Review Faculty Day of Environmental Sciences 2023 - Let’s get together part II

After a successful launch of this format last year, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences celebrated its 2nd Faculty Day on May 10, 2023, and did so with numerous staff, students, and their university professors from all three departments of Forest Sciences, Geosciences, and Hydro Sciences, who took advantage of every free minute for an exchange. The dean, Prof. Hans-Gerd Maas, together with the departmental spokesperson of Hydro Sciences, Prof. Niels Schütze, warmly welcomed all guests and especially the new professors, Prof. Nicole Raschke (Chair of Geographical Education) as well as Prof. Jakob Zscheischler (Chair of Data Analytics in Hydro Science) with their families and friends. Many helpers from the department of Hydro Sciences, as this year's hosts, provided a family atmosphere at the central location of the event, in the foyer and courtyard of the Chemieneubau/Bergstraße.

Both new professors captivated the guests with entertaining presentations and aroused interest in their respective research areas.

Prof. Nicole Raschke presented approaches of transformative education in geography-didactic teacher education. She emphasized how important it is to look at the world and not at the individual level when it comes to education. In order for education to have an all-encompassing effect in a positive sense, participation, the experience of self-efficacy, but also (self-)critical reflection are necessary, especially in today's world with its exceedingly complex and overlapping challenges. Through education, children and young people should be given knowledge, skills and values that enable them to develop competencies and be able to act, rather than feeling powerless.

Prof. Zscheischler spoke about "The benefits of compound event research for climate risk assessments". As a mathematician and environmental scientist, he made clear how the precise analysis of catastrophic events can help to prepare for upcoming events. Within his previous research projects he was able to develop a typology of so called "compound events" (i.e. amplifying events in this case like droughts, floods, forest fires, heat waves or hurricanes), the analysis results of which help to prepare for future events and to exclude wrong interpretations as far as possible.

Postdocs from the faculty took advantage of the opportunity to discuss scientific career paths with mentors from the various departments. Stimulating entertainment was provided by the three participants in the Science Slam on the theme: Digital Environments. Samuel Getachew Chernet (A Late Glacial and Holocene d18O Paleoclimate record form the afro-alpine Wulf Lake, Bale Mountains Ethiopia), Zhenyu Wang (Exploring the Digital Frontier of Environmental Data Analysis: Using Models to Identify and Control River Pollution) and Igor De Souza Barboza (Digitalization and Digitization: An Overview of the 4th Industrial Revolution Technologies and their Applications and Roles in Forests and Forestry"). They proved that complicated science content - presented in a special way - is (actually) child's play. At the end Samuel Getachew Chernet convinced the audience. Congratulations to the winner and many thanks for all excellent presentations!

Last but not least, a poster exhibition provided information about current projects of the Department of Hydro Sciences and repeatedly invited to in-depth discussions during the program breaks, which could be continued at the casual get-together in the evening with music and snacks from the grill. Much too quickly the Faculty Day 2023 was over... Next year it will be "Let's get together" again and then the department of Forest Sciences in Tharandt will be the host.

Many thanks to all the hardworking hands in the background, especially to the Department of Hydro Sciences!

© Daniel Henzen

Presentations

Inaugural Lectures

Ansätze transformativer Bildung in der geographiedidaktischen Lehrer:innenbildung
Prof. Dr. Nicole Raschke
Chair of Geographical Education

The benefits of compound event research for climate risk assessments
Prof. Dr. Jakob Zscheischler
Chair of Data Analytics in Hydro Science

Science Slam

Digitalization and Digitization: An Overview of the 4th Industrial Revolution Technologies and their Applications and Roles in Forests and Forestry
Igor De Souza Barboza
Master student Tropical Forestry

A Late Glacial and Holocene d¹⁸O Paleoclimate record form the afro-alpine Wulf Lake, Bale Mountains Ethiopia
Samuel Getachew Chernet
PhD student in Geoscienes

Exploring the Digital Frontier of Environmental Data Analysis: Using Models to Identify and Control River Pollution
Zhenyu Wang
PhD student in Hydro Sciences

Image gallery