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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment |
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Newsletter September
01 September 2016 |
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Brian Dermody (Copernicus-UU) writes best thesis in Environmental Sciences in 5 last years ›› |
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NWO Veni awards for Ingid van der Laan-Luijkx and Nora Sutton (WIMEK-WU) ›› |
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Veni grant awarded to Obbe Tuinenburg (Copernicus-UU) to improve drought predictability ›› |
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Cum laude PhD thesis Els Faassen (WIMEK-WU): The role of BMAA in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson ›› |
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New global dataset supports the hundreds of millions of people threatened by sea-level rise ›› |
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Researchers raise the alarm: Amazone suffocates by drought ›› |
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Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period ›› |
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A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 5-7 October 2016 ›› |
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SENSE Writing Week, 31 October - 4 November 2016 ›› |
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Overview of PhD / postdoc courses September-November ›› |
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Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ›› |
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Ecological Theory & Application Discussion Group meeting, 7 September ›› |
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Research seminar Earth System Governance, 22 September ›› |
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Discussion group Modelling and Statistics Network (MSN), 23 September ›› |
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Inaugural address Niklas Höhne (WIMEK-WU): Limiting climate change to well below 2°C or 1.5°C: International efforts and options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 1 September ›› |
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Inaugural lecture Peter Oosterveer (WIMEK-WU): Networks, flows and actors - Promoting sustainability in globalising food provision, 8 September ›› |
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Farewell symposium professor Grietje Zeeman (WIMEK-WU): Recovery and Reuse of Resources from source separated domestic wastewater, 7 October ›› |
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Overview of upcoming events ›› |
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Your input is requested for the National Phd Day! (29 October) ›› |
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Falling Walls Lab, 2 October ›› |
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Job NWO ALW via Promovendi Netwerk Nederland - Junior Beleidsmedewerker (Dutch speaking), deadline 2 September ›› |
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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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Welcome to the Anthropocene (it is now almost official)
 On Monday 29 August 2016, an official working group reported to the International Geological Congress underway in Cape Town and recommended to adopt the Anthropocene as the official term for our contemporary geological epoch. The 35 scientists on the working group have voted 30 to three in favor of formally designating the Anthropocene, with two abstentions. While this suggestion will be reviewed by further commissions, it is a strong signal that something extraordinary is going on.
Beyond the symbolic and metaphoric value, this decision underpins the radically different nature of the current global environmental challenge. System Earth is rapidly changing, potentially shifting to life-threatening modes of operation. Climate change, biodiversity loss, disruption of the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, plastic soup in the oceans and men-made chemicals found in (human) embryos, these are the symptoms and most visible signs of the great acceleration and earth system transformation underway. In other words: space ship earth is on a collision course, and the autopilot has been set by its own crew. However, next to doom scenarios, some researchers also see potential: a new epoch is dawning, one of men-made unprecedented progress towards a post-human evolution and eternal future.
What is the role of environmental sciences in this debate? Beyond just offering a powerful justification for what we do, the Anthropocene also challenges us to move into unknown territory. Traditionally centered on an ethos of preservation and protection, environmental sciences have to come to grips with the end of nature as we know it. If it is true that we now live in an epoch almost entirely driven by one species, Homo sapiens, how can we best think about the non-human environment and how and in what form do we need to protect it? What scientific methods and approaches will generate robust, socially relevant and authoritative knowledge for navigating the Anthropocene? And whose Anthropocene will it most likely be? The Northern/western vision of sustainable capitalism enshrined in such statements as ‘people, planet, profit’ or rather more radical visions of just and equitable development within planetary boundaries (of which some have been already trespassed by the agency of a few powerful actors)? These debates need constant exchange and open communication among the various disciplines, schools and “churches” of environmental sciences. SENSE is a wonderful example of the much-needed interdisciplinary approach and open-minded exchange required to make sense of the Anthropocene. On this note, I wish you a successful start of the academic semester 2016/2017! Best wishes and welcome to the Anthropocene,
Philipp Pattberg, SENSE General Director
Welcome to Lieke Melsen as temporary PhD Education Coordinator
 As of 1 September 2016 PhD Education Coordinator Monique Gulickx is on maternity leave until the end of the year. She will be temporarily replaced by Lieke Melsen (WU), a SENSE PhD candidate in the final stage of her PhD project. We are grateful for her help and are quite confident she will be a valuable addition to our team.
