Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists

The Workshop on Gravitational Wave Astrophysics for Early Career Scientists (GWÆCS) is designed to build networks across different communities and advance the professional development of early career scientists (ECSs) working on gravitational waves (GWs), in order to

Become a strong and constructive voice for the future GW community, Address the needs of ECSs and foster a healthy professional environment, Share career opportunities and learn valuable professional soft skills, Ensure that the international and interdisciplinary GW community shares a common scientific language, builds long-lasting communication channels and exchanges relevant research knowledge and tools for the benefit of its own future.

The workshop offers a wide perspective on the future of GWs, focusing in particular on the expected scientific gain from forthcoming large-scale experiments and on the common effort needed to successfully complete them. The world-wide GW community is currently investing efforts in three substantially different detector classes LVK/3G, LISA, PTA; the workshop features presentations on all three of these given by well-known experts in each field. The plenary talks are followed by dedicated discussions aimed at advancing the knowledge and gauging the expectations of ECSs regarding the future of GWs. The aim is to promote the exchange of ideas and tools between these related yet independent efforts, creating a lasting synergy between new and up-and-coming GW scientists.

Complementing the development of scientific topics, the workshop offers training on soft and transferable skills. In particular, it targets leadership, outreach activity design, how to search and interview for academic and industry positions, and the different responsibilities of a faculty member. Furthermore, education on diversity and inclusion and awareness about well-being and mental health issues will have a special place in the agenda, to highlight the importance of these topics in a collaborative research environment. These activities are followed by discussion sessions dedicated to creating a broad and inclusive forum, collecting feedback from ECSs in GW astronomy and suggesting a common vision for the future of the field. Additionally, a number of planned social activities will help create an enjoyable and inclusive atmosphere during the whole week of the workshop.

The workshop aims at kick-starting the creation of a larger network of ECSs working in GWs, with the scope of providing a common platform for the exchange of knowledge, experience and opportunities, and of planning further similar initiatives in the future.