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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment |
| SENSE e-News |
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Newsletter February
04 February 2015 |
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Heather Leslie (IVM-VU) talks microplastics on Dutch tv program ‘Kassa Groen’ ›› |
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ERC grant of 2.3 million for Wouter Peters’ (WU) Amazon research ›› |
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Aerts, Botzen and De Moel (IVM-VU) win the Lloyd’s Science of Risk Prize ›› |
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Overview of PhD graduations February ›› |
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REMINDER: SENSE course Grasping Sustainability, 10-13 March ›› |
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REMINDER: SENSE Writing Week, 13-17 April ›› |
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Recommended MOOC: Going Places with Spatial Analysis ›› |
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Overview of PhD / postdoc courses February-April ›› |
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Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ›› |
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Ecology Theory & Application Discussion Group meeting, 4 February ›› |
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Pre-announcement SENSE Summer Symposium 2015, 18 June: "Make a change! - Successful interaction with society" ›› |
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Overview of upcoming events ›› |
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Postdoc Researcher for NWO UDW project, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, deadline 20 February ›› |
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Assistant Professor Mobile and Indoor Mapping, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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Assistant Professor in 3D Land Information, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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Assistant Professor in Modelling Land Use Transport Interactions, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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Assistant Professor in Planning for People, Land and Urban Systems, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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PhD Candidate Automated 3D Reconstructions of Large Indoor Environments from Point Clouds, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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PhD Candidate Updating 3D City Models Using 3D Point Clouds and Topographic Maps, University of Twente, deadline 1 March ›› |
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Post Doctoral Researcher at FUSE – Future Urban Sustainable Environments, Sweden, deadline 16 February ›› |
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Research Associate in Sustainability Assessment, University of Manchester, UK, deadline 22 February ›› |
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Two Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, deadline 15 April ›› |
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| Editorial |
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Having impact in society is one of the main goals of the SENSE Research School, and one that we would like to give a little more emphasis.
That's why we enjoy to present you news about impact SENSE members recently had. For instance the talk by Heather Leslie (IVM-VU) about microplastics in the Dutch television programme "Kassa Groen". And Heather does not restrict herself to grown-ups, she also reaches out to children: on Sunday 8 February she will discuss marine litter research with 8 to 12 year olds in the famous Dutch Science Centre NEMO.
Societal impact is also the main theme of the next SENSE Summer Symposium, that will be held on 18 June in Wageningen: "Make a change! - Successful interaction with society". The programme currently being developed, we can already tell that the role of social media, citizen science and stakeholder involvement will be important subjects in the keynote lectures and the workshops. We think the programme will be appealing to SENSE researchers from PhD candidates to staff members, and from all disciplines, so do block 18 June in your calendar. We will keep you updated!
Of course impact is also achieved through the further career of graduated SENSE researchers. Therefore we are happy to have a very well filled Vacancy part in this SENSE e-News!
And last but not least we would like to congratulate our new SENSE alumnus Dr. Brenden Jongman (IVM-VU) with his Cum laude graduation on "Unravelling the drivers of flood risk across spatial scales" on 3 February! |
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| SENSE News |
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| Heather Leslie (IVM-VU) talks microplastics on Dutch tv program ‘Kassa Groen’ |
| Dr. Heather Leslie of IVM’s C&B Department was interviewed by "Kassa Groen" journalist Janneke de Weert about her research on these tiny plastic particles that are present in a range of products such as toothpaste, deodorant, lip gloss, facial day cream, pimple cream and shower gel. |
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| ERC grant of 2.3 million for Wouter Peters’ (WU) Amazon research |
| “We’re going to measure things that have never before been measured in an area we know far too little about. I’m convinced we’ll be taking a significant step forward in climate research.” This is how Wouter Peters reacted to having just been allocated an ERC grant of no less than €2.3 million to carry out research into the carbon cycle in the Amazon rainforest. |
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| Aerts, Botzen and De Moel (IVM-VU) win the Lloyd’s Science of Risk Prize |
| Jeroen Aerts, Wouter Botzen and Hans de Moel received this prestigious prize from Lloyd’s in London for their article “Evaluating flood resilience strategies for coastal mega-cities” that was recently published in the journal Science. |
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| Upcoming PhD Graduations |
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| Overview of PhD graduations February |
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Sirak Tekleab Gebrekristos
Understanding catchment processes and Hydrological modelling in the Abay / Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia
3 February 2015, UNESCO Institute for Water Education, Hydrology and Water Resources
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Brenden Jongman
Unravelling the drivers of flood risk across spatial scales
3 February 2015, VU University Amsterdam, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
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Natasa Georgantzopoulou
Effects of silver nanoparticles and ions and interaction with first line of defense
6 February 2015, Wageningen University, Environmental Technology
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Anneke van de Boer
Atmospheric turbulence over crops. Confronting theories with observations
6 February 2015, Wageningen University, Meteorology and Air Quality
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Bernhard Brand
The integration of renewable energies into the electricity systems of North Africa
6 February 2015, Utrecht University, Energy and Resources
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Sudan Xu
Classification and change detection in multi-epoch airborne laser scanning point clouds
18 February 2015, University of Twente, Earth Observation Science
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Babak Naimi
On uncertainty in species distribution modelling
18 February 2015, University of Twente, Natural Resources
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Aleksandra Knezev
Microbial activity in granular activated carbon filters in drinking water treatment
27 February 2015, Wageningen University, Microbiology
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| Upcoming Courses |
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| REMINDER: SENSE course Grasping Sustainability, 10-13 March |
A SENSE course to explore and understand sustainability, its history, the different concepts, objectives and methodologies for analysis and quantification.