Your can reach Lieke at lieke.melsen@wur.nl. |
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| SENSE News |
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| Brian Dermody (Copernicus-UU) writes best thesis in Environmental Sciences in 5 last years |
 SENSE PhD Brian Dermody from Utrecht University received the prestigious Martinus van Marum Prize on June 17th for the thesis "Sol Invictus: Holocene Climate Change and its Impact in the Roman Mediterranean", which he wrote in 2014. The prize consists of a medal and a cheque for €12,500 and is awarded every 5 years by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and the J.C. Ruigrok Foundation for a thesis in the field of Environmental Sciences. |
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| NWO Veni awards for Ingid van der Laan-Luijkx and Nora Sutton (WIMEK-WU) |
  The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant of maximum 250,000 euros to 158 researchers who have recently gained their doctorate. With a Veni grant from NWO, highly promising young researchers can further elaborate their own ideas during a period of three years.
Ingrid van der Laan-Luijkx will work on "Lungs of the earth: measuring oxygen to unravel the forest carbon balance" and Nora Sutton on "Cleaning Groundwater of Organic Micropollutants: fundamental understanding of biodegradation". |
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| Veni grant awarded to Obbe Tuinenburg (Copernicus-UU) to improve drought predictability |
 The aim of his proposed research is to get earlier and better warnings of droughts at the seasonal timescale. On this seasonal timescale, the questions we ask are not "How much precipitation will fall next Friday?", but rather "Will August be a relatively wet or dry month?". This seasonal timescale coincides with the timescale of droughts, and is currently under much scientific study. |
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| Cum laude PhD thesis Els Faassen (WIMEK-WU): The role of BMAA in neurological diseases such as Alzheimer or Parkinson |
 The neurotoxin BMAA is suspected to play a role in a.o. Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Humans could be infected through contaminated water or food, such as fish and shellfish. However, whether BMAA was really present in aquatic systems, and at what levels, became the subject of a fierce scientific debate. And of the PhD thesis of Els Faassen. She promoted cum laude on 8 July. Her promotor was Marten Scheffer. Co-promotor was Miquel Lurling. |
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| New global dataset supports the hundreds of millions of people threatened by sea-level rise |
| Extreme sea-levels - which can cause catastrophic floods - have been mapped with greater accuracy than ever before in a new study by Dutch researchers (IVM-VU and Deltares), published in Nature Communications of 27 June 2016. This allows for a much better mapping and understanding of the risks faced by the more than 600 million people living in low-lying coastal areas. |
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| Researchers raise the alarm: Amazone suffocates by drought |
| Fifty international geo scientists have published a new report, which states that the trees in the Amazone can no longer capture CO2 because of extreme tropical draught. The Dutch newspaper Trouw reports about this. |
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| Upcoming PhD Graduations |
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| Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period |
- Aritta Suwarno
Optimising land use in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia: Modelling ecosystem benefits and land-use dynamics
2 September 2016, Wageningen University, Environmental Systems Analysis
- Bianca van der Kroon
Climbing the African energy ladder. Internal and external factors influencing Household demand for improved cookstoves and modern fuels in sub-Saharan Africa
13 September 2016, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Environmental Economics
- Yue Lu
Ecophysiology and environmental distribution of organohalide-respiring bacteria
13 September 2016, Wageningen University, Microbiology
- Bernardo Monteiro Flores
Resilience of Amazonian forests. The role of fire, flooding and climate
14 September 2016, Wageningen University, Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management
- Sunday Makama
An in vitro - in vivo integrated approach for hazard and risk assessment of silver nanoparticles for soil organisms
15 September 2016, Wageningen University, Toxicology
- T.H.D. Phan
Payments for Forest Ecosystem Services: Global and Local Assessments of Costs and Benefits
16 September 2016, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Environmental Economics
- Thea Anne Rex Turkington
Changing flood and landslide hazard - A meteorological perspective
22 September 2016, University of Twente, Department of Earth Systems Analysis
- Suman Bajracharya
Microbial Electrosynthesis of Biochemicals. Innovations on biocatalysts, electrodes and ion-exchange for CO2 supply, chemicals production and separation
23 September 2016, Wageningen University, Environmental Technology
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| Upcoming Courses |
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| A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 5-7 October 2016 |
What is my work good for? Even the most nerdish PhD student asks himself or herself this question once in a while. Is it just for the sake of science or does it relate to other research or even to environmental policy? What are my SENSE colleagues working on in other departments and other universities? How does their research relate to mine?
In the SENSE course 'Environmental Research in Context' several perspectives and approaches to analyse and to solve environmental problems are discussed. You will find out how your own research project fits within other (multi-) disciplinary approaches and you will discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of your approach compared to these alternatives.
