SAEON Graduate Student Network, About Us: Long-term environmental research

South African Environmental Observation Network

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About the SAEON Graduate Student Network

In April 2005, three South African graduate students (Saras Mundree, Glynn Alard and Silvia Mecenero), supported by SAEON, were invited and partially funded by the United States Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Programme to attend the First International LTER Graduate Student Collaborative Research Symposium in Oregon, USA. The symposium, attended by just over 60 participants, was extremely successful in its first attempt to bring together and network graduate students from 34 different LTER sites, which included eight International LTER (ILTER) sites.

The first international LTER Graduate Student Collaborative Research Symposium in Oregon, USA

During the symposium, the three students, ambassadors of South Africa's LTER Programme - SAEON, began to get excited about the idea of setting up a similar network for graduate students in South Africa who could then also network with each other and with international LTER students. The possibilities seem endless and the project exciting enough for them to establish the SAEON Graduate Student Network.

The idea was welcomed by SAEON, and a fourth committee member was selected (Bernard Coetzee). The Interim Committee planned the way forward for the student network, and the preliminary constitution. Subsequent committess have built on this plan and the constitution is a living document, the current version can be downloaded on the Constitution page.

The student network was launched by the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Hanekom, on 27 March 2006 during the 1st SAEON Summit, and the network held its first activity, a student workshop, on 29 March 2006.

The main aims of the SAEON Graduate Student Network are:

To have graduate students become more knowledgeable about SAEON's programmes.
To encourage students to align their research with SAEON's programmes.
To stimulate and promote interactions among graduate students and between students and senior scientists, within the realm of long-term environmental research.
To provide a network in which graduate students can feel comfortable to share ideas, collaborate with one another, and get a broader understanding of ecological research with an expanded context in which to view their own research.
To inform graduate students of career opportunities as they become available.
To get graduate students excited about the fact that they will become the next generation of long-term environmental research scientists in the country and that their research will pave the way to better management policies and protection of our environment for future generations.

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