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Wageningen Students Visit Ecology Department Team2 min read

by wpengine on June 22, 2022

Ecology Department

Peter Fischer, a PhD student at Wageningen University and Research, shares some background about the Wageningen Microbiology and Systems & Synthetic Biology Departments from which the students hail.

On May 31, a delegation of students from Wageningen University & Research Center (WUR) Microbiology and Systems Biology Groups in the Netherlands came to visit EESA’s Ecology department. WUR is a highly esteemed world-class Dutch university that trains specialists in a variety of life sciences disciplines. WUR’s research and teaching activities range from sustainable agriculture and land use, to microbiology, health, environment, food, and bioenergy.  

The Wageningen group was made up of Ph.D. students in microbiology-related fields visiting the major microbiology centers on the U.S. West Coast including and beyond Berkeley Lab, from UCLA to Bay Area biotechnology companies. The students are citizens of many countries including the Netherlands who are attracted to Wagenigen’s top programs in agricultural research and related life sciences.

After tours of the area where the new BioEPIC facility is under construction and Building 50, a mini-symposium was held to share research talks amongst Wageningen and Berkeley Lab personnel. Ecology Department Head Romy Chakraborty first gave an overview of the important research that will be housed within the BioEPIC facility, and Peter Fischer, a Wageningen student, discussed the research on the UC Berkeley campus. Both groups are interested in fundamental and applied research investigating microbiology’s role in protecting human health and ensuring a sustainable future. 

Speakers from both institutions took turns giving talks on their own research, including Patrick Sorensen, Stephanie Chacon, Shwetha Acharya, and Kolby Jardine from Berkeley Lab and Reiner Egas and Maaike Bestemen from Wageningen. Topics ranged from snowmelt influence on nitrogen cycling (Sorensen) and syntrophic organisms’ roles in anaerobic digestion (Bestemen) to the effects of drought stress on plants (Jardine). Members from both institutions took time to speak with each other about research and career goals during a coffee break as well as more specific questions during research talks. 

This was the second visit by Wageningen students to Berkeley Lab, after the last visit in 2014. Both organizations made lasting connections through this event which provides young scientists and undergraduate and graduate students with the unique opportunity to share their research and connect with their European peers.

News & Events

Joint Berkeley Initiative for Microbiome Sciences Hosts Microbes in a Changing Planet Symposium3 min read

November 10, 2023

The Joint Berkeley Initiative for Microbiome Sciences (JBIMS), co-led by UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab, held an all-day “Microbes in a Changing Planet” symposium at UC Berkeley’s International House on November 3. Over 110 people from 11 institutions, including undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and lab scientists, attended to share their work regarding Earth’s microbiomes,…

2023 ESS-DIVE Open Data Workshop (ODW) to Propel Environmental System Science Projects into the Future4 min read

November 6, 2023

The Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) team will host a free, virtual Open Data Workshop from Wednesday, November 15 to Thursday, November 16, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. PT / 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET. This workshop is targeted for anyone who is part of a DOE Environmental…

Study Sheds Light on Microbial Communities in Earth’s Subsurface2 min read

August 16, 2023

  From the tops of tree canopies to the bottom of groundwater reservoirs, a vast amount of living organisms interact with nonliving components such as rock, water, and soil to shape this area of Earth known as the “critical zone.” Over half of Earth’s microbes are located in the subsurface critical zone, which ranges from…

Carl Steefel Honored in Goldschmidt Session on Reactive Transport2 min read

August 2, 2023

The contributions of Carl Steefel to the reactive transport modeling scientific community were recognized in a session held in his honor at the recent Goldschmidt 2023 conference (Lyon, France). Goldschmidt is the foremost annual, international conference on geochemistry and related subjects, organized by the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society. The session was…

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