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The General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), which takes place every spring, is now one of the largest congresses in Vienna - in 2019 there were 16,273 participants from 113 countries. This event was originally held in Nice, France, where a total of 6,297 participants were last counted in 2004. The EGU brings together a wide range of topics in the field of geosciences in the broader sense, including atmospheric sciences. It emerged from the merger of the European Union of Geosciences (EUG) and the European Geophysical Society (EGS) in 2002/03.
The EGU, as a European association, also wanted to express this European ethos by changing the venues for the General Assembly. First we went from Nice to Vienna. However, the aim was to find other venues after Vienna. In 2005, the EGU's first "Vienna Congress" had 8,068 participants, an increase of more than 20 percent compared to Nice.
The International Year of Planet Earth
In the course of the "International Year of Planet Earth" 2008, which was declared by the UN and was extended by UNESCO to a three-year period (2007 to 2009), there was close cooperation between the local geosciences and the then President of the EGU, Gerald Ganssen (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), who held the presidency of the EGU from 2007 to 2009.
The Austrian geosciences, represented by the Austrian National Committee for Geosciences (ÖNKG) under the chairmanship of Werner Piller (University of Graz), launched a PR offensive under the motto “Geology is everything”. The EGU took up this initiative in 2008 and further developed the approach, turning it into "Geosciences is responsibility". The initiatives were supported, supported and accompanied by the Ministry of Science. And so, on April 17, 2008, the then Science Minister Johannes Hahn attended the EGU General Assembly in the Austria Center Vienna.
In 2009, the number of participants exceeded 9,000 for the first time. But despite successful visitor numbers, the EGU wanted to hold the next general meetings in Paris for the next three years in the spirit of “We are at home throughout Europe”. On the last day of the general meeting in Vienna, cards "Geosciences is motion" were distributed - with the message: "From 2010 to 2012 we will meet in Paris." But nothing came of the planned conference at the Palais des congrès de Paris. Vienna was ready, and a total of 10,463 participants from 94 countries met at the beginning of May 2010. But the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April 2010 had caused concern for those traveling by plane.
The presidency of Günter BLöschl
From 2013 to 2015, the EGU had an Austrian chairman for the first time, Günter BLöschl (TU Vienna, Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Engineering Hydrology). In his era, the Vienna general assemblies were the first to have a conference motto that combined all aspects of geosciences.
The theme of the conference in spring 2014 was “The Face of the Earth”. This motto was a reference to the great geoscientist Eduard Suess (1831–1914), who died in Vienna on April 26, 1914, 100 years earlier. Suess not only wrote the three-volume monumental work "The Face of the Earth", which was translated into several languages, he used the terms "atmosphere", "hydrosphere" and "lithosphere" for the first time in his book "The Origin of the Alps". In order to create a lasting memory, the participants were asked to bring a stone from their home country - "Bring your own rock". This collection from all continents was brought together at the time and is now located in the foyer of the Federal Geological Institute in Vienna.
The theme of the conference in spring 2015 was “A voyage through scales”. As in 2014, when the participants received the book "The Face of the Earth: The Legacy of Eduard Suess" as a gift, in 2015 there was also a large-format photo book, "A voyage through scales - the earth system in space and time" by Edition Lammerhuber, for the participants.
The EGU – a look forward
Vienna has proven to be a successful location for hosting the General Meeting; the dates have been fixed until 2024 at the Austria Center Vienna. In 2020, when the EGU was supposed to take place in Vienna from May 3rd to 8th, the Union is being creative under the motto “Sharing Geoscience Online”. With 19 journals, all of whose articles are freely available in the sense of "open access", the EGU is an important knowledge broker at a high scientific level. The EGU is very committed to outreach; The Imaggeo portal has developed into a constantly growing platform for photos and videos that are freely available to scientists. Annual photo competitions provide additional incentives. (Thomas Hofmann, April 20, 2020)