Seit 2007 organisieren die Jungen Geomorphologen jährliche Treffen an wechselnden Veranstaltungsorten in Deutschland. Die Präsentation der Forschungsarbeiten der Teilnehmer in Vorträgen und Postern, sowie Keynotevorträge und Workshops gehören zu den wichtigsten Bestandteilen dieser Treffen. Zudem bieten wir jedes Jahr eine halbtägige Exkursion an und reservieren ausreichend Zeit für informelle und offene Diskussionen. Seit einigen Jahren bemühen wir uns den Kontakt zu internationalen Gruppen junger Geomorphologen zu intensivieren und haben 2014 unser erstes internationales Treffen erfolgreich ausgerichtet.
15th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 24-25 June 2021
The German Young Geomorphologists (YG) conducted the 15th International Young Geomorphologists’ meeting in VIRTsburg Castle (powered by gather.town) from June 24-25, 2021. 56 German and international guests from Austria, Switzerland, India and other countries gathered online for two days due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The list of attendees comprised undergraduate, graduate and PhD students as well as postdocs from a lot of different universities and institutions. The focus was for attendees to present and discuss their own research and general geomorphological topics in a rather informal and friendly environment. Also, we wanted to uphold the tradition of having annual meetings despite the pandemic situation.
The main frame of the program consisted of two thematic sessions of oral and spotlight presentations, one poster session and one keynote talk. The sessions for oral presentations were organized as follows:
Session I: “Landforms as indicators for climate and archaeological reconstructions” featuring talks by Cathleen Kertscher (Leibzig University), Johannes Schmidt (Leipzig University), Sarah Teuber (Technical University of Braunschweig), Mathias Vinnepand (University of Mainz), Felix Martin Hofmann (University of Freiburg), Olivia Verplanke (Keele University), and Bruno Johannes Boemke (RWTH Aachen).
Here the poster session took place as well. 8 Posters were presented on a wide range of topics from a variety of participants, originating from different universities and institutes.
Session II – “Erosion and denudation – monitoring, measuring, modelling” featuring talks by Emma Lodes (GFZ Potsdam), Doris Hermle (Technical University of Munich), Andreas Ruby (University of Trier), Robert Busch (FU Berlin), Surajit Kundu (Triveni Deni Bhalotia College, WB, India), and Stephan Pötter (RWTH Aachen).
Proceedings
Due to the unusual online format, prior to the actual conference program, the platform was presented virtually. All kinds of rooms and places for every purpose were created, catering to all possible needs.
The program started with the usual introductory games in which the participants shortly introduced themselves and their research projects (“Scales Game”). After this introduction the e-Participants found their places in the conference hall and the first sessions’ Spotlight presentations started. All talks led to lively discussions and interesting questions were asked and answered. After a short break, the poster session concluded the scientific part of the first day. Every presenter had 60 seconds on their hands to present their work and research. An extra room was created for a poster discussion afterwards. This gave all participants the possibility to take in the posters’ contents throughout the whole conference. The discussion led to interesting input and the presenters also had the possibility to check out the other posters, besides answering questions about their own work. The variety of topics was widespread and covered themes from DEM modelling of glacial geomorphology to anthropogeomorphological impact on wetlands, for example.
The first day ended with an open-ended gathering within the virtual environment.
Friday kicked off with a quick welcome from the organizing committee, which was followed by the keynote talk held by Prof. Dr. Tony Reimann from the university of Cologne. He shed light on new ways to utilize OSL dating methods (pun very much intended). Also, he talked about alternative scientific career paths which led to a very lively discussion afterwards.
After a quick break, giving everybody the opportunity to refill their coffee mugs, the second session of spotlight presentations kicked off. “Erosion and denudation” was the main topic. Within 90 minutes, six interesting presentations tackled aspects of monitoring, measuring and modelling of the topic. Work from all kinds of landscapes in different parts of the world was presented. Here as well a busy discussion came to be, which pushed the scientific exchange as intended.
