attempto online
28.09.2018
Research Alumni meet to celebrate 20th Anniversary of International Master’s Course “Applied & Environmental Geoscience (AEG)” in Tübingen
From August 2nd to August 4th the Department of Geoscience at the University of Tübingen hosted an international alumni workshop. International alumni of the Master’s course “Applied & Environmental Geoscience” of the last twenty years were invited.
Themed “Out of the Lab – Into the Field“ the alumni presented their latest research projects in more than twenty talks and discussed current global challenges within their field of research. Strengthening the alumni relations of the University of Tuebingen, the workshop was supported by the DAAD, the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the ‘Universitaetsbund Tuebingen e.V.’, and the ‘Tuebinger Gesellschaft für Angewandte Geowissenschaften e.V.’.
The university’s vice president for research and innovation Dr. Peter Grathwohl welcomed the international alumni (AEG students as well as former guest lecturers and researchers) in the crowded lecture hall of their former alma mater. Among the presenting speakers of the alumni workshop were, in addition to researchers from the Center of Applied Geoscience, former guest lecturers and AEG alumni who are currently involved in research and teaching at universities in inter alia Texas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Osaka.
Twenty-two presentations, grouped by six thematic units, addressed various aspects of environmental contaminant research. In accordance with the workshop’s title „Out of the Lab – Into the Field“ the talks covered topics such as environmental modeling and monitoring, environmental chemistry and microbiology, and environmental analytics. One main concern discussed was whether previous research results from the laboratory can be used to describe the contaminant transport behavior in the field and if they are able to correctly describe the relevant physical and chemical processes acting on a landscape scale.
Following the two-day lecture series, a field trip to the close by valley of the Ammer River was offered. The trip to the Collaborative Research Center CAMPOS’ research site ended the scientific part of the alumni workshop.
An essential element of the event was to revive old research connections and to establish new networks. Since being the first reunion after more than fifteen years for many former AEG students and researchers, the workshop was a great opportunity to reminisce about experiences and memories made at the department. During the concluding barbecue on Saturday participants got the chance to meet new people and to initiate common future research activities: “I was able to talk to distinguished scientists in a very friendly atmosphere”.
Dr. Peter Merkel