1. Art and Diseño

News
January 2015
www.wageningenur.nl/wias
Contents:
•
News from the WIAS office
•
News from the WAPS council
•
Courses and seminars
•
Activities
News from the WIAS office
WIAS wishes you a happy, healthy and most of all a scientific productive 2015!
WIAS Lectures
The next WIAS lecture will be given by Dr Sylvia Brugman, post doc researcher at the Cell Biology and
Immunology group titled “Sushi or science? Using the zebrafish to study mucosal immunology”.
This lecture will be on Tuesday 20 January at 12.15 in room A0107 of the Zodiac building.
Free lunch is provided and registration is not needed.
Other dates for the WIAS lectures are: 24 February, 24 March, 21 April, 26 May, 23 June.
WIAS Science Day 2015
The WIAS Science Day will take place on Thursday, February 5th 2015 at the Orion (building nr. 103)
on Wageningen Campus. The theme of this year’s WIAS Science Day is: Facing the Future!
During this day, PhD candidates of our graduate school will show their research results with oral and
poster presentations. The theme ‘Facing the Future’ focuses on three major future challenges in
animal sciences, each of which is introduced by an inspiring keynote speaker:
Dr Claire Heffernan, director of the Livestock Development Group at the University of Reading in the
United Kingdom. She will give a talk about the emergence of animal diseases threatening food
production.
Prof. Louise O. Fresco, President of the Executive Board of Wageningen UR. She will address the issue
of increasing pressure on land used for global food production beyond the field of animal sciences.
Dr Ruth Newberry, associate professor in Animal and Aquacultural Sciences at the Norwegian
University of Life Sciences. Dr. Newberry will discuss the assurance of animal welfare in relation to a
growing demand for food.
You can still register for the WIAS Science Day 2015 on the WIAS website (Registration WSD2015),
until Friday 30th of January 2015. Attendance is free and includes lunch, drinks and dinner. If you
want to join lunch and/or dinner, please be sure to indicate that when registering.
Kind regards, The WIAS Science Day Committee 2015,
Novi Mayasari, Sofie van Nieuwamerongen, Aart van der Linden, Nirupama Benis, Henk van Lingen,
Mahmoud Haidar and Floor Biemans
PhD pitches at the 97th Dies Natalis of Wageningen University
This year the theme of the Dies celebration on Monday 9 March is ‘Fascinating Nature”. At the
symposium prior to the celebration, a few PhD candidates will be given the opportunity to give a
pitch of 5 minutes of their research. A very nice way to expose yourself and your research! If you are
interested to give a pitch please send an e-mail to [email protected].
Peer review of PhD programme
Next week, the complete PhD programme of Wageningen University will be reviewed by an external
committee. This review panel will present their preliminary finding Friday 16 January 9.30-11.00 in
the Speakers Corner of the Impulse building. You are all invited to attend this presentation.
New WIAS Members
The last few months we have welcomed the following PhD candidates: Rodrigo Mezêncio Godinho
(ABG), Kasper Janssen (ABG), Claudia Sevillano del Aguila (ABG), Qiuyu Wang (ABG), Jules Petit (CBI).
Recent PhD graduations
7 November Nadya Velikova (HMI) “Discovery of Inhibitors of Bacterial Histidine Kinases”
21 November Naomi Duijvesteijn (ABG) “Sociable Swine: prospects of indirect genetic effects for
the improvement of productivity, welfare and quality calves. Interactions between
solid feed and milk replacer”
9 December
Myrthe Maurice – van Eijndhoven (ABG) “Genetic variation of milk fatty acid
composition between and within dairy cattle breeds”
15 December Lam Anh Nguyen (AFI) “Climate proofing aquaculture: A case study on pangasius
Farming in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
News from the WIAS PhD (WAPS) council
Nutreco excursion
The WAPS council organizes an interesting excursion for all WIAS PhD candidates. We will go to
Nutreco in Boxmeer, The Netherlands. Nutreco is a global leader in the field of animal nutrition and
fish feed. The company operates in more than 30 countries and has its own research facilities in
Boxmeer (about 60 km from Wageningen). One of the main research themes is feeding the future
and doubling the food production while halving the footprint. For more information about Nutreco
you can visit their website http://www.nutreco.com/.
The excursion will take place on Friday January 23th from 8:30 till 12:15 h and includes lunch at
Nutreco. We will arrange transport. During the excursion, we will also visit the Ruminant and Swine
Research Centres of Nutreco. Costs are €2.50 per person, transport and lunch will be arranged.
Register before Monday January 12th 15:00 h by sending an e-mail to [email protected] if you
would like to join.
New council members wanted
At the WIAS Science Day 2015, the board of WAPS will change. If you would like to represent the
WIAS PhD candidates, want to be more involved in WUR wide organization of PhD candidates, or like
to organize activities and encourage integration of PhD candidates, you may be the person for the
job! Let us know if you’re interested in becoming a board member by sending an e-mail to
[email protected].