After a farewell and some closing remarks from the organisation board, interested young scientists gathered and a new committee board was formed for the next two years. A mix of experienced members and newcomers make up the crew, ensuring for a smooth transition.
General points
Due to the online format, a field trip, usually an integral part of the young geomorphologists meeting, sadly was not able to be conducted, leading to a shorter meeting. Nevertheless, great discussions and exchanges between the attendees came about.
The YG group is thankful for the financial support of the German Working Group on Geomorphology (AK Geomorphologie) and sponsoring companies (see attached) that make it possible to run a Young Geomorphologists’ meeting every year that is affordable for young scientists.
Feedback
After more than one year of online meetings and video tiles, surely everybody had developed a bit of fatigue from online formats. Nevertheless, the more interactive platform gather.town allowed for as much flexibility for the users as possible. Despite being a bit tired of online meetings, the general feedback was pretty good.
We certainly hope and are quite positive that next year we can come back to a real life meeting and offer a real warming bonfire and a great field trip again.
With kind regards, the old and new board of the young geomorphologists:
This year, the annual meeting of the German Young Geomorphologists (YG) went into the virtual space. Two days of online meeting hosted a group of 65 German and international guests from undergraduate, graduate, PhD students as well as postdocs from more than 30 different institutions located in 12 different countries. The number of international YG’s was higher than in previous years. All participants contributed to an inspiring diverse program of scientific contributions on various geomorphological topics. Furthermore, reports from other young geomorphologists groups around the world emphasized the importance of internationalization of early-career scientists. The focus was two-fold: on the one hand, we focussed on presentation and discussion of own research in the form of normal talks or spotlight talks and, on the other hand, we addressed social aspects in academia by our keynote on Thursday evening and a new crowd-solving session on Friday morning.
The program consisted of five mixed blocks of talks and spotlights, an open debate on social aspects in
academia, the crowd-solving session on social aspects in academia, and the workshop “Graphic design is not
rock(et) science” (see Appendix 1). The sessions for oral presentations and spotlights were organized as follows:
Session I: “Erosion – Landforms and processes and rates” featuring talks by Gerald Raab (University of Zurich), Katharina Wetterauer (GFZ Potsdam), Emma Lodes (GFZ Potsdam), and Elisabeth Schönfeldt (University of Potsdam).
Session II: “Geomorphologists looking beyond the horizon” featuring one spotlight by Anne Voigtländer (GFZ Potsdam) and one talk by Mohamed En-Nasiry (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco).
Session III: “Lacustrine archives” featuring two talks by Luis-Rodrigo Martinez-Abarca (UNAM, Mexico) and Johannes Hoppenbrock (TU Brunswick) and one spotlight by Ruth Glebe (TU Brunswick).
Session IV: “Say hello to young Geomorphologists from around the world” featuring two contributions from Renée Grundling (Southern African Young Geomorphologists) and Cerrone Ciro (Italian Young Geomorphologists).
Session V: “Fluvial/Water impacts on different scales” featuring one spotlight by Andreas Ruby (University of Trier) and five talks by Ghosh Kausik (Vidyasagar University, India), Sayantan Das (Dum Dum Motijheel College, affiliated under West Bengal State University, Kolkata, India), Florian Betz (KU Eichtsätt-Ingolstadt), Shobbit Singh (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur), and Lopamudra Roy (Pakuahat Degree College, affiliated under University of Gour Banga, West Bengal, India)
Proceedings
The virtual conference started with a “get to know each other”-game by randomly splitting the participants into small breakout groups with the task to introduce themselves and find something in common. Subsequently, the first four scientific sessions took place covering diverse aspects of geomorphological research. Even though it was online, the audience raised many questions. This resulted in very fruitful discussions during Thursday afternoon. Prior to our keynote event, we learnt from other Young Geomorphologists groups from Italy and Southern Africa about e.g. how they deal with internationalization and how they support early-career scientists in their regions. As a response, the YG gave a short overview of their activities in the past year (e.g. evening event at the AK annual meeting in Cottbus). The YG introduced conference funding possibilities and awards from the German Working Group for Geomorphology (AK Geomorphologie), which are available to the YG members of the AK.
