HIGRADE Conference

At the HIGRADE Conference, doctoral researchers in their final year present their work and HIGRADE alumni receive their HIGRADE Certificates.

HIGRADE Conference 2018

- 20 March 2018, UFZ Leipzig: KUBUS -

The next HIGRADE Conference is planned for spring 2019.

Conference Programme (pdf)

At the HIGRADE Conference 2018, 33 doctoral researchers presented short "pitches" (one minute speed talks) to advertise their posters. This part was followed by a poster session with intense discussions over coffee and snacks.
During the concluding award ceremony the best posters and the best poster pitch were honoured. In addition, the new HIGRADE alumni received their certificates and Dr. Anne Schreiter gave an insight talk into her projects and career path.

Poster prizes 2018:

Hanna Hennig (CATHYD) "Water in the desert - What can we learn from "sleeping"
rivers"
Nina Lanzer (UPR) "Mining law and ethics of resource protection"
Naeem Shahid (OEKOTOX) "Adaptation of Gammarus pulex to agricultural insecticide contamination in streams"

Best pitch 2018: Muhammad Arslan (UBT): "Antimicrobials exposure can cause dysbiosis in plant-endophyte partnership"

The HIGRADE alumni at the HIGRADE Conference 2018 are: Annegret Grimm-Seyfarth (NSF), Markus Millinger (BIOENERGIE), Christin Müller (WANA), Erik Nixdorf (ENVINF), Eric Petermann (ENVINF), Andreas Schüttler (BIOTOX), Michael Weber (CHS), Sophie Binder (UPR), Bilha Chepchirchir (OEC), Kai Bittermann (AUC), Daniele Comandella (TUCHEM), Benjamin Dechant (CLE), Nils Droste (OEKON), Davide Francioli (BOOEK), Nadine Gerner (OEKOTOX), Gundula Heike Haunert (BOSYS), Friederike Hörnig (IMMU), Elham Jahangiri (UMB), Florent Jouy (MOLSYB), Andrew Kaus (ASAM), Denise Kurth (WANA), Beate Leppert (IMMU), Lukas Linden (AUC), Katharina Meurer (BOSYS), Karoline Morling (SEEFO), Ronald Münze (OEKOTOX), Julia Raeke (ANA), Christina Riemenschneider (ANA), José Ricardo Ruiz Albizuri (OESA), Linda Schlittenbauer (ANA), Carolin Urban (UMB), Manman Wei (ISOBIO).

Our special thanks goes to the Friends and Supporters of the UFZ, who contributed the book prizes for the best poster and the pitch awards. Furthermore, we thank Muhammad Arslan and Camila Knecht for the musical accompaniment during the ceremony and everyone who made the conference and the evening programme a success!

Posters 2018

Chemicals in the Environment

1 Muhammad Arslan Kamal Hashmi (WANA) "Effect-Directed Analysis (EDA) of Endocrine disruptors in surface waters"
2 Sandra Baur (ANA) "Quantification of nanospecific, anthropogenic mass flows in the environment"
3 Lisa Bittner (ZELLTOX) "pH-dependent effects of pharmaceuticals in the zebrafish embryo"
4 Nelson Khan (UMB) "Fungal-Bacterial Reciprocity: Impact of mycelia on the mobilization and biodegradation of the organochloride pesticide hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)"
5 Philipp Klöckner (ANA) "Determination of tire wear particles in the environment based on elemental composition"
6 Sophia Krause (AUC) "Desorption kinetics of organic chemicals from albumin"
7 David Leuthold (BIOTOX) "Light on, light off - How swimming behavior of zebrafish larvae indicates chemical exposure"
8 Stefanie Loth (IMMU) "Aromatic amino acid metabolites activate aryl hydrocarbon receptor and diminish immune cell function"
9 T. Oliver Scheer (MOLSYB) "Long non-coding RNAs in Retina Regeneration"
10 Stefanie Schulze (ANA) "Identification and Quantification of highly polar pollutants of industrial origin in drinking water sources"
11 Andreas Schüttler (BIOTOX) "Predicting cocktail effects of environmental chemicals on gene activity in zebrafish"
12 Naeem Shahid (OEKOTOX) "Adaptation of Gammarus pulex to agricultural insecticide contamination in streams"

Ecosystems of the Future

13 Sigrid Berger (BZF) "Effects of insect and pathogen exclusion on extensive grasslands under climate chage: first experimental results"
14 Andrea Kaim (CLE) "Keeping the Balance – Trade-offs between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscapes"
15 Ricardo Schöps (BOOEK) "Linking land-use and plant functional identity to the rhizosphere microbiome."

Environment and Society

16 Daniel Hertel (SUSOZ) "Modeling the Urban Heat Island on the Local Neighborhood Scale"
17 Nina Lanzer (UPR) "Mining law and ethics of resource protection"
18 Felix Wittstock (UPOL) "Civil Society Organizations and Climate Engineering"

Environmental Engineering and Biotechnology

19 Nicolas Cichocki (UMB) "Variation and dynamics of microbial communities revealed by flowcytometric approach"
20 Shujuan Lian (ISOBIO) "Biotransformation and inhibition effects of hexachlorocyclohexanes during biogas production from contaminated biomass characterized by isotope fractionation concept"
21 Daniel Reißmann (BIOENERGIE) "Is there a most efficient and environmentally-friendly way for the hydrothermal treatment of moist bio-waste? First indications of a multi-criteria analysis"
22 Muhammad Arslan (UBT) "Antimicrobials exposure can cause dysbiosis in plant-endophyte partnership"
23 Daniela Taraba (UMB) "Zooming in and out - through the microbial universe with metagenomics"

Smart Models / Monitoring

24 Ulrike Hiltner (OESA) "Long-term effects of selective logging on a production forest's succession of the Amazon"
25 Christoph Lehmann (ENVINF) "Modelling the Sorption Kinetics of Salt/Zeolite Composites"
26 Erik Nixdorf (ENVINF) "Combining measurements, remote sensing and numerical modelling to assess multi-scale flow dynamics in groundwater-dependent environmental systems"
33 Miao Jing (CHS) "Improved regional scale groundwater representation by the coupling of the mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM) to the groundwater model OpenGeoSys (OGS)"

Water Resources and Environment

27 Hanna Hennig (CATHYD) "Water in the Desert - What can we learn from "sleeping" rivers"
28 Elisabeth Krueger (ASAM) "Capital Portfolio Assessment of Urban Water Supply Security under Global Change"
29 Felix Tritschler (MET) "The Myth of “Conservative” Salt Tracers in Groundwater – Revisited"
30 Benedikt Werner (HDG) "Understanding DOC Mobilization Dynamics Through High Frequency Measurements in a Headwater Catchment"
31 Katja Westphal (ASAM) "Multi-decadal trajectories of TP loading, transport and retention along a catchment gradient"
32 Xiaoqiang Yang (ASAM) "A new fully distributed analysis of nitrate transport and removal at catchment scale"