The 13^th edition of the Urbino Summer School on Paleoclimatology began past Wednesday, 13^th July. NESSC-researcher Shaun Akse is attending the summer school in Italy this year. The coming two weeks, he will blog about his experiences at Urbino.

Shaun writes:

“The Urbino Summer School for Paleoclimatology (USSP) appears to have gained a near mythical status in the Paleoclimatology world. So far every person with a USSP-experience that I have spoken to has told me how lucky I am to be going. I have heard many stories about both the interesting talks as well as the ‘relaxed networking environment’  that mostly takes place in the local pub. After all those stories and accompanying pictures it is now my turn to become part of USSP’s 13th edition!

After a twelve hour long journey involving a car, two planes, a bus, a train and another bus I arrived in the UNESCO protected city center of Urbino. Despite the 34C heat that still lingered at 19:00, my first impression did not disappoint. The city itself is absolutely beautiful, the people welcoming. After checking in we all went straight to the opening drinks (and pizza!) where we were welcomed by the organizing committee. This was a great first opportunity to meet a good portion of the approximately 60 participants.

The first day of lectures was a nice recap of basically everything that has to do with climate. This is necessary due to the incredibly diverse background of the different participants. Over the next few days we will look in more detail at the different aspects of paleoclimatology, starting with Astrochronology, where we will both attend lectures as well as gain some more practical experience in R.”