Based on last year’s feedback, we organized an evening event that addressed social aspects in academia. We invited Dr. Margret Fuchs and Dr. Veit Nottebaum to share their thoughts on this often neglected but important topic. Funding, mobility, motivation, and family were highlighted key points. Personal experiences regarding funding varied most among the group ranging from “there is no need to worry” to “it is likely to experience ‘gaps’ of funding”. Participants advised to always have a plan B when it comes to funding. Mobility strongly depends on the personal situation. There seldom is a gold standard for a career plan and, thus, it might be thoughtful to follow your heart rather than be pressured into mobility. This is especially true for people planning a family, possibly with a partner who is also working in science. It is always a decision between life and work that each person must make individually. Nonetheless, science can be considered as a playground for advancing scientific knowledge that serves society. Science provides the highest level of freedom to accomplish individualized complex tasks with passion. These circumstances are often the source of motivation to stay in science since these conditions are hard to find outside of academia. Despite the motivation that science can generate, insecure time-limited contracts are common for early-career scientists and might be triggers to leave academia.
Friday began with the last scientific session on fluvial/water impacts on different scales. For the following crowd-solving session on social aspects, the participants were split into breakout groups based on their preferred topic. They opted for 1) general problems in early careers, 2) social aspects in academia, or 3) supporting YGs. The outcomes of each group are briefly summarized below.
The “general problems”-group discussed issues such as “how important are connections for job applications” or “how to achieve equality and respect between early-career and established scientists”. Experiences showed that, besides having a good network, also individual skills lead to advances in one’s academic career. Working groups often look for new perspectives, persons with different skills, and new backgrounds. General advice included a proactive attitude, taking initiative, and being involved in teams and subjects you are interested in.
The second group discussed “social issues in academia” such as how to handle conflicts, mobbing, or bossing. If conflicts arise, the group suggested to go to a higher level, involving PhD councils or Mentorship programs. Following the open debate, the group discussed mobility as a necessity of furthering your career and resulting family issues. Possible solutions included options of multiple shorter stays abroad or being affiliated with a foreign institute but working largely from home. Scientific output was seen as more important to recruitment processes than mobility. Finally, the group discussed the difference between contract and ‘real’ working hours, as well as working on weekends. Most participants work/worked more hours than their contract demands/demanded, especially during their PhD studies. The group agreed that it was necessary to balance work and leisure time (through time off on the weekends or by sprint-working with more leisure time after a longer period of work).
The third group “supporting YGs” focussed on the questions “where to find scientific positions” and The use of break-out rooms has added value I enjoyed the open debate on social topics I enjoyed the crowd-solving social aspects session Strongly disagree Strongly agree Program items “how to be visible in the network”. After a short discussion about which social media platforms can be used to make your science visible, the members collected a helpful list of links. This list includes links to internet pages of different mailing lists, institutions
and organisations that are publishing e.g. job / internship offers, opportunities for fieldwork or exchange, tips on academic CV writing, and various grant and funding opportunities (Appendix 2).
Workshop
On Friday afternoon, a workshop on “Graphic Design is not Rock(et) Science” was held by Dorothée Post for a total of 13 participants. She explained that skills and knowledge in graphic design can substantially improve your visibility and comprehensibility of your work. The different steps in creating a graphic (knowledge of the audience, rough sketching to the first design on a computer) as well as the different elements of graphic design (lines, shapes, colours, size, texture, white space, as well as typography and composition) were covered. There was also an introduction to different websites that support creation of own graphic designs (e.g. Adobe Color Wheel, Coolors.co or toptal.com/designers/colorfilter). The participants brought up the issue of colour blindness with different tools, which can help your graphic to be accessible to colour-blind people as well (e.g. ColorOracle, wearecolorblind.com). Furthermore, there is the chance to receive individual feedback on a selfmade graphic by Dorothée Post after the workshop.
