Trisha Patel is an early-career scientist working with a Degrees Modelling Fund team in South Africa. At the Degrees Global Forum 2025, she won the inaugural Saleemul Huq Prize for the best Global South early-career presentation. As part of her prize, we funded her to attend the 16th GeoMIP (Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project) meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
She attended GeoMIP alongside 11 other Degrees-funded researchers from across Africa, Asia and South America. Below, she reflects on her experience.
First GeoMIP, first Tokyo, and plenty to take home.
I chose to attend GeoMIP because the bulk of what we know about climate intervention, more particularly solar radiation modification (SRM), comes from climate model simulations. For those of us working on impacts, these simulations form the foundation of so many of the questions we ask and the conclusions we cautiously draw.
GeoMIP is one of the places where this foundation is actively shaped, and experiment design, model development, comparison, interpretation, and future directions are discussed in detail. GeoMIP was a beautiful chance to better understand this process from the perspective of someone using outputs, and from the perspective of how the field itself is built and evolving.
Being in the room
It was my first GeoMIP, and it felt special for many reasons: the chance to be in the room for an influential meeting in the field, to reconnect with familiar faces, and to meet new people whose work I have followed from afar (the very bottom of Africa to be specific!).
Participating in the meeting as an early-career researcher was grounding and inspiring. It is always a little (just a little) daunting to sit in rooms with people whose papers have taught you so much – that said, I was warmed to have felt the generosity of the space.
There was serious science, of course, but also openness: people thinking aloud, asking careful questions, sharing uncertainties, and trying to move the field forward with rigour. It was invaluable to witness, and to have learned a great deal from the presentations themselves, and from the conversations they stirred – in poster sessions, over breaks for coffee and (very tasty) Japanese snacks, and in those small exchanges where ideas become a little clearer (or a little murkier).
Finding the flow of the field
A big takeaway from the meeting was how much care is needed in the way research is disseminated and distilled. The climate intervention space is evolving quickly, and it is also becoming more politically fraught, which makes thoughtful communication all the more important. I found myself appreciating how the researchers at GeoMIP explained complex climate processes, tackled uncertainty, and framed their findings carefully and responsibly. This stayed with me, because in a field like this, the way knowledge is communicated can shape how the research is understood far beyond the room itself.
I also came away with a stronger sense of how research agendas take shape. Beyond the findings themselves, it was invaluable to experience the behind-the-scenes flow of the field: how data are shared and used, how impact studies come together, and how certain questions start to gather momentum (while others fall away). As an early-career researcher, this was a reminder that field-building encompasses identifying priorities and the concerns that shape the research itself (in addition to the findings that then follow, of course).
Grappling with the hard questions
Another encouraging part of the meeting was seeing just how interdisciplinary the climate intervention field has become. The research that was presented and discussed reflected a space that is stretching beyond a narrower set of climatic questions, and increasingly engaging with broader Earth system and societal concerns. This progression is symbolic of a community that is trying, however imperfectly, to grapple with (instead of shy away from) complexity and hard questions.
It was also meaningful to share the experience with other early- and mid-career researchers from the Global South. Having space to speak candidly about context-specific challenges and the realities that shape our engagement with this work is not one that I take for granted. Exchanges like these, that may seem small in person, help broaden the perspectives and questions that find their way into the field.
Important work to be done
My hope for future GeoMIP meetings, and for climate intervention research more broadly, is that the community continues to nurture the space thoughtfully and equitably. There is important work to be done; how the work is carried out is just as impactful as the work itself. I hope the field continues to make room for disciplinary breadth, regional diversity, careful communication, and honest reflection on responsibility.
I am deeply grateful to the Degrees Initiative for supporting my attendance. Attending as part of the Saleemul Huq Prize, in honour of such an impactful person, made it all the more a privilege.
And, of course, it did not hurt that GeoMIP was in Tokyo. Between the lights, shrines, matcha, and custard buns, the city and its people certainly made the week unforgettable (and tasty!).
