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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment |
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Newsletter March 2017
23 February 2017 |
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What courses do you nee? Please complete the survey! ›› |
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Prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for prof. Marten Scheffer (WU) ›› |
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Interview with SENSE director Philipp Pattberg about the important role of politics in the Anthropocene in Bureau de Helling (the GroenLinks think tank) ›› |
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Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period ›› |
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Grasping Sustainability, 13-17 March 2017: REGISTER BEFORE 25 MARCH!! ›› |
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A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 29-31 March 2017 ›› |
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Overview of PhD / postdoc courses March-May ›› |
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Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ›› |
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Research seminar Earth System Governance, 23 February ›› |
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Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminars (WEES), 23 February ›› |
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Discussion group Landscape Dynamics, 28 February ›› |
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PhD discussion group on agriculture – climate – forests – food, 1 March ›› |
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SENSE Workshop Circular Economy, 13 March ›› |
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Discussion meeting Integrating ecosystem service, biodiversity and landscape connectivity into models, 17 March ›› |
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9th ESP World Conference on Ecosystem Services, 11-15 December 2017 ›› |
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Overview of upcoming events ›› |
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Which grass is greener? Personal stories of PhD graduaties about their careers in- and outside science (2017) ›› |
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Vacancies at SENSE Partners ›› |
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Other vacancies in the SENSE field ›› |
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| Editorial |
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What courses do you nee? Please complete the survey!
 Numerous SENSE PhD candidates are missing suitable courses that match their PhD projects. That was one of the main messages in the survey the SENSE PhD Council conducted in the summer of 2016.
As a starting point for improvements the SENSE PhD Council created a continuous course survey on the SENSE portal, where you can indicate in which category you would like to see more courses offered. You can also specify what kind of course would suit your specific needs.
We invite you to fill in the course survey and help us improve our course offer! |
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| SENSE News |
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| Prestigious BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award for prof. Marten Scheffer (WU) |
 The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category goes to the ecologists Marten Scheffer of Wageningen University & Research and to Gene Likens (USA). Both researchers receive the prestigious award for contributing decisively to what the jury describes as ‘one of the major challenges’ of this scientific discipline: to understand and, where possible, anticipate ecosystem responses to human-induced alterations of the natural environment. The award will (in June) consist of €100,000 prize money, a diploma and a commemorative artwork. The announcement took place on February 7th. |
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| Interview with SENSE director Philipp Pattberg about the important role of politics in the Anthropocene in Bureau de Helling (the GroenLinks think tank) |
 Philipp Pattberg, Professor of Transnational Environmental Governance and Policy believes that the Anthropocene needs long-term politics on all levels. Some questions are complex, some solutions are not nice to hear. This is why the discussion about how we want our future to look like is so important. Politicians have the responsibility to involve civilians. |
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| Upcoming PhD Graduations |
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| Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period |
- Getachew Feleke Belete
Integrating models on the web: application for socio-environmental studies
23 February 2017, University of Twente, Department of Geo-Information Processing
- Joop Coolen
North Sea Reefs. Benthic biodiversity of artificial and rocky reefs in the southern North Sea 15 March 2017, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
- Nurul Khairudin
Modelling of ammonia volatilisation in fertilised and flooded rice systems
15 March 2017, Wageningen University, Biorefinary and Process Dynamics
- Anna Patrícya Florentino de Souza Silva
Physiology and application of sulfur-reducing microorganisms from acidic environments
21 March 2017, Wageningen University, Microbiology
- Nadejda Andreev
Lacto-fermentation of human excreta for agricultural application
24 March 2017, UNESCO-IHE, Pollution Prevention and Control
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| Upcoming Courses |
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| Grasping Sustainability, 13-17 March 2017: REGISTER BEFORE 25 MARCH!! |
Explore, understand and utilise sustainability, the different concepts, objectives, indicators and methodologies.
To date, many different scientific concepts and approaches of environmental sustainability exist. What are the differences? What do they entail? How can you achieve sustainable development? How can you apply sustainability in your own research? Moreover, what is your role as a scientist and how can you deal with facts, insecurities, values and opinions?