General Points
The first annual online-meeting of the German YG’s was a great success. The online format provided the opportunity for more international participation from all over the world (Europe, Asia, Africa, South America). This was demonstrated by participant from institutes located in 12 different countries, a doubling compared to last year. Nevertheless, without a physical presence, the social interactions and networking between participants was more difficult.
The board of the German YG has postponed planning next year’s annual meeting to early 2021. Based on the COVID-19 situation, the board will decide when and how the YG annual meeting will take place in 2021.
The YG board is thankful for the financial support of the AK Geomorphologie for making the graphical design workshop affordable for young scientists. This year, the online conference was free of charge and technically hosted by Jörn Profe (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen). We also thank Simon Meyer-Heintze (University of Würzburg) for handling participant communication. We would like to specially thank Dr. Margret Fuchs and Dr. Veit Nottebaum for sharing their experiences in the open debate. Finally, we thank Dorothée Post for running the workshop on graphic design.
Feedback
At the end of the virtual YG meeting, we asked the participants to give feedback in a prepared Mentimeter Questionnaire. During the meeting, we discussed the ad-hoc Mentimeter results and asked for additional feedback. After the meeting, the Mentimeter remained open for a couple of days to give participants the opportunity for further comments. In total, we received about 25 responses. Below we provide the Mentimeter output with short explanations.
The participants gave positive general feedback on the meeting. The overall quality was good, and the online meeting was well organized. Although it was an online meeting, the participants enjoyed the atmosphere and the scientific exchange. Even networking was rated relatively good.
This year, we included 3 new program items: the use of break-out rooms, an open debate on social topics, and a crowd-solving session. All these new program items were rated positively, especially the break-out rooms.
As discussing social aspects was a new program item in this year’s meeting, we asked whether the participants would prefer the usual keynote lecture by a senior scientist, or to keep the social aspects discussion. The majority expressed their preference for a combination of both options. Most participants rated the YG meeting a useful time investment; they would attend next year’s meeting again, even if it took place as another online edition. The duration of the meeting was okay. A specific hint was given that it was good to split up the meeting in two half days and not 1 full day.
Finally, we asked the participants to divide the time (a total of 100%) over different program items. The suggested ideal program is dominated by scientific contributions from YG’s, but should also include enough time for networking, a field trip, and discussions about social topics.
Open feedback (tips/suggestions/ideas for the
next meeting):
Include a block about methods in Geomorphology. If it is an online meeting, maybe different algorithms could be discussed.
The program was not very well suited for very young (BSc./MSc.) students.
The discussion on work-life balance (from 6 to 8 PM) was not well timed.
Proposal writing and funding agencies would be an interesting topic.
A field trip would be ideal, also suggested with a research question/specific project.
Respect a family schedule, sessions should not be too long and end late at night.
General workshops for early career scientists, e.g. how to present, how to handle questions, how to “behave when networking, how to deal with pressure
Give awards for best talks
13th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 17-19 May 2019
The German Young Geomorphologists (YG) held the 13th International Young Geomorphologists’ Meeting close to Gießen from May 17-19, 2019. A group of 59 German and international guests from Undergraduate, graduate, PhD students as well as postdocs from 23 different institutions and universities contributed to an inspiring diverse program of scientific contributions on various geomorphological topics. The focus was to present and discuss own research and general geomorphological topics in a rather informal and friendly environment.
The German Young Geomorphologists (YG) held the 13th International Young Geomorphologists’ Meeting close to Gießen from May 17-19, 2019. A group of 59 German and international guests from Undergraduate, graduate, PhD students as well as postdocs from 23 different institutions and universities contributed to an inspiring diverse program of scientific contributions on various geomorphological topics. The focus was to present and discuss own research and general geomorphological topics in a rather informal and friendly environment.
