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Guangchao Zhuang
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Guangchao Zhuang about his participation in the DARWIN Summer School on Biogeosciences in Nyenrode and Texel, Netherlands, 1-13 July 2012
With the support from GLOMAR and the scholarship from the Darwin center, I had the opportunity to attend the Darwin summer school course on biogeoscience. Darwin center is the national institute which integrates 20 excellent Dutch research groups to explore how the earth is working under continuously changing conditions. The summer school course covered a wide range of hot topics within the field of biogeoscience.
The first week of the course was taken in Utrecht, and the lecturers from Utrecht University and Amsterdam University mainly introduced carbon cycle, ocean acidification and paleontology. Afterwards, we had one-day course in the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), the building of which impressed me a lot. The sustainable building is designed and constructed based on the principles of cradle to cradle, solar energy utilization and biodiversity celebration. Everything made and left behind there is regenerated as raw materials for use in the natural environment or in new products. Some lectures on microbiology and organic biogeochemistry were held at Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) on the second week.
I really enjoyed the course because many lectures are quite related to my current project. For example, some lectures on nitrate dependent methane oxidation (Dr. Katharina Ettwig), sulphate reduction processes (Prof. Fons Stams), biomarker and organic proxies (Prof. Stefan Schouten) are particularly interesting for me. I discussed several questions I concerned with the lecturers, and also obtained some positive ideas for my project. The field trip and practice in marine organic biogeochemistry lab are also useful to help us better understand and digest what we learned from the lectures. During the summer school, I also established new network and contacts with scientists and students from different institutes, which would be beneficial for my scientific career.
Finally, I would like to appreciate GLOMAR for the financial support, and the course is highly recommended for the students working in biogeoscience.
The first week of the course was taken in Utrecht, and the lecturers from Utrecht University and Amsterdam University mainly introduced carbon cycle, ocean acidification and paleontology. Afterwards, we had one-day course in the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), the building of which impressed me a lot. The sustainable building is designed and constructed based on the principles of cradle to cradle, solar energy utilization and biodiversity celebration. Everything made and left behind there is regenerated as raw materials for use in the natural environment or in new products. Some lectures on microbiology and organic biogeochemistry were held at Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) on the second week.
I really enjoyed the course because many lectures are quite related to my current project. For example, some lectures on nitrate dependent methane oxidation (Dr. Katharina Ettwig), sulphate reduction processes (Prof. Fons Stams), biomarker and organic proxies (Prof. Stefan Schouten) are particularly interesting for me. I discussed several questions I concerned with the lecturers, and also obtained some positive ideas for my project. The field trip and practice in marine organic biogeochemistry lab are also useful to help us better understand and digest what we learned from the lectures. During the summer school, I also established new network and contacts with scientists and students from different institutes, which would be beneficial for my scientific career.
Finally, I would like to appreciate GLOMAR for the financial support, and the course is highly recommended for the students working in biogeoscience.