In addition, you will evaluate some examples where questions from society were translated into scientific research projects in terms of relevance and scientific validity with experienced researchers and other PhD students. |
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| SENSE Writing Week, 31 October - 4 November 2016 |
| During this week you can fully concentrate on writing an article without the distraction of every day practice. The writing week will take place in a comfortable environment where you can spend the night. The presence of other PhD students will provide motivation, support and social contacts. Additionally, an English writing coach will guide us through the writing process with tips&tricks, feedback sessions and individual advice. Each participant will receive information on how to prepare. |
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| Overview of PhD / postdoc courses September-November |
- Hydrological and Hydrogeological Field Methods
6-8 September 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Modelling training course - A practical modelling course using the MERLIN-Expo tool for simulating exposure to chemicals in the environment
12-13 September 2016, UK
- Mapping Ecosystem Services
13-14 September 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Gender & Diversity in Sustainable Development (NEW)
19 September - 14 October 2016, Wageningen
- Research Methodology I: From topic to proposal (NEW)
27 September - 28 November 2016, Wageningen
- Ethics in Environmental Research: Arguments for the Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (NEW)
29 September 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Academic Presenting for Women (NEW)
29-30 September 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- PCDI course Employability Outside Academia
30 September, 28 October and 2 December 2016, Utrecht
- A1 SENSE Introductory Course
5-7 October 2016, Soest
- Finish it! - How to finalize your dissertation and how to focus on finishing right from the beginning (NEW)
7 October 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Bayesian Statistics
17-18 October 2016, Wageningen
- Multivariate Analysis
18-26 October 2016, Wageningen
- NOVA Modelling Workshop (NEW)
24-26 October 2016, Wageningen
- Risk Assessment
24-28 October 2016, Wageningen
- Introduction to R for statistical analysis
27-28 October 2016, Wageningen
- Advanced Short Course on "Where there is little data: how to estimate design variables in poorly gauged basins"
31 October - 11 November 2016, Delft
- SENSE Writing Week
31 October - 4 November 2016, Terschelling
- Toxicant Identification in Water, Sediment and Biota
15 November 2016, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- International Postgraduate Course European Forest Resources and the Bio-Economy
27 November - 2 December 2016, Ede
- Maïdo Observatory Summer School in Atmospheric Composition and Dynamics
28 November - 3 December 2016, Reunion Island
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| Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses |
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| Discussion Groups |
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| Ecological Theory & Application Discussion Group meeting, 7 September |
The Ecological Theory & Application Discoussion Group organises two-monthly meetings for PhD students with a broad interest in ecology. Each meeting is organised around a central ecological theme, such as distribution patterns, climate change, ecophysiology, trophic interactions, etc.
The topic of our next discussion group meeting is Tropical and temperate forest ecology and we will have two presentations by fellow phd students.
- Carolina Levis (FEM, WUR): Historical management practices and their role in the domestication of Amazonian forests
- Lu Huicui (FEM, WUR): Overyielding of temperate mixed forests occurs in evergreen–deciduous but not in deciduous–deciduous species mixtures over time in the Netherlands
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| Research seminar Earth System Governance, 22 September |
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.
- 22 September: Katharina Hölscher: Transformative Climate Governance
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| Discussion group Modelling and Statistics Network (MSN), 23 September |
| The discussion group aims at generating discussion on statistical methods and modelling concepts. By stimulating these discussions we intend to encourage PhD candidates to share ideas, explore new methods, or to discuss and seek help to specific problems that they face in their research. Meetings are held six times a year and are organised by two MSN-members. |
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| Upcoming Events |
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| Inaugural address Niklas Höhne (WIMEK-WU): Limiting climate change to well below 2°C or 1.5°C: International efforts and options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 1 September |
 Niklas Höhne will give his inaugural address on Thursday 1 September 2016 at 16.00 in the Aula of Wageningen University. The title of his inaugural address is "Limiting climate change to well below 2°C or 1.5°C: International efforts and options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
On 30 June his paper “Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C” was published in Nature. |
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| Inaugural lecture Peter Oosterveer (WIMEK-WU): Networks, flows and actors - Promoting sustainability in globalising food provision, 8 September |
 Inaugural lecture upon taking up the position of Personal Professor in the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University.
Summary: Interactions between civil society organisations, governments, the food industry, consumers and producers constitute dynamic fields of environmental change in global food provision. Promoting sustainable food provision builds on changing the social practices of producing, processing, trading and consuming food and on transforming the relations between these practices. Understanding processes of transformation, evolving roles of different societal actors and interactions between local and global dynamics constitute an important challenge for social science research. |
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| Farewell symposium professor Grietje Zeeman (WIMEK-WU): Recovery and Reuse of Resources from source separated domestic wastewater, 7 October |
 Besides sharing the inspiring experiences of our speakers there is the possibility to present your own research through a poster. If you want to present a poster please let us know as soon as possible so that we can reserve a poster board for you. Additionally, please send us an abstract of the research that you want to present on the poster. Due to space restrictions the maximum number of posters is 36 (first come, first served). |
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| Overview of upcoming events |
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- Lunch seminar Ecosystem Services and Climate Change in Indonesia: can the REDD+ experience be used for progress towards Sustainable Development Goals?