To date, many different scientific concepts and approaches of environmental sustainability exist. What are the differences? What do they entail? How can you use them in your own research?
This course will enable you to grasp sustainability and to apply concepts and approaches for analysis and quantification to your own research.
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| REMINDER: SENSE Writing Week, 13-17 April |
The SENSE Writing Week is a week for and by SENSE PhD candidates to fully concentrate on writing an article without the distraction of every day practice in a comfortable environment, with other PhD students and an English writing coach for motivation, feedback and social contacts.
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| Recommended MOOC: Going Places with Spatial Analysis |
This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is for people who know something about data analysis and want to learn about the special capabilities of spatial data analysis.
SENSE PhD candidate Adish took this MOOC and says:
"Indeed this is one of the useful course in GIS and spatial science. You will become familiar with what you can do with GIS with the data and information you have.
It was a six week course. It consists of different sections including lectures in audio and video format, followed by quizzes and step by step simple exercises. You have access to ArcGIS online to do your exercises during the course. You get familiar with important and different websites that you may not know already.
They upload course materials every week. At the beginning of the week you will get the recap of each week and the main problems students may face. At the end of each week you have a poll to vote and comment.
You have a personal page that gives you access to the course material to download, making notes and check other students' comments. The course has an interactive platform in which you can ask and share questions and information with other students. Here, you get acquainted with other students' work globally. Who is doing what with GIS. You have the strong support of Udemy support team.
I spent about 4-5 hours weekly for my week tasks. The course is free and online, so you can do it anytime. The certificate is ready after you do all the course tasks. You can print it out."
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| Overview of PhD / postdoc courses February-April |
- Agent-Based Modelling of Complex Adaptive Systems (NEW)
16 February - 13 March 2015, Wageningen
- Dynamic Energy Budgets
19 February - 30 April 2015, online course
- Training School Models in invasion ecology: Challenges and Applications (NEW)
2-4 March 2015, Portugal
- Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment
2-6 March 2015, Delft
- MICMoR Technical Short Course: Putting People on the Land. Introducing the interactions between terrestrial ecosystems, climate and society
3-6 March, 2015, Germany
- Grasping Sustainability
10-13 March 2015, Bunnik
- Microbial Ecology : Ecosystem Services: Microbes in the driver’s seat
15-20 March 2015, Soest
- A1 SENSE Introductory Course
18-20 March 2015, Apeldoorn
- Risk Analysis and Technology Assessment (RATA)
19-20 March 2015
- PCDI Postdoc Retreat Life Sciences
25-27 March 2015
- Lean Scientist - Turn your knowledge into value (NEW)
8 April - 20 May 2015
- Principles of Ecological Genomics
8-10 April 2015, Arnhem
- SENSE Writing Week
13-17 April 2015, Ommen
- Spatial sampling for mapping
22-24 April 2015, Wageningen
- Land Dynamics - Getting to the bottom of Mount Kenya; Studying landscape dynamics and sustainable development in an interdisciplinary setting
26 April - 9 May 2015, Kenya
- Survival Analysis: Analysis of individually registered time to event data (NEW)
29-30 April 2015, Wageningen
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| Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses |
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| Discussion Groups |
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| Ecology Theory & Application Discussion Group meeting, 4 February |
Ecological Theory & Application is a discussion group of the PE&RC research school (Wageningen University, University of Utrecht, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology). SENSE PhD candidates may also get ITSP credits for participation in this discussion group.
4 February 2015 Meeting:
• Huicui Lu (FEM, WUR): The impact of management on mixed forest dynamics and productivity
• Luuk van Gerven (AqE, NIOO): Competition for light and nutrients in layered communities of aquatic plants |
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| Upcoming Events |
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| Pre-announcement SENSE Summer Symposium 2015, 18 June: "Make a change! - Successful interaction with society" |
We are very pleased to announce that the 4th SENSE Summer Symposium will be held on 18 June 2015 in Wageningen. We are currently developing the programme, but we can already tell you that improving the societal impact of the research within SENSE will be the central issue.
Improving impact may involve different aspects, such as strategic use of social media, citizen participation, and stakeholder interaction.
The keynotes and workshops during this SENSE Summer Symposium will address these issues and more.