The main frame of the program consisted of four mixed blocks of oral presentations and spotlights, two poster sessions, one keynote, and an excursion (see detailed program attached). The sessions for oral presentations and spotlights were organized as follows:
Session I: “Sediment dynamics in fluvial systems” featuring talks by Steffi Tofelde (University of Potsdam) and Renee van Dongen (GFZ-Potsdam) as well as one spotlight by David Puhl (FU Berlin / GFZ-Potsdam)
Session II: “Methods in geomorphology” featuring one talk by Matthias Konzett (University of Vienna) and two spotlights by Anna Iglseder (University of Vienna) and Nina Marlovits (University of Vienna)
Session III: “Mixed topics” featuring spotlights by Anne Voigtländer (GFZ Potsdam), Andrea Junge (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen) and Dorothee Post (freelancer)
Session “Geoarcheology” featuring one talk by Julian Trappe (University of Würzburg)
Session IV: “Tectonics, erosion and climate in high mountainous areas” featuring one spotlight by Stefan Haselberger (University of Vienna) and two talks by Kai Deng (GFZ-Potsdam) and Donovan Dennis (GFZ-Potsdam)
Proceedings
The program started by the same procedure as the last years with the “Scales Game” where participants group themselves according to their research’s time and spatial scales. The attendees continued the get to know each other during dinner. Subsequently, Prof. Dr. Todd Ehlers (Tübingen University) presented his invited keynote lecture on “Latitudinal Effects of Vegetation and Climate on Catchment Denudation”. His talk triggered a very lively discussion on landscape evolution modeling and how important vegetation might be in shaping topography. Afterwards, the persons responsible for the individual posters were asked to advertise their work with one slide in a limited time of 30 seconds (for further details on the broad selection of topics see program in the attachment). This was followed by the actual poster session, which was open ended, so that discussion kept on going far into the night.
Saturday began with the first oral session on sediment dynamics in fluvial systems. Then, the organizing team of the German YG gave a short overview of their activities in the past year and upcoming events (e.g. YG session at EGU, social events at conferences, YG meeting 2020 in Würzburg). The YG introduced funding possibilities and awards from the German Working Group on Geomorphology (AK Geomorphologie) which are available to the YG members of the AK. In addition, the chairpersons of the YG draw attention to the upcoming elections of the YG chairpersons and the scientific advisory board on Sunday. Prior to the field trip in the afternoon, the second oral session was held on “Methods in geomorphology”. The field trip led by Dr. Johanna Lomax (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen) and Andrea Junge (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen) introduced the geological and geomorphological situation of the surroundings of Wolfshausen located at the margin of the Lahn valley. The main stop in the quarry Niederweimar fostered in-depth discussions of fluvial landscape evolution based on outcrops of fluvial Lahn deposits that cover the Late Pleistocene and Holocene including (reworked) remains of the Laacher See tephra. The trip also provided the opportunity for further discussion and networking. After dinner the dedicated spotlight session took place on “Mixed topics”. Spotlights were introduced in 2018 as a new format with a maximum of 5 minutes of presentation which is followed by an in depth discussion of 10 minutes or more. This allows young researchers to present their work in progress, unsolved problems or issues they face during their research. The evening ended with the continuation of the successful poster session.
On Sunday, the program started with the last oral presentations on Geoarcheology and Tectonics, erosion and climate in high mountainous areas. Afterwards, a new board was elected. The meeting ended with an evaluation of the conference (see feedback)
.
General points
On Sunday morning, three chairpersons and a support team of seven young geomorphologists were elected: Johannes Buckel (TU Braunschweig), Stefan Haselberger (University of Vienna) and Anna Schoch (University of Bonn) will chair the YG for a two-year period until the 2021 meeting. They are supported by Mario Kirchhoff (Trier University), Simon Meyer-Heintze (University of Würzburg), Jörn Profe (Justus-Liebig-University Gießen), Stefanie Tofelde (University of Potsdam), Julian Trappe (University of Würzburg), Renee van Dongen (GFZ-Potsdam), and Janek Walk (RWTH Aachen) in the upcoming tasks.