Facebook and LinkedIn
Please join our Facebook group for the latest activities, photos, and polls. You can find blogs from
PhD candidates spending a time period abroad there. And join our LinkedIn page or visit our website
for more information about and news from the WAPS council.
Kind regards,
The WAPS Council
Courses and seminars
WIAS Courses
Environmental Impact Assessment of Livestock Systems
When
: 9 t/m 13 February 2015
Location : Wageningen
Registration: Corina van Middelaar
WIAS Introduction Day
When
: 23 March 2015
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open (proceeding of the course is subject to the participation of min. 10 participants)
WIAS course on Essential Skills
When
: 24 - 26 March 2015
Teacher : Frank Little
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
Statistics for the Life Sciences
When
: 27 - 29 May and 1 – 3 June 2015
Teachers : Henk Bovenhuis, Bas Engel, Gerrit Gort
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
WIAS Introduction Day
When
: 8 June 2015
Location : Wageningen
Registration not open yet
WIAS course on Essential Skills
When
: 9 – 11 June 2015
Teacher : Frank Little
Location : Wageningen
Registration not open yet
High-Impact Writing
When
: 6 – 9 July 2015
Teachers : Prof. Dr Ulrike Müller
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
Survival Guide to Peer Review
When
: 10 July 2015
Teachers : Prof. Dr Ulrike Müller
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
WIAS Course Design of Experiments
When: 7 - 9 October 2014
Teachers: Michael Grossman, Wiebe J. Koops
Location: Wageningen
Registration is open
WIAS Introduction Day
When
: 10 November 2015
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
WIAS course on Essential Skills
When
: 11 – 13 November 2015
Teacher : Frank Little
Location : Wageningen
Registration is open
Wageningen Graduate Schools Courses
Open for registration
Project & Time Management (15, 29 January and 26 February – deadline registration 11 January / 19
February, 5 March and 2 April / 24 March, 7 April and 5 May / 9, 23 April and 21 May)
Imaging Science: Video and Audio content in Scientific Communication (22, 23, 29, 30 January and
5-6 February)
Philosophy and Ethics of Food Science and Technology (22, 29 January / 5, 12, 19 and 26 February)
PhD peer consultation - as support in academic skills development (22 January, 12 February and 12
March / 23 January, 20 February and 20 March)
PhD Competence Assessment (3 February (personal meeting 17, 18 or 18 Feb) / 31 March (personal
meeting 2, 3 or 4 June))
Scientific Writing (5, 12, 26 February, 12, 26 March and 2, 9 April)
Data Management Planning (9 February)
Information Literacy including EndNote Introduction (17-18 February/ 15-16 April)
Career Orientation (6, 13, 20 and 27 March)
Mobilising your - scientific - network (17 and 25 March)
Writing Grant Proposals (7,21 April, 12, 26 May and 9 June)
Interpersonal Communication for PhD Students (9 and 10 April)
Effective behaviour in your professional surroundings (9 and 10 April)
Entrepreneurship in and outside Science (13, 20 April and 18 May)
Research Ethics (20, 21, 23 and 24 April)
Techniques for Writing and Presenting a Scientific Paper (21, 22, 23 and 24 April)
Career Assessment (each month - individually based and you can plan a date with the organizers
upon registration)
Waiting lists for courses below
Fully booked, waiting list available (click here)
Voice Matters-Voice and Presentation Skills Training
Career Perspectives
For other courses of the Wageningen Graduate School look at the website.
Other
MSc course Agent-Based Modelling of Complex Adaptive Systems
Why do events happen in society, or in biology, without anyone being in control? This is called
emergent behaviour. It is the result of the combined actions of independent people, plants or
animals in an environment. Would you like to model emergent behaviour and run your own models,
do sensitivity analysis on them and validate them? Then this course is for you.
This year from 16 February to 13 March 2015. More information can be found at this website.
WEES Seminar: Kevin Foster (University of Oxford, UK) – The evolution of cooperation and
competition in microbes
Since Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been fascinated by cooperative behavior. Honeybee
workers labor their whole life without reproducing, birds make alarm calls, and humans often help
one another. But how cooperative are microbes towards each other and other organisms? We study
this question using a diversity of systems including bacteria, budding yeast, and computer
simulations. We find that single-genotype patches naturally emerge in microbial groups, which
creates favorable conditions for cooperation within a particular genotype of microbe. Moreover,
some microbes actively adjust both genotypic assortment and investment into social traits in a way
that promotes cooperation within a genotype. However, our work on interactions between different
strains and species suggests that, here, the evolution of competitive phenotypes is more likely than
cooperation.
