Research Visit Collaborations
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Seb Gnann (Bristol, Cohort 3), San Diego State University, USA
Vivien Maertens (Bath, Cohort 5), University of Porto, Portugal
Andy Barnes (Bath, Cohort 4), UKCEH
Cristina Coker (Exeter, Cohort 5) Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, USA
Jess Penny (Exeter, Cohort 4), Government of South Australia and The Pacific Community, Fiji
Dan Power (Bristol, Cohort 5), Columbia University, USA
Research visits have enabled students to profit from research facilities or resources not available locally, to obtain new insights through working with a different research group and to create new networks. Personal benefits have included experiencing life and work in a different culture, confidence-building and making new friends. WISE students’ programme evaluation forms have consistently rated the research visit as one of the best elements of the CDT. The requirement for returning students to produce a formal research visit report was introduced in late 2018. All completed reports affirm that students considered their visit beneficial to both their research and to them personally, with the vast majority of visits also generating new links or furthering existing collaborations between the student’s home university and the visit host institution.
The Coronavirus pandemic impacted greatly on students’ ability to undertake a research visit. Three WISE CDT students were overseas on visits in early 2020 as the pandemic took hold and had to return home prematurely. With international travel opportunities limited throughout the pandemic, several students were unable to undertake their planned research visit before their funded studentships ended. The impact of Coronavirus on research visit take-up is clear, with 80.8% of Cohort 1 and 2 students pursuing a research visit, compared with 48.8% of those in Cohorts 3-5 whose studentships coincided with the pandemic. While throughout the pandemic WISE encouraged students to explore possibilities for local or virtual collaborations where international travel could not be pursued, it was acknowledged that such alternatives could not replicate the ‘real’ experience. Happily, since late 2021 students were able to benefit from research visits once more, albeit through shortened trips in some cases.
WISE is extremely grateful to its partners for hosting these research visits, as the benefits to students - both professionally and personally - have been immense. Research visits have been hosted by the following institutions and supervisors:
| Research Visit Host Institution | Host Institution Supervisor |
|---|---|
| 7 Lakes Alliance and Colby College, Belgrade/Waterville, Maine, USA | Dr Danielle Wain |
| Centre of Ecology and Hydrology, HR Wallingford, Wallingford, UK | Dr Cecilia Svensson |
| Columbia University, New York, USA | Professor Pierre Gentine |
| Cornell University, Ithaca, USA | Professor Patrick Reed |
| Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands | Professor Jan Peter van der Hoek |
| Deltares, Delft, Netherlands | Dr Robert McCall |
| Dept for Environment and Water, Govt of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia | Steve Barnett & Dr Carlos Miraldo Ordens |
| European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK | Dr Jean Bidlot |
| Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA | Professor Petros Koumoutsakos |
| Hohai University, Nanjing, China | Professor Yongpin Chen |
| Hohai University, Nanjing, China | Professor Pei Xin |
| Hohai University, Nanjing, China | Dr Jing Huang |
| IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA | Professor Gabriele Villarini |
| International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria | Dr Yoshihide Wada |
| KWR Water Research Institute, Utrecht, Netherlands | Dr Mirjam Blokker |
| Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan | Professor Yasuto Tachikawa |
| Laval University, Quebec, Canada | Professor Sebastien Houde |
| Leibniz University Hannover, Germany | Dr Stefan Schimmels |
| Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg | Dr Stan Schymansk |
| Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China | Professor Qiang Dai |
| National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata, India | Dr Shanta Dutta |
| National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore | Professor Vladan Babovic |
| San Diego State University, USA | Professor Hilary McMillan |
| Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, USA | Dr Adam Young |
| Singapore Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering (SCELSE), Singapore | Dr Jamie Hinks |
| Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa | Dr Wesaal Khan |
| Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Copenhagen, Denmark | Dr Ole Mark |
| Texas A&M University, College Station, USA | Professor Scott Socolofsky |
| Tsinghua University, Beijing, China | Professor Binliang Lin |
| University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain | Professor José Anta Álvarez |
| University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand | Dr Heide Friedrich |
| University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy | Professor Alberto Montanari |
| University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada | Dr Aaron Cahill |
| University of California, Irvine, California, USA | Professor Brett Sanders |
| University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand | Professor Roger Nokes |
| University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia | Professor Tim Fletcher |
| University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia | Dr Murray Pee |
| University of Porto, Porto, Portugal | Dr Tiago Fazeres Ferradosa |
| University of Saskatchewan, Canmore, Canada | Professor Martyn Clark |
| University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada | Professor Bryan Tolson |
| University of Zurich (UZH), Zurich, Switzerland | Professor Jan Seibert |
| Wuhan University, Wuhan, China | Professor Junqiang Xia |