Of course there will also be ample opportunity for you to meet others and socialise: the last but not least part of the symposium day will be the annual SENSE buffet and party!
So please do already block 18 June in your calendar. We will keep you updated!
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| Overview of upcoming events |
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Inaugural lecture Prof. Margreet Zwarteveen, UNESCO-IHE: "Regulating water, ordering society. Practices and politics of water governance"
27 February 2015, Amsterdam
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The Second Environmental Protection and Sustainability Forum
9-11 April 2015, Bath, UK
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SENSE Summer Symposium 2015: "Make a change! - Successful interaction with society"
18 June 2015, Wageningen
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Conference on Spatial Ecology & Conservation
13-15 July 2015, Bristol, UK
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27th International Congress for Conservation Biology
2-6 August 2015, Montpellier, France
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2015 Canberra Conference on Earth System Governance - Democracy & Resilience in the Anthropocene
14-16 December 2015, Australia
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| Full list of interesting upcoming events: |
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| Vacancies |
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| Postdoc Researcher for NWO UDW project, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, deadline 20 February |
| Within the Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance, UNESCO-IHE, Delft the water governance chairgroup has an opening for a Post-doc candidate (m/f) for interdisciplinary research projects in the area of delta planning and management. The candidate’s work will be within a project financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), under its program “Urbanizing Deltas of the World”. The position is based in Delft, the Netherlands, but will require international travel for field work and workshops in Bangladesh. |
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| Assistant Professor Mobile and Indoor Mapping, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| You initiate, carry out and participate in education, research and consulting activities on information extraction from imagery and laser scanning data. Research will focus on the development of methods and systems to enable efficient mobile and indoor mapping. Methods may include aspects of knowledge based interpretation, machine learning and sensor fusion to obtain a high degree of automation. |
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| Assistant Professor in 3D Land Information, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| You contribute to educational activities including development, preparation and execution of courses and education modules related to the field of expertise, development of new educational products (e.g. e-learning), evaluation of educational activities, and supervision of MSc students. The specific focus is on land information databases and models, especially 3D. |
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| Assistant Professor in Modelling Land Use Transport Interactions, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| You contribute to educational activities including development, preparation and execution of courses and education modules related to the field of expertise, development of new educational products (e.g. e-learning), evaluation of educational activities, and supervision of MSc students. The specific focus is on modelling (dynamic) land use transport interactions, accessibility and spatial interaction modelling, and transport network analysis using GIS. |
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| Assistant Professor in Planning for People, Land and Urban Systems, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| You contribute to educational activities including development, preparation and execution of courses and education modules related to the field of expertise, development of new educational products (e.g. e-learning), evaluation of educational activities, and supervision of MSc students. The specific focus is on developing tools and methods for comprehensive spatial planning for urban regions in the developing world using GIS and/or remote sensing, with a focus on the interactions between people, land and urban systems. |
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| PhD Candidate Automated 3D Reconstructions of Large Indoor Environments from Point Clouds, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| The goal of this project is to develop methods for (semi-)automated reconstruction of 3D models of large indoor environments from point cloud data. Based on grammar the approach should recognize the principles of interior architectural design and human perception to identify spaces that can be used for navigation. The level of modelling detail should be adapted to the navigation needs. The project involves partners from industry (Cyclomedia and CGI) as well as the government (Fire brigade) who will participate in the evaluation of the methods on test buildings. |
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| PhD Candidate Updating 3D City Models Using 3D Point Clouds and Topographic Maps, University of Twente, deadline 1 March |
| The goal of this project is to develop methods for detecting and updating changes between 2D geo-information and the 3D point clouds. Our objects of interest include all surface objects that are present in the large scale (1:1.000) topographic map, including objects representing road parts, terrain, water surfaces and buildings. The height of these areas is captured with high resolution airborne LiDAR data. The challenge is to detect changes between multiple data sources in order to build a 3D city model which is updated to the most recent dataset. The project involves partners from industry and government to ensure the fit for use of the results for their applications, with a special focus on water management. |
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| Post Doctoral Researcher at FUSE – Future Urban Sustainable Environments, Sweden, deadline 16 February |
| The position offered involves developing research projects and to conduct research within the platform’s defined focus. The research will be carried out in collaboration with the research group within FUSE and its partners. The focus of the research is determined by the submitted application and in concurrence with FUSE strategic plan and other ongoing research projects pursued within the platform. |
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| Research Associate in Sustainability Assessment, University of Manchester, UK, deadline 22 February |
| Your role will involve carrying out life cycle sustainability assessment, and in particular environmental life cycle assessment and life cycle costing, to estimate the potential environmental and economic savings of novel FRP. |
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| Two Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, School of Natural Resources and Environment, deadline 15 April |
| The University of Michigan announces two post-doctoral research opportunities, beginning August or September 2015 and focusing on land-cover, social, and livelihood impacts of (1) large-scale land transactions and (2) forest sector investments in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America through statistical analysis of remote sensing and social survey data. |
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