Programme
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– The call for applications to the Summer School for Postdocs 2024 is now closed –
Content
The content of the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs 2024 will be focused on the following theme:
Climate Change: Challenges and Influence on Microbial Safety of Water and Food
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time affecting all aspects of life on Earth. The directors are preparing an excellent 8-day scientific programme with distinguished speakers-mentors.
Directors
Prof. Lisa Y. Stein, Professor, Climate Change Microbiology, Faculty of Science – Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada
Professor Lisa Stein is a distinguished figure at the University of Alberta, Canada, where she holds the position of Professor in Climate Change Microbiology within the Faculty of Science – Biological Sciences. Her educational journey began with a B.A. Magna cum laude in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado, followed by a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Oregon State University. She further honed her expertise as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Prof. Stein’s career at the University of Alberta has seen her evolve from an Assistant Professor to her current role, with significant recognition as the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Climate Change Microbiology. Her research is ground-breaking, focusing on microbial conversion of greenhouse gases into valuable products, understanding the evolutionary and physiological commonalities between methane- and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, and investigating the role of reactive nitrogen intermediates in controlling nitrous oxide emissions. Her international collaborations have accelerated genome sequencing of methanotrophic and nitrifying microorganisms, crucial for climate change mitigation strategies. Additionally, Prof. Stein has delved into the microbiomes of wildlife and industrial systems, uncovering the impact of diet on urban coyote behaviour and health, among other significant findings. Her work not only advances our understanding of microbial processes affecting climate change but also bridges basic and industrial microbiology, highlighting her as a key player in environmental science and mentorship.
Mentors and Speakers
Lisa Stein, Summer School Co-director, Professor, Climate Change Microbiology; Faculty of Science Assoc. Dean, Mentorship & Awards, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Andreja Rajkovic, Summer School Co-director, Professor, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Department of Food Technology, Safety and Health, Ghent University, Belgium
Ana Allende, Senior Researcher, Spanish National Research Council | CSIC · Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura, Madrid, Spain
Christina Hazard, Research Leader, Bioengineering Department, Laboratoire Ampère, Université de Lyon, France
Peter Raspor, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Ljubljana. Slovenia, https://peter-raspor.eu/
Kostas Koutsomanis, Head of Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Hygiene, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Environment, Thessaloniki, Greece
Evelyne Selberherr, Assistant Professor, Institute of Food Safety, Food Technology and Veterinary Public Health, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
Dimitrios Karpoyzas, Professor in Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Director of the Laboratory of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology and a Deputy Head of Department, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly
Antonio Ventosa, Professor of Microbiology, the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sevilla (Spain), FEMS President
Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Group Leader, Physical & Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California, USA
Mirjana Andjelkovic, Senior Research Scientist at Sciensano, Ghent, Flemish Region, Belgium
Timetable
Date | Programme element | Speaker/Chair |
Mon 02.09.2024
16:00 – 17:00 |
Kick-off Session | Prof. Vaso Taleski (Chair)
Lisa Stein (Co-Chair) Andreja Rajkovic (Co-Chair) |
Mon 02.09.2024
17:10 – 19:30 |
Lecture 1: Introduction to the Summer School, icebreaker and announcement of teams and introduction of mentors | Lisa Stein
Andreja Rajkovic |
Tue 03.09.2024
09:30 – 11:00 |
Postdocs Presentations: 10 X 10 min. | |
Tue 03.09.2024
11:30 – 12.30 |
Postdocs Presentations: 10 X 10 min. | |
Tue 03.09.2024
14:30 – 16:00 |
