Volkswagen Foundation / U Potsdam / U Nairobi / U Frankfurt
We announce the second part of two-year consecutive summer schools in the field of geo-biosciences in East Africa, including the disciplines of paleoclimatology, paleontology, paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, structural geology and geophysics. The summer schools focus on the relationships between the development of extreme relief in the East African Rift system, superposed past climate changes and their influence on mammalian and hominin evolution. The transdisciplinary summer schools for students from the fields of geosciences and biosciences aim at intense training of the participants at the MSc and PhD level to foster a better understanding of climate-biosphere interactions in a complex tectonic-topographic setting such as the Kenya and Tanzanian rift valley. This effort rests on team teaching and joint learning and will generate important synergies between researchers and graduate students. The acquired knowledge and understanding will help students define premier research topics to study past geo-biosphere interactions, and it will ultimately provide the next generation of researchers and practitioners with the necessary background and scientific tools to evaluate and mitigate the effects of present-day and future environmental changes in the course of global change. For more details see attached course outline. The fully sponsored summer schools will last a total of three weeks, and will comprise eight modules (M1 to M8) as detailed below. Applications for the 2011 summer school modules M5-M7 (+M8) is now open.
2010 (completed)
M1 – Shortcourse Evolutionary Biology, Kenya
Sep 19–25, 2010 (Tiedemann, Pokorny)
M2 – Excursion Climate, Environments and Evolution
Sep 26–Oct 2, 2010 (Trauth, Tiedemann)
M3 – Practical on Paleoanthropology/ecology, Tanzania
Oct 3–10, 2010 (Schrenk, Hertler)
M4 – Lectures on current research in biosciences
Sept 19–Oct 10, 2010 (all instructors)
2011 (applications open)
M7 – Shortcourse Statistical and Numerical Methods / African Paleoclimate Dynamics
Sep 18–25, 2011 (Trauth, Olaka, Odada, Olago, Zahn)
M5 – Excursion on Tectonics and Climate, Kenya
Sep 25–Oct 2, 2011 (Trauth, Strecker, Hertler, Oberhaensli, Olaka, Tiedemann, Zahn)
M6 – Fieldcourse on Active Tectonics in the Kenya Rift
Oct 2–9, 2011 (Strecker, Trauth)
M8 – Lectures on current research in geosciences
Sep 18–Oct 9, 2011 (all instructors and participants)
REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATIONS
Participants from preferentially, but not exclusively East African countries and Germany will be selected by the PI's of this program. Admission to the summer school requires a BSc, MSc or Diploma degree (or equivalent) and subscription to a MSc, Diploma or PhD program at an internationally recognised university. Applicants are required to send a cover letter stating the modules M5 to M7 (+M8) they wish to attend, one page motivation of participation letter, a letter of recommendation from their advisors and bachelor's or master's degree transcripts. Please send your full application in a single PDF file via email to the following two addresses before April 1st, 2011:
PD Dr. Martin Trauth, University of Potsdam
email trauth@geo.uni-potsdam.de
Prof. Dr. Eric Odada, University of Nairobi
email eodada@uonbi.ac.ke
INSTRUCTORS
PD Dr. Martin H. Trauth, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Eric O. Odada, University of Nairobi
Dr. Christine Hertler, ROCEEH Frankfurt
Geoffrey G. Muchem KenGen Ltd. Kenya
Dr. Daniel O. Olago, University of Nairobi
Lydia Olaka, MSc, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Roland Oberhaensli, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Friedemann Schrenk, Senckenberg Frankfurt
Prof. Manfred R. Strecker, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Ralph Tiedemann, Universität Potsdam
Prof. Dr. Rainer Zahn, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona