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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment |
SENSE e-News |
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Newsletter January 2017
22 December 2016 |
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Maryna Strokal (WU): Cum Laude for PhD on river export of nutrients in China ›› |
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Paula Redondo Hasselerharm (WU) developed TRAMP website for A2 project ›› |
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Atse Louwen (UU): Solar energy currently cheapest and cleanest alternative to fossil fuels ›› |
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Inaugural Lecture of Prof. Dr. Roshanka Ranasinghe, UNESCO-IHE and University of Twente ›› |
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Daniel Engström-Stenson and Oscar Widerberg (VU): Linking state, non-state and subnational climate action: The case of Sweden ›› |
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Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period ›› |
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Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research, 8-9 February 2017 ›› |
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Grasping Sustainability, 13-17 March 2017 ›› |
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A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 29-31 March 2017 ›› |
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Overview of PhD / postdoc courses January-March ›› |
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Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ›› |
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Overview of upcoming events ›› |
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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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Making an impact... together!
SENSE PhD candidates can be certain of one thing (at least): your PhD research is not only relevant for the development of science, but also for the development of society. It seems to me that this combined relevance (science plus society) is what makes the sustainability sciences (even more) attractive to many (or most) researchers in the SENSE network.
This relevance of research in SENSE, comes with a responsibility. To get the full benefit from SENSE PhD research (not only for science and for society, but also for the PhD candidate her/him-self), it is important to consider the possible impact of your research in an early stage. Making an impact is something that actually can be trained – it would be a mistake to think that this competence comes naturally, or not at all.
Therefore we invite you to consider your participation in the upcoming SENSE PhD course (a joint venture with Wageningen graduate schools): ‘Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research’. More details and registration (deadline 9 January – so hurry up) can be found HERE. We hope to see many of you in this course – no better way to (learn to) make an impact than together!
Another element of the SENSE programme in which our PhD candidates are challenged to develop their ‘impact competences’ is the SENSE A2 project. Here too the SENSE PhD candidates often learn lessons about the enormous benefit that can be harvested by sharing and doing things together as ‘teamwork’: it would be difficult to see how the sustainability sciences (and their impact) could develop without excellent teamwork.
I take the liberty here to quote one of the recent SENSE A2 project reports, because in my mind it summarizes the strength of doing things together in an excellent way: “Although each problem (case) has a specific character, many can be solved relatively easy and fast if there is a good discussion within the group. This holds for both scientific and logistic issues during a PhD process. Since many of the PhDs are shy and scared (especially new PhDs in the group) to talk about their problems, they spend enormous amount of time trying to deal with those issues on their own way, without knowing that the PhD sitting next to them had similar problem(s).”
In a spirit of the upcoming Xmas Holidays, this quote reminds us of the enormous potential that lies in reaching out, communicating and promoting teamwork. The end of the year (with the promises of a New Year) usually makes excellent timing to train and practice your skills of ‘reaching out’ and working together – somehow ‘miracles’ can happen if we learn to multiply the sum of our efforts.
On this note, we wish you inspiring Season Holidays and a miraculous New Year.
Let’s make SENSE.. together!
Ad van Dommelen
SENSE Director of Education |
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SENSE News |
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Maryna Strokal (WU): Cum Laude for PhD on river export of nutrients in China |
On 13 December Maryna Strokal (WU) defended her PhD thesis “River export of nutrients to the coastal waters of China: The MARINA model to assess sources, effects and solutions”. She graduated cum laude. Maryna was a PhD student in the Environmental Systems Analysis group, and now a postdoc in the Water Systems and Global Change group (WU).
Maryna’s PhD thesis aims to better understand trends in river export of nutrients to the coastal waters of China by source from sub-basins, and the associated coastal eutrophication. Maryna Strokal: “To this end, I developed a model to assess river inputs of nutrients to seas (MARINA), to analyse nutrient export from land to sea. The novelty of this work is in an elegant downscaling approach, and a better modeling of animal manure and sewage. It changed the way we think about coastal eutrophication in China. It shows how important point source emissions of manure are as a source of pollution in China. This is very different than in Europe. The MARINA model shows the need for improved manure management and waste water treatment in China.” |
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Paula Redondo Hasselerharm (WU) developed TRAMP website for A2 project |
Paula Redondo Hasselerharm has completed her SENSE A2 project in a very creative and impactful way by developing a dedicated website on the subject of her PhD research: Technologies for the Risk Assessment of Microplastics (TRAMP). This project aims at: developing technologies to detect nano- and microplastics in freshwater samples; to assess fate, hazards and effects of plastic in the freshwater environment; and to provide a prognostic assessment of the risks of plastic in the Dutch freshwater environment. Please have a look at www.stwtramp.nl. |
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Atse Louwen (UU): Solar energy currently cheapest and cleanest alternative to fossil fuels |
The positive effect of solar energy as a sustainable energy source offsets the negative impact of the production of solar panels. This applies to energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions during the production process, according to a comprehensive study by Atse Louwen and Wilfried van Sark (UU), André Faaij and Ruud Schropp (Eindhoven University of Technology). Their research results are published 6 December in the leading journal Nature Communications.
