News

The 34^th International Society of Limnology Congress (SIL) took place on August 19-24 in Nanjing China. The SIL congress is the major international meeting covering all aspects of inland waters. The theme for SIL 2018 was "Limnology, a Science for the Preservation and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems". Much of the program dealt with the pressures on, and management and restoration of, freshwater lakes and reservoirs. Philippe gave one of the 10 plenary lectures at the congress.

This afternoon, the Ecohydrology Research Group said farewell to seven colleagues leaving our group at the end of the term.

Thank you to Lindsay Norwood, Guy Tenkouano, Geertje Pronk, Megan Jordan, Laureline Vallée, Dave Duff, and Auristela Bantegui for all of your hard work, and we wish you all the best moving forward!

The Ecohydrology Research Group and Dajiang Environment Corporation are collaborating on strengthening the water quality management of the Eco-Hi-Tech Island in Nanjing, China (see Wednesday June 13 news item). Philippe and Shuhuan visited the joint Dajiang-Waterloo Research Centre in Nanjing on August 21-23 to discuss progress and plan upcoming activities, including the 3^rd International Summit on Water Environmental Management to be held in Nanjing in October.

Group members Christina Smeaton, Bingjie Shi, and Kunfu Pi recently attended the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference which was held August 12-17 in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to attending talks, networking, and presenting their research, they were also able to catch up with ERG alumni Taylor Maavara (PDF at Berkeley Lab), Ekaterina Markelova (consultant at Amphos 21, Barcelona, Spain), and Gianna Marschmann (PhD student at University of Hohenheim and future PDF at Berkeley Lab). 

This morning, Dr. Anniet Laverman, from the Université de Rennes, presented a talk titled "Assessment of isotopic fractionation associated to nitrate reduction by benthic microbial communities" as part of the Ecohydrology Seminar Series. Thank you to Dr. Laverman for the excellent talk!

Adrian Mellage and Stephane Ngueleu attended the Out of the Lab - Into the Field International Alumni Workshop at the University of Tübingen in Germany this week. Adrian and Stephane both presented their research at sessions during the workshop.

Stephane (left) and Adrian (right), with Prof. Olaf Cirpka from the University of Tübingen.

The University of Waterloo Microbial Bioenergetics Workshop was held on July 23^rd and 24^th at the CIGI campus in Waterloo. The workshop was funded through a Water Institute Seed Grant to ERG Research Scientist, Christina Smeaton. 

The Baltic TRANSCOAST Research Training Group in Rostock, Germany, is seeking applications for thirteen PhD positions in biology, ecology, geochemistry, biogeochemistry, hydro(geo)logy, and engineering. The program will start on January 1st, 2019.

For more information, see the announcement post on the University of Rostock website, and the list of PhD topics.

Bingjie Shi, a PhD student working with the Ecohydrology Research Group, has received a University of Waterloo Doctoral Thesis Completion Award for the Spring 2018 term! The scholarship is awarded to highly qualified doctoral students at the University. More information about the award can be found on the University of Waterloo's Graduate Studies webpage.

Congratulations, Bingjie!

On June 25th, members of the University of Waterloo faculty and staff who have received awards, or have newly joined the Science faculty in the past year, were honoured at the annual Dean's Reception.

Among those acknowledged at the reception, Philippe Van Cappellen was honoured for becoming a 2018 Honorary Professor at Tianjin University (see our news item for more information), and Chris Parsons and Fereidoun Rezanezhad were both acknowledged for joining the Faculty of Science in the past year.

Congratulations to everyone honoured at the Dean's Reception!