Building a Global Hydrology Community: The Story of H3S

At the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Hydrology Section Student Subcommittee (H3S), we would like to honor and preserve the legacy of the founders of the AGU H3S: Tim van Emmerick, Wouter Berghuijs, Frank Sedlar, Sheila Saia, Kevin Roche, Adam Wlostowski, and Evan Kipnis. With this in mind, we interviewed Professor Tim van Emmerick (Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands), who served as the first chair of H3S and, at the same time, as Student Representative for the AGU Hydrology Section. 

Below is our interview with Professor van Emmerik.

H3S: Could you share the story of how the H3S was founded? What gap or need within the Hydrology community motivated its creation?

Professor van Emmerik: At the end of my MSc at Delft University of Technology, Wouter Berghuijs and I realized that although Early Career Scientists (ECS) have a strong presence at conferences, there wasn't much of an ECS community, network or representation yet. For that reason, we founded the Young Hydrologic Society (younghs.com) in 2012/13 to stimulate interactions among ECS, between ECS and established scientists, and increase the representation of ECS within scientific communities.

In 2013, I started my PhD in hydrology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and I managed to convince my supervisors to attend the AGU Fall Meeting in SF that year. Our group used to have quite a strong presence there, and thanks to several colleagues I was quickly introduced to the AGU Hydrology Section president and other officials. At the time, Rolf Hut was the first Student/Early Career Representative, a role created by the HS president at the time. In 2014, I succeeded Rolf in this position with an ambitious agenda, such as organizing ECS focused sessions at AGU, the first Student and Early Career Conference prior to AGU, and creating ECS community within AGU.

From the first moment, there were enthusiastic people who wanted to actively contribute to these goals. After the first year of close informal collaboration, I proposed to formalize this group as the AGU Hydrology Section Student Subcommittee (H3S). To acknowledge everyone's efforts, but also to guarantee the continuity of the group. The first members included Eva Kipnis (ECS Rep after me), Adam Wlostowski, Frank Sedlar, Sheila Saia, Kevin Roche and Natasha Krell. 

H3S: Did your involvement with H3S, and more broadly with the AGU, influence your academic or professional trajectory? If so, how?

Professor van Emmerik: Serving as ECS Rep and member of H3S offered a great opportunity to (1) understand how large scientific organizations such as AGU work, (2) build robust professional relationships with ECS peers (of whom some became close friends) and established scientists, and (3) become actively involved within AGU in different roles. 

AGU is a massive organization and just understanding how this works is already an achievement. H3S always had the support of the HS president, other officials, and AGU staff, and that helped us to navigate the organizations and understanding how to realize our ambitions.

Through these efforts, and the sessions and events we organized, I was also lucky to have met so many wonderful and inspiring (early-career) scientists. Several of these encounters resulted in scientific projects, joint publications, new fun ideas for sessions and workshops, and meaningful personal connections.

Finally, through H3S I was invited to serve on several AGU committees, including the AGU Meetings Committee and the DEI Task Force. Also, I ended up on the ballot for the elections as Student/Early Career Rep for the AGU Council. I was elected for a four-year term, during which I again had the privilege to meet and collaborate [with] many amazing ECS and later-stage career scientists and AGU staff.

H3S: What were the main challenges during the early stages of H3S, and what milestones made you feel that the initiative was truly making an impact?

Professor van Emmerik: The main challenges at the time were the classics, and included (1) getting funding for our activities, (2) keeping people involved, and (3) being open and accessible to all interested ECS.

In the early years, we had a strong involvement in the organization of the AGU Student/Early Career Conference, and organized social meet-ups during the Fall Meeting. Although it was easy to convince everyone about the merit of these events, it was always a challenge to make sure there was sufficient budget. Through the dedication of AGU Staff and HS leadership, we always found a way to make ends meet. 

Like most volunteering activities, it's a challenge to keep people involved. Especially when they're distributed globally, and during a PhD on the side. We solved this by developing an effective on-demand meeting routine, giving responsibility to individuals and small groups to work on their tasks, and openly discussing our changes in commitment and priorities. We soon realized that it works better to have a small group of committed people and to do less things well, rather than having many people involved only on paper and try to do too many things at the same time.

Finally, we realized that the people joining H3S initiatives not always represented the diversity within the ECS community. We therefore started experimenting with different sessions (e.g. content, transferable skills, networking, art and science), and different logistics (e.g. post-conference drinks vs coffee during the day, on-site vs off-site).

H3S: Looking at H3S today, what changes or developments stand out most to you compared to the original vision?

Professor van Emmerik: Originally, H3S really focused on connecting ECS during the AGU Fall Meeting. From what I see now, the initiatives and activities are much expanded and diversified. I think the explicit focus on professional development is important, and allow ECS from around the world to benefit from the H3S activities.

H3S: What are your hopes for the future of H3S? Are there areas where you believe the subcommittee can expand or innovate further?

Professor van Emmerik: I have benefited greatly from the ECS community at AGU and other organizations, including YHS, EGU and IAHS. I wish for all ECS to experience this, either through active involvement or participating in activities. My hope for H3S is therefore to succeed in connecting ECS globally, despite the geopolitical turmoil and decrease in e.g. Transatlantic collaborations at different levels. 

H3S: We would like to thank Professor van Emmerick for his time and willingness to share his experiences.

If you would like to see more interviews like this, please let us know.