The mass production of solar panels in countries where environmental concerns are not always taken seriously, regularly sparks discussion on how sustainable solar panels actually are. 'In our study we carefully examined important sustainability aspects of the production and yield of solar panels over the last 40 years. This revealed that solar energy is currently both the cheapest and the cleanest alternative to fossil fuels', explains solar energy researcher Wilfried van Sark. |
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Inaugural Lecture of Prof. Dr. Roshanka Ranasinghe, UNESCO-IHE and University of Twente |
Prof. Dr. Roshanka (Rosh) Ranasinghe, who holds the AXA Chair in Climate Change Impacts and Coastal Risk at the Department of Water Science and Engineering gave his inaugural lecture at the University of Twente on 10th November.
In his lecture "Where to Build you next Sandcastle", Prof. Ranasinghe recounted that in 2000, a former colleague at the Government of New South Wales, showed him a photo of a precariously positioned house near Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. He asked, "Can you use your models and tell me the chance of this house falling into the sea if we were to get a 1:100 year storm tomorrow?" |
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SENSE PhD blogs |
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Daniel Engström-Stenson and Oscar Widerberg (VU): Linking state, non-state and subnational climate action: The case of Sweden |
Successful international climate policy depends on domestic actors’ acceptance and actions. Cities, regions, investors, companies and civil society organizations are crucial for implementing the Paris Agreement. The proliferation of non-state climate actions is therefore a positive development, symbolizing the commitments of players outside of the UNFCCC in contributing to halting dangerous global warming at well below 2 degrees Celsius. |
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Upcoming PhD Graduations |
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Overview of PhD graduations upcoming period |
- Yalemzewd Nigussie
Behavioural mechanisms and adaptation to climate change: Evidence from lab-in-the-field experiments in the upper Blue-Nile basin
18 January 2017, Wageningen University, Environmental Economics and Natural Resources
- Harry Blaas
From harmful to useful algae
25 January 2017, Wageningen University, Environmental Systems Analysis
- Tewodros Kahsay
Towards sustainable water resources management in the Nile River Basin: A global commutable general equilibrium analysis
25 January 2017, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Environmental Economics
- Sara Eeman
Dynamics of rainwater lenses on upward seeping saline groundwater
25 January 2017, Wageningen University, Soil Physics and Land Management
- Francisco Javier Rubio Rincón
Effect of sulphide on enhanced biological removal of phosphorus
30 January 2017, UNESCO-IHE, Sanitary Engineering
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Upcoming Courses |
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Making an Impact! How to increase the societal relevance of your PhD research, 8-9 February 2017 |
With the pressing global challenges of climate change, food security and natural resource pollution and depletion, the need for societally relevant research is higher than ever. The societal relevance of sustainability research has become a crucial aspect in the evaluation of research proposals, while demonstrating the societal impact of research has become a core element in the assessment of research results. For these reasons, many PhD-candidates working on sustainability issues are motivated to ensure that their research has an impact.
In the course, you will learn about activities to increase the societal relevance of your research, and how these can be balanced with other commitments and priorities in your PhD-programme . |
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Grasping Sustainability, 13-17 March 2017 |
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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A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 29-31 March 2017 |
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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Overview of PhD / postdoc courses January-March |
- Practical Bioinformatics for Biologists (NEW)
9 January - 3 February 2017, Groningen
- VI Southern-Summer School on Mathematical Biology
16-27 January 2017, Brazil
- Ecotoxicology
16-27 January 2017, Amsterdam & Wageningen
- PCDI course Employability Outside Academia (NEW)
30 January, 20 February and 27 March 2017, Utrecht
- Dynamic Energy Budgets
1 February - 2 June 2017, online and Norway
- Risk Assessment of Chemicals in the Environment (NEW)
7-14 February 2017, UFZ Leipzig, Germany
- Environmental Impact Assessment of Livestock Systems
13-17 February 2017, Wageningen
- Biological Processes for Resource Recovery
20 February - 17 March 2017, Wageningen
- Practical Modelling for Marine Biologists
27 February - 18 March 2017, Groningen
- Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment
6-10 March 2017, Delft
- Dynamic Models in R: Programming, parameter estimation and model selection (NEW)
10, 16, 17, 23, 24 March and 7 April 2017, Wageningen
- INOGOV International Spring School Governing Climate Change: Polycentricity in Action?
28-31 March 2017
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Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses |
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Upcoming Events |
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Overview of upcoming events |
Recently announced: |
- Waterkwaliteit onder druk door onkruidbestrijding
18 January 2017, VVM Utrecht
- Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting
14-15 February 2017, Lunteren
- 15th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW)
2-4 May 2017, Alaska, USA (abstract submission deadline: 13 January 2017)
- Open Science Meeting 2017: Towards resilient society
15-17 May 2017, Indonesia
- The emerging complexity of climate adaptation governance in a globalising world
23-24 May 2017, Sweden
- 21th ICABR Conference Bioeconomy in Transition: New Players and New Tools
31 May - 2 June 2017, California, US
- 12th Workshop on Antarctic Meteorology & Climate
26-28 June 2017, Colorado, USA
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Full list of interesting upcoming events: |
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Tips |
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Should I publish negative results or does this ruin my career in science? (blogpost in SmartScienceCareer) |
Young scientists often produce negative results. All experiments were done correctly – but there was no difference between test and control. They get conflicting advice from supervisors and ethicists. Some say that publishing negative results is a waste of resources and ruins their careers. Others say that ‘not publishing negative results is unethical’ and promotes the reproducibility crisis. What should young scientists do in such a situation?
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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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