Teaching at University of Potsdam

Dr. Katrin Wendt-Potthoff is a lecturer at the University of Potsdam, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology. Within the module River and Ocean Ecology (summer semester) she gives classes in:

• River Ecology: (1) Structure and function of dams/reservoirs
• Marine Ecology: (1) General biogeochemistry, deep sea mining, ocean deoxygenation, (2) Plastics in the environment, (3) Plastics in the environment and problem-solving strategies
• Winter semester: Ecological literature seminar (block course)

Furthermore there will be a practical coures in stream sediment biogeochemistry in August 2026. The focus of this course lies on sampling and measuring various parameters related to the biogeochemistry of river sediments, such as oxygen, greenhouse gases, fauna, and biofilm.

Workshop Paperwriting

The writing of publications is often difficult during every-days work and takes a lot of time. Reasons for this are:
• Wrong priorities (explicitly not: “lack of time”)
• Perfectionism, inhibition threshold to start
• Continuous irritation by email & Co
• Lack of experience (especially PhD students) leads to inefficient writing process
To overcome these obstacles we organize a one-week paper writing-workshop. Special emphasis will be given to
1. Identification of an interesting story. Definition of a central theme (“Roter Faden”). Usually a paper is written easily, if the story is good.
2. Reasonable order of procedures
3. Organization of the text. What is a good title?
4. What is the perspective of the readers, reviewer, editor?
5. Practical help: how to handle Co-authors, criteria for authorship, choice of the journal, organization of the publishing process

Since most PhD students have already some experience with the publication process, the workshop will not completely start at “zero”. There will be no long lectures but the themes will be developed in discussions using the example of own projects. Exchange and motivation between the participants is a central element of the workshop. Each student brings her/his own paper-project and works on it during most of the workshop time. Prerequisite is that the participants have all necessary data ready and a more or less clear idea about the content of the paper. It would be helpful if the participants already have some knowledge in “Scientific English”. Experience shows that every participant will probably leave with a draft of at least 2 sections of his/her paper (either introduction, methods and/or results).