NF-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observa�onal Oceanography

Fernanda Matos

CofE Scholar

Alumnus profile: h�ps://nf-pogo-alumni.org/profile/nanaramos_/

A�er 10 months of several challenges imposed by the pandemic, 8 of 10 scholars of the 12th cohort of the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence (CofE) in Observa�onal Oceanography successfully graduated on the 27th October 2021. The journey towards our success was, with no doubt, full of ups and downs as the waves in our ocean. It began with extensive online training, then, with travel restric�ons li�ing off, the scholars traveled to Helgoland one by one, a process which underwent months to be completed. Unfortunately, two of our colleagues were not able to complete the training, and we would like to acknowledge their resilience and determina�on and express our deep gra�tude for being part of the programme for as long as it was feasible. The gradua�on was configured in a hybrid event, with the presence of the scholars, a few members of AWI and the POGO Secretariat, while friends, family, supervisors and Ms Vicky Honda, representa�ve of the Nippon Founda�on were present in a virtual manner. A�er the speeches by Prof Karen Wiltshire and Ms Vicky Honda, the scholars had the opportunity to present their Independent Research Projects and were argued by their audience. The presenta�ons were much appreciated and the scholars are worthy of congratula�ons for their excellent work and par�cipa�on during this year’s CofE programme. The ceremony was closed by a speech by Dr. Lilian Krug, from the POGO Secretariat and cer�ficates were delivered to the scholars on the evening, during a celebratory dinner.

Scholars and atendees of the Ceremony. Images credits: Uwe Ne�elmann and Lukas Minnemann (AWI)