This leads us to a simple model – the genotypic view – that predicts microbes will evolve to help their
own genotype but harm most other strains and species that they meet. But when microbes live
within a host, there is natural selection on the host to ensure that symbiotic communities are both
productive and stable. This raises the possibility that hosts act as ecosystem engineers that change
the rules of interaction within microbial communities.
Kevin Foster is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Oxford, UK. Kevin's main focus
of research is the social lives of microbes and other group-living species.
For more info, see his see his webpage.
Famelab: popular science presentation competition in Wageningen
FameLab aims to discover charismatic, up-and-coming scientists who inspire people to see the world
from a new perspective… in just three minutes. If you think you can explain a concept in science,
technology, engineering or mathematics, armed with only your wits and a few props, then FameLab
is for you. Each presentation will be judged according to the golden rule of the 3Cs: Content, Clarity
and Charisma.
You could be the new face of science in the Netherlands!
The competition is open to anyone between 21 and 40 working in or studying science, technology,
engineering, medicine or maths. All details are available on http://www.britishcouncil.nl/famelab
Communicating science accessibly and attractively is an ever-growing priority for researchers
worldwide. FameLab helps young scientists acquire valuable skills to communicate their work
accessibly and attractively to a non-scientific audience. By doing so, researchers not only challenge
common stereotypes of scientists, but also help to justify public funding for their research.
The heats will be live public events at which specialist juries, chosen by the organisers, will select the
16 FameLab Netherlands 2015 finalists. Four regional heats will be held in 2015:
* Wageningen – Wednesday, 28 January 2015 - Impulse - Wageningen Campus
* Leiden – Tuesday, 17 February 2015 - Leiden University
* Groningen – Thursday, 19 February 2015 - Science LinX - University of Groningen
* Nijmegen – Thursday, 19 February 2015 - Radboud University
The winners of the heats will go through to the Masterclass on 12-13 March 2015 at KNAW, 10
winners will also go on to the National Final on 21 April 2015 at Museum Boerhaave in Leiden.
Applications
Apply online by completing the application form and sending it to the appropriate contact (as
specified on the form). Candidates who meet the criteria will then be contacted with further
information about taking part. The deadline for applications in Wageningen is Friday, 16 January
2015.
NEW SERVICE: Wageningen in’to Languages
Are you in need of instant feedback on your academic text? Are you a bit overwhelmed by all the tips
you’ve been receiving from colleagues? Not sure whether editing or text coaching is the way to go?
Drop by during the Editing Desk walk-in hours at Wageningen in’to Languages for a free consult!
* Every Wednesday from 10 am to 1 pm
* 20 to 30 minute consults
* Room 2.51 of the Wageningen UR Library (Forum Building)
You are also welcome to come to the walk-in hours if you have a different question related to
language or translation. Translation coordinator Bert Keurentjes has over a decade of experience in
the language and editing business, six years of which he has spent at In’to Languages. He also chairs
the national translation expertise group of NUT (association of university language centres in the
Dutch language area) and co-founded the CercleS Translation Focus Group.
Activities
13 January 2015
PhD Graduation Hooi Ling Khaw
Title
Cooperative and uniform fish? Social interactions and variability in live body weight
in the GIFT strain (Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus) in Malaysia
Chair group
Animal Breeding and Genetics
Promotor
prof. dr ir. J.A.M. van Arendonk
Time and Place 16:00 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
20 January 2015
PhD Graduation Yogesh Paudel
Title
Structural variations in pig genomes
Chair group
Animal Breeding and Genetics
Promotor
prof. dr M.A.M. Groenen
Time and Place 16.00 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
26 January 2015
PhD Graduation Jorgen Nielsen
Title:
Methods for Integrated Use of Fisheries Research Survey Information in
Understanding Marine Fish Population Ecology and Better Management Advice.
Improving Methods for Evaluation of Research Survey Information under
consideration of Survey Fish Detection and Catch Efficiency
Chair group
Aquaculture and Fisheries
Promotor
prof. dr A.D. Rijnsdorp
Time and Place 11:00 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
26 January 2015
PhD Graduation Laurent Frantz
Title:
Speciation and domestication in Suiformes: a genomic perspective
Chair group
Animal Breeding and Genetics
Promotor
prof. dr M.A.M. Groenen
Time and Place 13:30 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
6 February 2015
PhD Graduation Rik van Emous
Title:
Body composition and reproduction in broiler breeders: impact of feeding strategies
Chair group
Animal Nutrition
Promotor
prof. dr ir. W.H. Hendriks
Time and Place 13:30 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
13 February 2015
PhD Graduation Antonio Agüera Garcia
Title:
The role of starfish (Asterias rubens L.) predation in blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)
seedbed stability
Chair group
Aquaculture and Fisheries
Promotor
prof. dr A.C. Smaal
Time and Place 11:00 hrs in the Aula, General Foulkesweg 1 Wageningen
If you have any questions about this WIAS News please contact Denise Magendans (executive
secretary) at [email protected]