Traveling to conferences

Presenting your research at conferences is a valuable opportunity for you to get your name out there in the academic community, to meet other scholars who do similar work, and to see what the latest research is in your field. Graduate students who are presenting at a conference are typically funded to attend (flights, hotel, per diem food, conference registration, travel to and from airport). Travel funds can vary, but the source of funding is usually either a grant from the students' advisor, the department, or the college. Often, travel grants can also be secured from the society hosting the conference (i.e. AGU or GSA) that cover a portion of the conference travel. These are usually not too hard to apply for, so I'd encourage students to check into that. 

The main conference students in my group attend is the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in December. If a graduate student in my research group is interested in attending that conference, or another conference, they should check with me to make sure that 1) we have funding for them to travel, and 2) that we can meet the deadline for submitting a conference abstract, which is required well in advance of the conference itself for anyone that intends to present at the conference.

Once students have an abstract submitted and accepted, but before going to the conference, students should fill out a travel authorization form. Students should save all receipts and submit them after returning from the conference to be reimbursed. This is the typical approach--the student pays for all travel related expenses, then has them reimbursed after the conference. If this is a financial hardship, talk to me and we can pay the main expenses up front and I can then handle the reimbursements.