Catalin Stefan at the 2nd DAAD Alumni Workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam, 4- 5 November 2014

By the end of 2013 I was invited to give a keynote lecture at the upcoming 2^nd DAAD Alumni Workshop in Hanoi, Vietnam. The workshop was organized by the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. The main organizer was Dr. Chu Thi Thu Ha, who received her PhD from our institute several years ago. During the trip, Prof. Dr. Matthias Schirmer accompanied me from University of Applied Sciences in Jena. The event was sponsored by DAAD.

The workshop took place over two days (November 4-5) and was entitled “Sustainable Management of Environment and Natural Resources in Vietnam”. As Vietnam has a very large community of German alumni researchers, the workshop was very well visited: from 50 manuscripts submitted, 34 papers were selected as oral presentations during the two-day workshop. All 50 papers were published in a special issue of the Journal of Vietnamese Environment in three volumes (issue 6, vol. 1-3). The topics had a multidisciplinary character, from waste management, microbiology, water resources management, biodiversity, forestry, etc., including fundamental research on chemistry and biology (see attached program).

My presentation at the workshop was entitled “Groundwater vulnerability in Vietnam and innovative solutions for sustainable exploitation”. After an introduction on the impact of urbanization and climate change on groundwater resources as introduced the concept of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and gave examples of case studies from Europe and Asia. The topic raised lots of questions and incited to discussions on the necessity of planning and design instruments, such as decision support systems, for the implementation of MAR schemes. The INOWAS project was also introduced and it was of particular interest for the audience, interest reflected in many questions and discussions at the end of the lecture and during the coffee and lunch breaks.

On second day, after the lunch break, the participants visited a pilot plant for treatment of waste and wastewater from the food processing craft village Dai Lam in the Tam Da commune, Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province. The treatment plant was developed within the framework of the bilateral, BMBF-funded, German-Vietnamese research project INHAND: “Integrated Water Management Concept for Craft Villages in Vietnam” led by our institute and run in collaboration with German and Vietnamese partners (project no. 02WA1075).

Meeting at NACENTECH, 6 November 2014

On Thursday, November 6, I was invited to meet the representatives of the National Center for Technological Progress (NACENTECH) under the Ministry of Science and Technology. The meeting was organized by Prof. Dr. Le Hung Lan and Dr. Pham Huong Son, both vice-presidents at NACENTECH, as well as Ms. Nguyen Kim Dung, International Cooperation Officer. After short introduction of participating institutions (NACENTECH, TUD, FH Jena) and of INOWAs project, we discussed about several cooperation schemes, including development and implementation of joint R&D projects, students and staff exchange, organizing bilateral workshops and conferences etc.

From the NACENTECH side, a special interest was expressed in:

• Development of MAR schemes in Ninh Thuan province (center Vietnam);
• Decentralised wastewater treatment systems;
• Automation and electric engineering applications;
• Algae blooming and aquaculture research;
• Development of a joint Research Incubation Center.

November 7, 2014 – invited lecture at HNUE

The last day of the trip was dedicated to a visit at the Hanoi National University of Education. Dr. Phan Due Thanh, the Vice Dean of Faculty of Biology, invited Prof. Schirmer and me to give a lecture in English on bioenergy from waste and groundwater conservation. The attendees were staff members of the faculty, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. The two lectures received a high interest from the participants due to their newly introduced course of study in English. Besides introducing the two universities in Dresden and Jena, the INOWAS project and the guest lectures, we discussed about the implementation of the presented solutions to Vietnam and shared experience about teaching environmental sciences in English language.