1 September 2016, Wageningen
- Inaugural lecture Peter Oosterveer (WU): Networks, flows and actors - Promoting sustainability in globalising food provision
8 September 2016, Wageningen
- Wild of geordend. Natuurbeelden, strategieën en bondgenootschappen in het Nederlandse natuurbehoud
17 September 2016, Nijmegen
- VVM Excursie IJsseldelta Zuid
22 September 2016, Kampen
- International Symposium Nature Conservation - From Fundamental Knowledge to Sustainable Conservation of Nature
26 September 2016, Wageningen
- VVM Excursie Tata Steel: afval, energie en klimaat
28 September 2016, Velsen-Noord
- Symposium Human - Wildlife conflicts in Africa
27 October 2016, Leiden
- The Hugo Conference - Environment, Migration, Politics
3-5 November 2016, Belgium
- ESPA 2016 Annual Science Conference
17-18 November 2016, Kenya
- 1st International ABWET conference : Waste-to-Bioenergy : Applications to Urban Areas
19-20 January 2017, Paris, France
- Arctic Change & its Influence on Mid-Latitude Climate & Weather
1-3 February 2017, USA
- 2nd International Seminar on Algal Technologies for Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery
16-17 March 2017, UNESCO-IHE Delft
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| Full list of interesting upcoming events: |
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| Tips |
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| Your input is requested for the National Phd Day! |
| Did you mark down 29 October yet in your agenda? The PhD candidates Network of the Netherlands (PNN), supported by AcademicTransfer, everybody that is working hard on obtaining a doctorate to come to Utrecht. Let us know what you like to see scheduled by clicking the link: http://nationalphdday.nl/call-for-ideas |
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| Falling Walls Lab, 2 October |
Do you have a great idea you want to share with the world’s top scientists? Falling Walls Lab is the platform you need. The Lab is an interdisciplinary forum for aspiring scientists and professionals from around the world. It is part of the annual, internationally renowned, conference for breakthroughs in science and society; the Falling Walls Conference. The Falling Walls Lab offers emerging talents, entrepreneurs and innovators a stage to pitch research project, business plan, entrepreneurial or social initiative to their peers and a distinguished jury from academia and business.
There are only 30 spots in the preliminary round for the Benelux, which is hosted in Groningen on the 2nd of October 2016. You can sign up until the 18th of September. A prestigious jury from science and business awards the best pitch with €750 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Berlin for the final competition on the 8th and the Conference 9th November 2016 (1st place). The second and third place winners receive €350 and €150, respectively.
For further information, please visit the websites: http://falling-walls.com/ and www.rug.nl/next/fallingwalls or contact us at fallingwalls@rug.nl.
Are you ready to break walls? Please sign up for Falling Walls Lab Groningen 2016.
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| Professional PhD Program vacancies |
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The Professional PhD Program (PPP) aims to provide opportunities for PhD candidates to work on their transferable skills. Currently the PhD track fully focuses on an academic career, while around 80 per cent of the people who finish their PhD will continue their career outside universities. In addition to this, companies and public organizations can experience the added value of a PhD candidate. Furthermore, PPP can strengthen the collaboration between universities and non-academic organizations.
The Professional PhD Program is an initiative by Promovendi Netwerk Nederland. |
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| Job NWO ALW via Promovendi Netwerk Nederland - Junior Beleidsmedewerker (Dutch speaking), deadline 2 September |
Als junior beleidsmedewerker assisteer je de beleidsmedewerkers met het zoeken van referenten gedurende de beoordelingsrondes. Referenten zijn wetenschappelijke specialisten die een oordeel geven over een voorstel aan NWO voor financiële steun aan een onderzoeksproject.
Daarnaast ben je verantwoordelijk voor:
- het uitvoeren van het procesmanagement bij de beoordeling van subsidieaanvragen;
- het mede zorgen voor de uitvoeren van specifieke steunvormen, waarbij inbegrepen het het opstellen van adviezen, het rapporteren aan het bestuur en het (mede) uitvoeren van evaluaties op onderdelen van het gebied;
- het leveren van een bijdrage aan projectbeheer van nieuwe en lopende projecten en programma´s;
- het voorbereiden en uitvoeren van beleid voor onderdelen van het gebied.
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