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Research School for Socio-Economic and
Natural Sciences of the Environment
SENSE e-News
    Newsletter September 2022
07 September 2022
Table of contents
Editorial
SENSE News
Paper on citizen science on impact assessment wins Journal of Sustainability Science award ››
Joyeeta Gupta wins Piers Sellers Prize 2022 ››
VENI grant for Jouke Dykstra (WUR) for the electrochemical cleaning of drinking water ››
SENSE blogs
Anna Huang: A way to the Top ››
Martijn Duineveld: Voor een leefbare planeet moet het poldermodel de prullenbak in ››
Upcoming courses and discussion groups
Environmental and Resource Economics - Module: Climate Economics, 3-7 October 2022 ››
A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-28 October 2022 ››
Overview of PhD / postdoc courses September-October 2022 ››
Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses ››
Upcoming Events
Annual IHE PhD symposium 2022: “Realising the SDGs: Innovative water solutions to achieve resilience in an uncertain world” – all SENSE PhD candidates invited, 13-14 October 2022 ››
Symposium: Satellite Imagery Classification of man-made structures using Deep Learning/Machine Learning, 28 October 2022 ››
Overview of upcoming events September-October ››
Upcoming PhD graduations
Overview of PhD graduations September 2022 ››
Calls
Call SENSE Course Development (deadline: 31 October 2022) ››
Biodiversa+ Call on "Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society" (deadline: early November 2022) ››
GAIA Masters Student Paper Award (deadline: 28 November 2022) ››
Job vacancies
Overview job vacancies ››
SENSE highlights
BLOG Anna Huang: A way to the Top 
COURSE Environmental and Resource Economics - Module: Climate Economics, 3-7 October 2022 
COURSE A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-28 October 2022 
EVENT Annual IHE PhD symposium 2022: “Realising the SDGs: Innovative water solutions to achieve resilience in an uncertain world” – all SENSE PhD candidates invited, 13-14 October 2022 
CALL SENSE Course Development (deadline: 31 October 2022) 
Editorial
Welcome back!
The September e-News usually offers the opportunity to welcome you all back to the normality of our daily (academic) lives. I hesitate if I can do that this year, because to what normality would  I welcome your? And is that the (new) normality we want and need?

We live in a strange era of multiple crises, such as war, severe floodings in a.o. Pakistan, severe draught in large parts of Europe, wildfires, failing harvests, huge energy prices, inflation, a nitrogen crisis, angry farmers, Covid, bird flue, and a refugee crisis that might even be increased by climate change related disasters in the future.

Not all of these crises are in the field of the SENSE domain, but looking closely, most if not all of them are related to it or influence it.

The saying is, that crisis is chance. So to stay on the positive side, we could say that this is a time of many great chances. These times offer scientists a chance to prove their relevance in finding solutions. But also the chance to find connection with societal actors, because without them, no solution can ever be implemented. To solve the nitrogen crisis, we are nowhere without our farmers, to take the example closest at hand this summer.

In the heated debate of today, with many expressing strong opinions, the challenge may be not only to speak up about the knowledge science generates, but also to listen and stay connected as a society. I wish all of us the inspiration and fresh energy to contribute to both knowlegde and dialogue.

Marjolijn Dannenburg, Communication officer
SENSE News
Paper on citizen science on impact assessment wins Journal of Sustainability Science award
There’s a lot of buzz around citizen science for sustainability. Engaging scores of people who collect and share data to contribute to scientific projects is a popular method. But what’s the impact? That’s a question often ignored, or answered with assumptions and speculations. An IHE Delft-led paper that presents the first systematic review of how citizen science impact can be captured recently received an Honorable Mention Award from the journal Sustainability Science.
Read more ››

Joyeeta Gupta wins Piers Sellers Prize 2022
Professor Joyeeta Gupta wins the prize for her world leading contribution to solution focused climate research. The award is bestowed annually in the name of Piers Sellers, the former astronaut, climate scientist and Leeds alumnus, by the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds.
Read more ››