Lecture 2: Soil viruses and biogeochemical cycling | Christina Hazard
|
Tue 03.09.2024
16.30 – 17.30 |
Lecture 3: Tools to mitigate greenhouse gas production in agricultural and freshwater systems | Lisa Stein |
Tue 03.09.2024
17:30 – 18:30 |
Teams & mentors discussions | |
Wed 04.09.2024
09:30 – 10:30 |
Lecture 4: Nitrifiers: a valuable tool for assessing the toxicity of pollutants on soil ecosystem functioning | Dimitrios Karpouzas |
Wed 04.09.2024
11:00 – 12.30 |
Lecture 5: Health effects of Microplastic and nanoplastics in food production and consumption | Andreja Rajkovic |
Wed 04.09.2024
15:00 – 16:00 |
Lecture 6: Change in global food production systems | Evelyne Selberherr |
Wed 04.09.2024
16:30 – 17:30 |
Lecture 7: Environmental And Demographic Challenges due to Climate Change: The Case of Food Safety and Security | Peter Raspor |
Wed 04.09.2024
17:30 – 19:00 |
Teams & mentors discussions | |
Thu 05.09.2024
09:30 – 10:30 |
Lecture 8: Microbiota-based applications and technologies in fighting food waste | Evelyne Selberherr |
Thu 05.09.2024
11:00 – 12:30 |
Lecture 9: How does climate change affect horticultural production systems and food safety? | Ana Allende |
Thu 05.09.2024
16:00 – 17:00 |
Lecture 10: Understanding soil nitrifier ecophysiology to decelerate the nitrogen cycle | Christina Hazard
|
Thu 05.09.2024
17:30 – 18:30 |
Lecture 11: Why must methane and nitrous oxide be considered together for greenhouse gas mitigation? | Lisa Stein |
Thu 05.09.2024
18:30 – 19:00 |
Teams & mentors discussions | |
Fri 06.09.2024
09:30 – 11:00 |
Lecture 12: Cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in irrigated crops | Andreja Rajkovic |
Fri 06.09.2024
11:30 – 13:00 |
Lecture 13: Risk-based food safety management and climate change (theoretical background) | Kostas Koutsoumanis |
Fri 06.09.2024
16:00 – 16:30 |
Lecture 14: Fungi and Friends: Biogeochemical Effects of Plant-Fungal-Bacterial Interactions in the Mycorrhizal Hyphosphere | Jennifer Pett-Ridge (online) |
Fri 06.09.2024
16:35 – 17:00 |
Lecture 14 (continuation) | Jennifer Pett-Ridge (online) |
Fri 06.09.2024
17:30 – 18:30 |
Lecture 15: New European Legislation on water re-use for agriculture: The challenge of the Risk Assessment | Ana Allende |
Fri 06.09.2024
18:30 – 19:00 |
Teams & mentors discussions | |
Sat 07.09.2024
09:00 – 10:00 |
Lecture 16: Impact of climate change on the microbiological stability of non-refrigerated foods (application example) | Kostas Koutsoumanis |
Sat 07.09.2024
10:30 – 12:00 |
Lecture 17: Food Safety Episode Due to Climate Change: How to Handle Risk Communication? | Peter Raspor |
Sat 07.09.2024
12:00 – 13:00 |
Lecture 18: Exposure assessment in food safety | Mirjana Andjelkovic (online) |
Sat 07.09.2024
16:00 – 16:30 |
Lecture 19: Tropan alcaloids in food safety | Mirjana Andjelkovic (online)
|
Sat 07.09.2024
16:35 – 17:00 |
Lecture 20: Bridging microbiological and chemical risk assessment on example of microplastics | Mirjana Andjelkovic (online) |
Sat 07.09.2024
17:00 – 17:30 |
Lecture 21: Studying Wild Microbes: Stable isotopes and ‘omics tools for understanding microbiome dynamics and functional responses | Jennifer Pett-Ridge (online) |
Sat 07.09.2024
17:35 – 18:00 |
Lecture 21 (continuation) | Jennifer Pett-Ridge (online) |
Sat 07.09.2024
18:00 – 18:30 |
Lecture 22: Metagenomics versus culturomics of extreme environments | Antonio Ventosa |
Sat 07.09.2024
18:30 – 19:00 |
Teams & mentors discussions | |
Sat 07.09.2024
20:00 – 23:00 |
Dinner in Split | |
Sun 08.09.2024
09:00 – 15:00 |
Excursion including lunch | |
Sun 08.09.2024
16.30 – 19.00 |
Discussion on Project proposals | |
Mon 09.09.2024
09:00 – 11:00 |
Preparing presentations for morning session: Teams preparing Presentations of Project proposals | Postdocs and mentors |
Mon 09.09.2024
11.30 – 12:30 |
Preparing presentations for morning session: See above | Postdocs and mentors |
Mon 09.09.2024
14:00 – 17:00 |
Presentation of research project 1 – 5 | Postdocs |
Mon 09.09.2024
18:00 – 18:30 |
Voting for best project | Postdocs |
Mon 9.09.2024
19:00 – 20:00 |
|
Vaso Taleski
Lisa Stein Andreja Rajkovic |
Tue 10.09.2024
09:30 – 12:00 |
Closing Session & Special Events
Departure |
Vaso Taleski
Lisa Stein Andreja Rajkovic |
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All but one of the FEMS journals are fully open access (OA), with one journal, FEMS Microbiology Letters, offers free-to-publish and OA options. Open access is key to supporting the FEMS mission of disseminating high quality research as widely as possible: when high quality, peer reviewed sound science is open access, anyone, anywhere in the world with an internet connection, can read it.