Qianna Xu knew she would fall in love with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) when she signed up for a workshop there at the end of March. But even she was blown away by her experience as a visitor there – the scenery of Japan’s southernmost island chain was surreal and the spirit of the scientific community there left her feeling refreshed.
“I’ve been to large-scale conferences before, but I don't think I got nearly as many interactions with anybody compared to this one week workshop. ” says Xu. The workshop she attended at OIST was specifically designed for her field, which more broadly looks at modeling “functional diversity” across multiple types of ecosystems – in Minnesota, she’s interested in how different types of plants (legumes, cool and warm weather grasses, etc) affect prairie ecosystem functioning.
Her experience at the OIST workshop highlights the value of development opportunities for young career scientists. “It’s super powerful to see how people with different cultural and academic backgrounds talk about the same topic,” she says. Xu left with a new set of tools to utilize in her postdoctoral research project here in Minnesota at the College of Biological Sciences, but it also provided her with an invaluable international community to lean on as her career continues to evolve and mature.