VENI grant for Jouke Dykstra (WUR) for the electrochemical cleaning of drinking water
With his project on electrochemical ‘water polishing’, ETE assistant professor Jouke Dykstra has been awarded a VENI grant in the NWO talent scheme Veni, Vidi, Vici. This grant is aimed for excellent scientists that have successfully finished their PhD within the last three years. His project, Removal of toxic anthropogenic solutes in drinking water treatment by electrochemical polishing, aims to clean drinking water from low-level contaminants, that are still present after the conventional treatment technologies. The grant offers a personal budget of € 280.00000 for four years of work. Dykstra: ‘We will use the grant to develop the technology as well as a simulation model to further fine tune the knowhow and methodology.’
Read more ››
SENSE blogs
Anna Huang: A way to the Top
A way to the Top is my blog as a PhD candidate in Environmental Toxicology. My name is Anna Huang, PhD candidate at Wageningen University on the project "Mechanisms of toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides towards aquatic arthropod species". I started my PhD project in September 2018. This blog is a reflection and summary of my PhD project, by analogy with climbing, you will see how I climbed through my entire PhD project to the end, the top.

In 2018, just before I made up my mind to come to the Netherlands, I got a great piece of advice from a wise friend: "There is no such thing as a right choice, just make a choice and try to make it right." With this advice, I started my "trying" journey, making one choice and trying to get it right, if not, then another choice and trying to get it right. “Trying”, I believe is also a principle of science because one of the properties of science is that it is unknown, and we have no guarantee that we are heading in the right direction.

Now, time flies to 2022, I will be defending in November, and this PhD "trying" journey is approaching an end. Looking back, some successes, some failures, although some "trying" was painful, all worth it. In this blog, I am writing about the research findings from my PhD project, which consists of four separate research blogs. My colleagues and I have done amazing jobs. My goal for this blog is to make ecological risk assessments, especially the risk assessment of pesticides in aquatic systems, more accessible for more people.

You will find our interesting scientific questions such as (1) why are some species sensitive to pesticides and show delayed toxic effects, while others are not? (2) Do organisms of different sizes, sexes, and ages living in the same population have different susceptibility to pesticides? If so, what could be the reasons? (3) Some pesticides have been banned because they are not good for the environment, but some new alternatives have emerged. How safe are these new pesticides for the environment? (4) To protect our environment, we also need to be aware that our environment is changing, and warming is one of the most worrying changes. Will the toxicity of chemicals be affected by warming? If so, what could be the reasons?

If you are interested, please check this link https://annahuangaew.blogspot.com/.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Anna Huang, PhD candidate

Martijn Duineveld: Voor een leefbare planeet moet het poldermodel de prullenbak in
Moordende overstromingen in Nederland, België en Duitsland; een dorp in Canada dat binnen twintig minuten van de kaart gebrand is; extreme hittegolven in Pakistan en India. We leven in een tijd die door steeds meer mensen wordt gezien als een kruispunt voor de mensheid. Met polderen sparen we misschien op de korte termijn de kool en de geit. Maar de gevolgen voor de lange termijn zijn desastreus. De geit blijft immers een grote bron van methaan en stikstof en het is de vraag of de kool nog groeit als de aarde door gif en kunstmest uitgeput raakt. Er moeten snelle en drastische keuzes gemaakt worden die op de korte termijn grote consequenties hebben voor burgers en bedrijven. In dit essay zetten we uiteen waarom het poldermodel voor de klimaat- en biodiversiteitscrisis de prullenbak in kan en concluderen dat het alternatief voor de ogenschijnlijke inclusiviteit van het poldermodel meer democratische controle betekent.
Read more ››

Do you want to have your own blog on the SENSE website, or do you want to write a single blog post? Please contact marjolijn.dannenburg@wur.nl.

Upcoming courses and discussion groups
Environmental and Resource Economics - Module: Climate Economics, 3-7 October 2022
The course “Environmental and Resource Economics” is offered as different independent modules.
Upcoming modules cover circular economy, climate economics, and behavioural environmental economics.What are the economic consequences of climate change? By how much should these consequences be reduced by climate change adaptation and mitigation policies? Which economic instruments are effective and efficient in stimulating a low-carbon economy and how do these instruments function? The module “Climate Economics” picks up these questions.
Read more ››

A1 SENSE Introductory Course, 27-28 October 2022
This course brings together PhD candidates that have the ambition to work on environmental issues, and who have just started their journey within SENSE.During the course, you will discuss the need for interdisciplinary research and start to think about what role you would like to play as a scientist in solving environmental issues. The course will also be part introduction to personal leadership, exploring what is important to you, and hence talking about how to tackle any potential challenges you may face along the way. And you will meet other PhD candidates with which you will share a lot of the same experiences with.
Read more ››

Overview of PhD / postdoc courses September-October 2022
Overview of recently announced PhD / postdoc courses 

In case you are interested in either participating or teaching a course that is currently not in the programme, please do not hesitate and contact us with your suggestions.

