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"Can Agriculture Feed the World?"

ELLS Scientific Student Conference 2011

Final program

Wageningen University hosted the Euroleague (ELLS) network's third Scientific Student Conference (SSC) on October 20/21, 2011.

The third ELLS Scientific Student Conference addressed the question "Can Agriculture Feed the World?" - and included three parallel sessions:

• Innovation and Technology


• Economy and Society


• Ecology and Ethics
  

A total of 15 thematic sessions were held during the two day conference, as well as two poster sessions. All sessions were introduced and chaired by prominent senior academics. Moreover, two keynote speeches were given:

• Dr. Hervé Guyomard - Can Agriculture Feed the World? Lessons from the Agrimonde Foresight Study.

• Prof. dr. Rudy Rabbinge - Can agricultural feed the world? Current agricultural produce in relation to its potential.

In addition to the scientific sessions there was a campus orientation race for all participants.

Participants
The ELLS Scientific Student Conference was open for BSc students, MSc students, diploma students and PhD students. 45 BSc, MSc and PhD students from the Euroleague partner universities were selected to present their thesis or another big project during one of the 15 sessions, and more than 60 BSc, MSc and PhD students were selected to present a poster. The book of Abstracts can be found here. In total, there were approximately 260 students at the conference.

ELLS  Prize for Excellent Master thesis
The annual ELLS Prize ceremony was hosted during the closing ceremony on Friday October 21, 2011. The Prize was awarded by University of Hohenheim to the following students:

• Nuray Duman, UHOH (exchange at WUR)

• Birgit Weber, UHOH (exchange at SLU)

• Sabine Ibrügger, UHOH (exchange at LIFE)

The prize is awarded for excellent master thesis written in English by UHOH students having a minimum of 18 ECTS from other ELLS partners, and students from other ELLS partners having a minimum of 18 ECTS from UHOH.

ELLS Distinguished Fellowship
The annual ELLS Distinguished Fellowship ceremony was a central part of the closing ceremony on Friday October 21. Previously, it has been a requirement that the students who won had to spend the fellowship money towards a study period abroad at an ELLS or ELLSNA partner. However, the restriction was removed this year. Furthermore, it was decided that three fellowships would be awarded for oral presentations (800 euro each) and three fellowships for poster presentations (200 euro each). A certificate was awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place contenders.
  
ELLS awarded the fellowships              
of 2011 to the following students:

Innovation and Technology:

• Afton Halloran (LIFE, Oral)
  
• Peter Van Beveran (WUR, Poster)

Economy and Society:

• Lasse Englyst Olsen & Christopher Münke (LIFE, Oral) 
• Fan Yang (UHOH, Poster)
  

Ecology and Ethics:                                

• Eskild H. Bennetzen (LIFE, Oral)
• Sarah Herrmann (UHOH, Poster)
  

The students were selected by a Fellowship Committee based on the academic standard of their presentation, the clarity of their presentation and the overall structure. The Fellowship Committee was very impressed by the overall high standard this year.
 
EnvEuro Graduation Ceremony
As part of the closing ceremony the EnvEuro coordinators also hosted a short ceremony for the programme's graduating students.



The aim of the conference was to: 

• Provide a forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present research papers and posters and to receive critical feedback from peers and experts in their field



• Enhance networking among students and teachers of the ELLS partner universities

• Promote an interdisciplinary dialogue



• Enhance mobility between the partner universities

Pictures from the this year's Scientific Student Conference (lectures, dinner/party, poster/lunch and closing ceremony) can be found on Wageningen University's official conference website.