This course will enable you to grasp sustainability and to apply concepts and approaches to your own research. |
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| Overview of PhD / postdoc courses March-May |
- Dynamic Models in R: Programming, parameter estimation and model selection
10, 16, 17, 23, 24 March and 7 April 2017, Wageningen
- PCDI course Employability Outside Academia (NEW)
13 March, 10 April and 22 May 2017, Utrecht
- Self-Presentation & Networking Skills for Women
20-21 March 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Research Methodology I: From topic to proposal (NEW)
23 March - 18 May 2017, Wageningen
- The politics of Place: Spatial thinking in the social sciences
21 April - 9 May 2017, Wageningen
- Research in Environmental & Geo-Biotechnology
27-28 April 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Environmental Models and Bayesian Inference
2-5 May 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Optimization Techniques
8-11 May 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Introduction to R for statistical analysis
8-9 May 2017, Wageningen
- Basic Statistics
10, 11, 15, 16, 17 May 2017, Wageningen
- Introduction to Hydrological Processes, Water Resources Management, and Aquatic Ecosystems
15-18 May 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- 5-day training course on mapping and assessment of soils for soil and environmental scientists and professionals
15-19 May 2017, Wageningen
- STEPS Centre Summer School
15-26 May 2017, Brighton, UK
- Design of Experiments
19-23 May 2017, Wageningen
- Gender & Diversity in Sustainable Development
22 May - 16 June 2017, Wageningen
- Science Policy Interface
31 May - 2 June 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
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| Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses |
- Summer School Political Ecologies in/of the Anthropocene: value, life and critique
21-27 June 2017, Wageningen
- Summer School on Exploring the Land-Water Continuum
2-7 July 2017, France (dates to be confirmed)
- Summer Course Research on Productivity, Trade, and Growth: Theory and Practice
3-7 July 2017, Amsterdam
- Training course Airborne remote sensing for monitoring essential biodiversity variables in forest ecosystems
3-14 July 2017, Germany (Registration deadline 31 March 2017)
- Introduction in Genome-Wide Data Analysis
17-21 July 2017, Amsterdam
- Crash Course in Experimental Economics
17-22 July 2017, Amsterdam
- Potsdam Summer School Human Environments in a Changing World
4-13 September 2017, Germany (Registration deadline 18 April 2017)
- A1 SENSE Introductory Course
4-6 October 2017, Apeldoorn
- Bayesian Statistics
25-26 October 2017, Wageningen
- Speciation and Bioavailability of Metals, Organics and Nanoparticles
6-10 November 2017, Belgium
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| Discussion Groups |
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| Research seminar Earth System Governance, 23 February |
| The Amsterdam Laboratory on Earth System Governance is a research seminar, hosted by the IVM section Environmental Policy Analysis, on new research in the area of environmental and earth-system governance. In weekly meetings, held each Thursday 12-13 hrs, participants will be given the opportunity to present and discuss their work, and receive valuable feedback. The research seminar will provide a regular opportunity to exchange views on new research directions, concepts, themes and methods in earth system governance research. |
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| Wageningen Evolution and Ecology Seminars (WEES), 23 February |
WEES is an initiative from PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. For this series we invite researchers from all over the world that have leading roles in their field. After the talk there will be drinks for an informal discussion and a dinner in town with the speaker.
Preceding each talk a Master Class can be attended. The Master Class is organized for interested PhD and MSc students. In the Master Class the attendants have the possibility to meet the speaker of the seminar and have a discussion based on recent papers suggested by the speaker. The Master classes are a good possibility to get acquainted with hot topics in ecology and evolutionary biology and to learn to discuss these topics with leading scientists in the field. MSc students can get credits for the Master Class.
23 February 2017 - Mart Krupovic - Research scientist at the Institut Pasteur of Paris, France: "Natural history of viral capsids" . |
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| Discussion group Landscape Dynamics, 28 February |
The landscape is shaped by interacting physical, chemical and biological processes. These range from tectonic processes over millions of years to extreme events which change the landscape in a matter of seconds. The impact of humans on the landscape can be direct but also indirect, by affecting the natural processes. Therefore, understanding the landscape dynamics requires an interdisciplinary view ranging over multiple spatial and temporal scales.
The discussion group ‘Landscape Dynamics’ focuses on the past, present and future dynamics of the physical landscape. During the proactive meetings, different themes will be introduced by a speaker and discussed using several propositions. Example of themes are feedbacks between soil, water, atmosphere and vegetation, the human factor in earth sciences or the issue of up- and downscaling in modelling natural processes. |
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| PhD discussion group on agriculture – climate – forests – food, 1 March |
This interdisciplinary discussion group on agriculture, forests and climate change focuses on interactions, trade-offs and synergies between agriculture, climate and forestry. It invites PhDs (but also postdocs and researchers) from Wageningen working on or interested in agriculture, climate, forests and food to discuss scientific papers and documents (including key publications, PhD proposals, theoretical innovations etc). In each session, organized around a central theme, one or more PhD researchers or external speakers present their work.
Upcoming presentation: Rebecca Sarku: "Designers and Decision Makers in Actionable Knowledge Production: the Development of Hydro-weather Information Services for Peri-urban Farming". |
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| SENSE Workshop Circular Economy, 13 March |
The government of the Netherlands initiates a transition towards the circular economy. This offers a very interesting opportunity for the SENSE network to take part in this transition. Our graduate school organisation is well positioned in inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches and very well suited to assist this national process on achieving sustainability in the key resources of our societies economy.
Huub Rijnaarts, chairman of the SENSE Board initiated a SENSE network meeting / workshop on 13 March on how SENSE researchers, companies and governments can join forces to assist this process. The workshop is organised in close collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (I&M) and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
If you are interested to participate and discuss possible future initiatives with SENSE participation, please send an email to johan.feenstra@wur.nl. |
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| Discussion meeting Integrating ecosystem service, biodiversity and landscape connectivity into models, 17 March |
Discussion meeting Research Cluster XIII "Land use, spatial analysis and modelling / ecosystem and landscape services"
The intention of the meeting is: getting to know each other, having an exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences, and perhaps discussing future collaboration opportunities.
Topics:
(i) What are the best features of modelling ES, biodiversity and landscape connectivity? Are they compatible? Is there space for change (technological, conceptual or of application)?
(ii) What are the opportunities and weaknesses of integrating ecosystem service, biodiversity and landscape connectivity on environmental planning for decision-makers? " |
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| Upcoming Events |
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| 9th ESP World Conference on Ecosystem Services, 11-15 December 2017 |
SENSE senior staff member Dolf de Groot (WU) is chairman of the Executive Committee of the ESP network
The 9th World Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP) will be held in Shenzhen, China 11-15 December 2017. The conference will facilitate a broad range of topics on the latest state-of-the-art on the science, policy and practice of Ecosystem Services. The overarching theme this year will likely focus on the role of ecosystem services in ecosystem restoration and nature based solutions in natural, rural and urban areas. |
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| Overview of upcoming events |
| Recently announced: |
- Nationaal Energiedebat 2017: politiek en praktijk in debat over de energietransitie
9 March 2017, Utrecht
- Symposium Water stressed futures: Water Systems and Global Change
15 March 2017, Wageningen, updated
- Public lecture by Prof. Matt Hoffmann, University of Toronto, "The Emergence, Spread, and Scaling of Decarbonization Experiments: Getting There from Here"
28 March 2017, Heerlen
- Vienna Energy Forum 2017: Sustainable energy for the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement
9-12 May 2017, Austria
- Nationale Milieudag 2017: Big Data – Big Ambition
7 June 2017, Amsterdam
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| Full list of interesting upcoming events: |
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| Tips |
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| Which grass is greener? Personal stories of PhD graduaties about their careers in- and outside science (2017) |
The number of people who defend their PhD thesis at a Dutch univeristy has doubled since 2000. 68% of these PhD graduates cannot find a job at a Dutch or foreign university, sometimes after a number of temporary contracts. They continue their career outside academia.
This document presents 10 personal stories of PhD graduates about their careers in- and outside science, paying attention to challenges and transferable skills. |
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| Job vacancies |
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| Vacancies at SENSE Partners |
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| Other vacancies in the SENSE field |
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