The largest geoscientific meeting in Germany in more than 40 years came to an end on Thursday. More than 4,700 participants from around the world had come to Berlin for the IUGG General Assembly to discuss latest results and trends in the geosciences and to present their work. IUGG stands for International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and is an umbrella organization. It was founded in 1919 and currently has 59 regular and 15 associate member countries. It comprises eight semi-autonomous international associations, each covering for a specific subject area.

Résumé of the host GFZ

The host institution for the conference was the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Its Scientific Director, Susanne Buiter, is very pleased: "We reached a record number of participants and numerous important topics of high societal relevance were discussed, for example tipping points of the Earth's climate, natural hazards or also artificial intelligence as a tool in research. What I value particularly high is the attendance from all over the world and the number of early-career researchers for whom IUGG and its partners provided many travel grants."

GFZ-Alumna Mioara Mandea elected IUGG President as of 2027

Susanne Buiter congratulates the new IUGG president-elect Mioara Mandea. She will start her term in 2027. Mioara Mandea's research focus is the Earth's magnetic field; she headed the corresponding section at GFZ from 2005 to 2009 and is currently head of “Science Coordination” at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale in Paris. She is also a member of the GFZ Scientific Advisory Council.

Alexander Rudloff re-elected as IUGG Secretary General

Among other offices, the position of Secretary General of IUGG was also up for vote. Alexander Rudloff from GFZ was re-elected for the next term 2023-2027. "I am particularly pleased that we as GFZ are so closely associated with IUGG and thank all colleagues who have worked so hard to make the General Assembly a great success," said Susanne Buiter.

Next IUGG General Assembly 2027 in Incheon/South Korea

The decision for the venue of the next General Assembly in four years was also awaited with great excitement: Honolulu/HI, USA, and Incheon, Republic of Korea, were the candidate cities for selection. The vote was in favor of Incheon, which will host the IUGG General Assembly in 2027.