More upcoming courses ››

Discussion groups
Upcoming Events
Annual IHE PhD symposium 2022: “Realising the SDGs: Innovative water solutions to achieve resilience in an uncertain world” – all SENSE PhD candidates invited, 13-14 October 2022
Read more ››

Symposium: Satellite Imagery Classification of man-made structures using Deep Learning/Machine Learning, 28 October 2022
A symposium on man-made structures classification from satellite imagery using Deep Learning/Machine Learning. 
The program (see attachment) will consist of two parts. In the first part, there are two main keynote presentations on Scaling-up challenges and Explainable AI for machine learning-based remote sensing activities. Each main presentation will be followed by a 20-minutes period for discussion/questions.
During the second part, you are invited to present your PhD/Postdoc research. It will be followed by time for discussions and some drinks.
The main goal of the symposium will be to share ideas and broaden the network of early-career researchers working on the combination of satellite data and deep learning/machine learning in an inspiring blend of interactive presentations and discussions.
Read more ››

Overview of upcoming events September-October 2022 

Overview of recently announced events 
No other than mentioned above
Upcoming PhD graduations
Overview of PhD graduations September 2022
  • Joël Foramitti
    Agent-based modeling of climate policy
    6 September 2022, VU University Amsterdam, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
     
  • Yaping Lin
    Deep learning for semantic segmentation of airborne laser scanning point clouds
    7 September 2022, University of Twente, Earth Observation Science
     
  • Antoine Karengera
    Sensing hydrophilic contaminants: transcriptional response of Caenorhabditis elegans as biosensor far water quality
    7 September 2022, Wageningen University, Marine Animal Ecology
     
  • Nesru Koroso
    Urbanization, urban land use efficiency and land policy credibility in Ethiopia
    8 September 2022, University of Twente, Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information Management
     
  • Marthe Wens
    Farmers facing drought - Capturing adaptation dynamics in disaster risk models
    9 September 2022, VU University Amsterdam, Water and Climate Risk
     
  • Zerihun Anbesa Gurmu
    Challenges and prospects to reduce sedimentation in small-scale irrigation schemes in the Great Rift Valley Basin, Ethiopia
    20 September 2022, Wageningen University, Water Resource Management
     
  • Bram Droppers
    Modelling agricultural production under sustainable water management, climate change and agricultural adaptation
    23 September 2022, Wageningen University, Water Systems and Global Change
     
  • Yu Lei
    Removal of micropollutants from wastewater treatment plant effluent by constructed wetlands
    23 September 2022, Wageningen University, Environmental Technology
     
  • Rúna Magnússon
    Greening, Browning or Drowning?
    28 September 2022, Wageningen University, Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation
     
  • Jakia Akter
    Modelling centuries of geo-morphological development of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta
    29 September 2022, IHE Delft, Coastal & Urban Risk & Resilience
     
  • Santiago Botia Bocanegra
    Greenhouse gas exchange in the Amazon region Carbon dioxide and methane insights from the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory
    30 September 2022, Wageningen University, Meteorology and Air Quality
     
More upcoming graduations ››
Calls

Call SENSE Course Development (deadline: 31 October 2022)
To support the development of new courses and the collaboration between members, SENSE allocated an annual fund of 20.000 euros to support course development. Each proposal can apply for a maximum of 4.500 euro. Applications are open to all SENSE member institutes.
Read more ››

Biodiversa+ Call on "Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society" (deadline: early November 2022)
This call will cover the following three non-exclusive research themes:
1) Innovation and harmonisation of methods and tools for collection and management of biodiversity monitoring data
2) Addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status, dynamics, and trends to reverse biodiversity loss
3) Making use of available biodiversity monitoring data
All environments (i.e. terrestrial, inland freshwater including wetlands, and marine) will be eligible.
Read more ››

GAIA Masters Student Paper Award (deadline: 28 November 2022)
The international journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society invites Masters students to participate in the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award. Masters students are encouraged to submit their results from research-based courses or Masters theses in the field of transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability science. Every year, one article will be selected by a jury as the winner of the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award.
Read more ››
Job vacancies
Overview of vacancies at SENSE partners
Other vacancies in the SENSE field
More vacancies
During the month new vacancies are regularly posted on the SENSE vacancy page.

This newsletter is published by the
SENSE Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment.

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