MESA Co-Chairs' report - Annual Report 2023

15 April, 2024

It has been a productive year for the MacDiarmid Emerging Scientists Association (MESA), with the running of our usual scheduled events including welcome events, workshops, coffee catch-ups, industry visits and the annual bootcamp. Workshops this year included the Blender software workshop in Auckland, presentation skills in Otago, writing and graphics workshop in Wellington, and a pitching workshop in Palmerston North.

The annual bootcamp this year was hosted in Raglan at the Institute of Awesome, the theme of which was 'Simulating Reality - computational techniques for your research and career'. We were fortunate this year to have the largest amount of participants at a bootcamp to date.

Photos taken at the MESA annual bootcamp in 2023

Aside from our regular event schedule, MESA also ran a T-shirt design competition this year. Thank you to Discovery Scholarship alumna Sydnee Koia - whose winning design has been printed on t-shirts for our members to purchase.

This year was also the inaugural year for a new MESA position (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Representative) and nation-wide Slack channel.

A big thank you to Nicholas Smith for taking up the new position and developing it, notably by organising the Introduction to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion workshop alongside Diversity Works NZ. Thank you also to those MESA members who have engaged with the Slack channel - moving forward, we hope to continue it as a new form of communication among MESA members.

Lastly, a sincere thank you to all MESA members for actively engaging in MESA events. It's truly fantastic to see familiar and new faces actively connecting and advancing their skills together!

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