I completely agree with you, Erica! Participating in the event was so rewarding. I really enjoyed listening to your remarks -- they deeply moved me, and your discussion of our role in the future is truly inspiring!

Such a lovely place! Thank you so much for the work you’re doing. I’m really excited to hear more about your project’s progress!

Anna, that is for sure a very interesting and unordinary experience! I am glad you like it and got a chance to explore something new! Your project is very important for the community, and I am excited to read the updates regarding your work.

Kate, this sounds incredible! Thank you so much for your work in advocating for the nuclear-free zone. I am looking forward to hearing more about Sadako Peace Day and the progress with the city council next week! 

Erica, I really hope the conditions will be much better for telescope this week, and I am excited to see the results of your project!

I totally agree with you about the online forums resource. What strikes me is how willingly people are helping each other online, how eagerly they share the resources and their experience. And such help often turns out to be much more useful than the one from official websites!

• While conducting my research, me and my groupmates met and collaborated with other researchers who are studying areas relative to our project, such as coral studies, social studies on Kiritimati island (the island we are planning to travel next summer), etc. All the discussions were highly fruitful: we learnt many important information for our future research, and even ended up creating several side projects. What strikes me is how eagerly other researchers are sharing about their research and area of interest, how willingly they meet with us and invite us to come to their laboratory. It is very inspiring to see passionate researchers, and there is nothing else that can motivate me more to carry on doing research and stay in academia than meeting with such people. Another idea that I truly believe in after having such experience is the importance of collaboration. It seems that every project, every research, every idea is possible once you meet the right people who are willing to help. As I mentioned above, such discussions and meetings inspired us to conduct additional research and to make various measurements as well as made us confident in the fact that we can do it. 
• Besides various databases that we learnt about during our workshops, I found it particularly useful to reach out to different people. For example, I needed to find information about the drones and additional systems that I will need for my project next summer. Before reaching out to drone providers, we were only considering buying the equipment, which is very expensive. However, last week I met with an engineer from one of the companies, and she suggested that we rent a drone. This is a much cheaper and a much more convenient solution. Thus, only after meeting with different professionals we were able to come up with a much more effective idea than our initial one. Thus, communication and collaboration turned out to be a really powerful resource for me.

Shreya, your research sounds really exciting. You are right, it is very important to complete a literature review before starting the actual research. Your research is definitely highly important for our society, and I am very excited to hear what are the methods of your research. I am looking forward to hearing about the results and reading your paper!

• The first summer is dedicated to preparation of the equipment for the in-situ measurements that will happen next summer. While there is no actual research conducted in the first summer, there are still many small but important projects, such as finding the most cost-effective decisions, learning how to operate all the equipment, and preparing to analyze all the data that will be obtained next year. Another side of the project - bureaucratic - is not as exciting, but is still highly necessary. Since we are going to another country, we need to obtain a special permission from the government to conduct our research. This might include meetings with country representatives, writing proposals about our research, and collecting all the documents that are needed for applications.

• More than 60 years ago 33 nuclear weapons were tested in Kiribati. And since then almost no research has been openly conducted to find out whether it is safe for people to live there. There are just a few reports that do not specify much data, since they were conducted simply to get rid of the necessity of solving the problem with radiation on the islands. Therefore, the information in these reports might have been manipulated and is not credible enough. The most disturbing part is that people, including small children, are still living on some of the islands, and it might be dangerous even to consume locally grown food and seafood from nearby areas. Thus, our research will primarily focus on the detection of the radiation in the food. In addition, due to climate change, the land is going under water. This issue needs to be solved immediately, because people are living there and we can’t let their homes disappear. Moreover, even after so many years, the land is still radioactive and once it is under water, the ocean currents will spread the radiation even further. So, we are also planning on measuring the elevation of the land using the drone with the LiDAR system.