Maria Paula wins major conference poster prize
PhD student Maria Paula Velasquez Garcia has won the best student poster prize at the recent iCACGP-IGAC Conference in Crete, Greece.
The iCACGP-IGAC Conference was held in Crete from September 6th to 11th, 2026. This prominent international event focused on atmospheric chemistry within the Earth system and attracted nearly 700 atmospheric science researchers, including 72 participants from the UK. Four members of the TOMCAT group attended (3 PhD and 1 Post-Doc), each presenting their research as posters.
Maria Paula showcased her second PhD paper in a poster titled “Quantifying drivers of atmospheric formic acid evolution in large-scale South American wildfire plumes”, in the “Fundamentals of Atmospheric Chemical and Physical Processes” session. Her work investigated the fate of the poorly constrained formic acid (HCOOH) in the biomass-burning plume using satellite retrievals. The research focuses on the record-breaking 2024 South American fire season (August–October), and the manuscript is currently being prepared for journal submission. In recognition of her work, Maria Paula received the “Best Early Career Scientist Poster Award” for her session.
The iCACGP-IGAC Conference is held every two years, with the next event scheduled for 2028 in Chile. The organisation is recognized for its strong commitment to Early Career Researchers (ECRs), which was evident at the conference in Crete. In addition to the main biennial event, the organisation hosts a dedicated online conference for ECRs in the intervening years.
.