Ocean Sciences ‘26

Ocean sciences took off and had their first meeting outside of the United States: In Glasgow.

I’m a huge fan. Especially considering the recent move. It served as an excellent venue to link together so many different groups from around the world. Glasgow is also a city with a strong maritime history and has built a big international community.

I started by heading up to Aberdeen, in the Northeast of Scotland. I belong to a workgroup that works on CTD-O2 methods and it was the first time that we would all be in the same country, let alone the same timezone. We have people in Australia, the U.S., and Europe, so even meetings can be hard to schedule. Aberdeen is a city moulded by the sea, so it was fitting to start the 10-ish days in Scotland there. After 72 hours of seagulls, I headed south to Glasgow via Fife and Edinburgh. Something that surprised me: Scottish rail is excellent. I loved it. From getting a ticket, to simply riding the train, everything was stress free and easy. Sure, the trains are not cleaned after turning back around so trash can kind of build up inside, but a 3-hour train for £30 was worth it. Edinburgh to Glasgow is also like £15, which is super reasonable considering the ride is 45 minutes.

Glasgow is the working man’s city of Scotland. Not as pretty as Edinburgh. Not as hardy as Aberdeen. But boy, was there a lot to see and do. It’s certainly busier than those other places. We stayed just across the river by the science center, maybe a 5-10 minute walk from the Scottish Event Centre. Not bad. However, the hotel had no laundry services and there wasn’t a convenient option outside of the event hours, so I was left to do laundry in the sink. But the water didn’t warm and I ended up doing it in the shower. Most of the time in the evenings was spent networking or socializing with people after the various town halls, oral presentations, posters, and plenary talks. So the taps and bar food were flying around the event center. This is where I learned how forward Scots can be. It was very hard to find an empty table, as they aren’t afraid to join you and strike up a conversation. Living in Sweden and growing up in Seattle, this was the opposite of what I wanted after a long day of dense PowerPoint slides. But later, I came to understand and appreciate it.

I wasn’t flying out of Glasgow. I have a friend in Edinburgh and had to say hi, while capitalizing on a cheaper flight. Edinburgh is the capitol, though the population is lower than that of Glasgow. It has a lot more charm and has actually been voted one of the best cities in Europe, if not the world. I can see it - even in February, there was a lot to like. The community feels close-knit and there is good access to nature. I was able to make the hike up Arthur’s Seat, which is an extant volcano, and got a good idea of all the ‘closes’ around the Royal Mile. Closes are narrow alleys that predate many countries, packed with small shops and serving as routes to get away from the main drag. Edinburgh castle was also quite lovely. While Scotland doesn’t have as much history as say, Rome, it does make up for it by 1) being very soap-opera-y and 2) being very well-documented. The museums in Scotland are donation-based, meaning I had free access to see quite a bit of things while I was there.

The next Ocean Sciences will be in 2028 and I hope I can make some good contributions to the global community by then and earn an admission ticket. It looks like it will be in Vancouver, a place I know rather well, though it borders the expanse of the Pacific. It’ll be more than crossing one time zone, that’s for sure.