
made an important contribution to the development of the
Australian Academy of Science’s Women in STEM Decadal Plan,
which will provide a 10-year roadmap for sustained increases
in women’s STEM participation from school through to STEM
careers. This will inform the Government’s Women in STEM
National Strategy, soon to be released. Then a few weeks ago
we received the exciting news that AMOS member Dr Sue
Barrell (former Bureau of Meteorology (Bureau) Chief Scientist)
was elected as Vice-President of STA at their Annual General
Meeting in Melbourne on 22 November. Congratulations Sue
and we look forward to working with you!
Our Expert Groups were busy this year preparing submissions
to a variety of Government reports including impacts of climate
change on infrastructure, air quality in Victoria, and disaster risk
reduction. The Physical Oceanography Expert Group added
to the existing AMOS position statements on Climate Change
(2016) and Weather Analysis and Prediction in Australia (2017)
with a high-quality statement on Sea-Level Change, which was
recently adopted by Council. Also approved by Council was
the creation of a new AMOS Special Interest Group (SIG) on
Indigenous Weather and Climate, whose aims are to support and
promote the work being done with Indigenous communities
around weather and climate across our partner organisations.
The group’s first activity will be leading an Indigenous focussed
session at AMOS-ICTMO2019.
Finally, we built upon our international partnerships
(and established some new ones) this year with other
meteorological and oceanographic societies around the world.
Our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Royal
Meteorological Society was finalised in May, and just last month
we developed a MoU with the Canadian Meteorological and
Oceanographic Society. In September, our Immediate Past
President Mary Voice presented to the Global Meeting of the
International Forum of Meteorology Societies (IFMS) in Budapest
on AMOS-IFMS collaborations, at which AMOS member Dr
Michael Coughlan was elected IFMS Region V Councillor.
In closing, I wish to recognise and thank those involved in
putting together the Society’s very successful program of
outreach activities and events for 2018: Jeanette Dargaville,
Melissa Lyne, Linden Ashcroft, Ruby Muller, all our Councillors,
and our hard-working Education and Outreach, Equity and
Diversity, and Regional Centre committees. AMOS relies on
people to volunteer their time and services, and I thank these
dedicated colleagues for their commitment to supporting and
promoting the AMOS sciences. There are many opportunities
to get involved with the society, and we greatly appreciate the
support of our volunteers from early career to senior levels, so
please do get in touch with our Regional Centre or Committee
Chairs if you’d like to join the team in 2019!
I wish you a safe and relaxing festive-holiday period with
family and friends around the country, and I look forward to
reconnecting with you in the new year.