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia Meister (University of Würzburg) will organize the 14th international meeting of the German Young Geomorphologists group. It will take place near Würzburg from June 26-28, 2020.
The YG group is thankful for the financial support of the AK Geomorphologie and sponsoring institutions (see attached) which makes it possible to run a Young Geomorphologists’ meeting every year affordable for young scientists. We also thank Simon Meyer-Heintze (University of Würzburg) for handling participant communication. We would like to specially thank Prof. Dr. Todd Ehlers for his excellent keynote lecture, Dr. Johanna Lomax and Andrea Junge for guiding the great excursion. Finally, we are much obliged to Christian Halla (University of Bonn) and Julia Meister (University of Würzburg) for their commitment, effort and excellent work during the last two/four years as chairpersons of the YG.
Overall, the feedback for the meeting was very positive, however participants would like to have more time for scientific presentations and discussions in general (spotlights, posters, and excursion).
One key point learnt from the feedback discussion is that 60 participants represent the capacity limit of such a meeting. The new board will develop strategies how to cope with potentially more than 60 registrations in the future. There was a lively discussion about spotlights and how to improve their outcome for the young scientists opting for this presentation format. While the mixed spotlight and oral sessions received very positive feedback, new formats of small-group discussions were put on the table. Parallel sessions with small-group or “fish-bowl” discussions were debated with participants also emphasizing the danger of losing partly the interdisciplinary character of this meeting by temporally splitting the group. One option to avoid splitting the group might be spotlight-related additional discussions that are announced during spotlights and that take place during leisure time for interested persons. In addition, there should be one session dedicated to non-scientific but work-related issues in order to thrive on the challenging work environment for early-career scientists.
Concerning the field trip, the group suggested to have more guided discussions related to specific topics. Furthermore, the group identified the demand for a workshop on e.g. graphic design or dendrogeomorphology. Finally, the participants highlighted the importance of getting to know each other and thus recommended more introductory games at the beginning of the meeting.
The poster session was carried out on two evenings with no change in terms of content. The posters stay on the boards the whole meeting. The advantage is a time-independent opportunity to read and to discuss the presented topics.
12th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 25-27 May 2018
The German Young Geomorphologists (YG) conducted the 12th International Young Geomorphologists’ meeting in Stadtoldendorf from May 25-27, 2018. 49 German and international guests from Austria, Italy, Slovakia, India and Switzerland gathered close to Hildesheim for a three-day meeting. The list of attendees comprised undergraduate, graduate and PhD students as well as postdocs from 20 different universities and institutions. The focus was to present and discuss own research and general geomorphological topics in a rather informal and friendly environment.
The main frame of the program consisted of three blocks of oral presentations, one block of spotlight presentations, two poster sessions, two keynotes, and an excursion (see detailed program attached). The sessions for oral presentations were organized as follows:
Session II – Spotlights featuring talks by Johannes Buckel (TU Braunschweig), Christian Halla (University of Bonn), Heidi Bernsteiner (University of Salzburg), Anna Igelseder (University of Vienna), Jakob Heinzle (University of Vienna), Matthias Konzett (University of Vienna)
Session III: “Hard rocks and hard wood” featuring talks by Jörn Profe (University of Bremen/University of Gießen), Gerald Raab (University of Zurich), Dorothée Post (University of Vienna)
Session III: “Soil erosion, human impact and fluvial morphology” featuring talks by Johannes Schmidt (University of Leipzig), Stefan Haselberger (University of Vienna), Anna Kidova, Milos Rusnak, Milan Frandorfer (Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Proceedings
The program started with the usual introductory games where the participants shortly introduced themselves and their research projects (“Scales Game”). The attendees could continue the get to know each other during dinner. This was followed by an “After Dinner Talk” with Prof. Dr. Andreas Lang (University of Salzburg) “On formative events, conserving topography and morphologic hysteresis – a geomorphological trajectory”. The talk was followed by a very lively discussion on careers in geomorphology and academia in general. Afterwards, the persons responsible for the individual posters were asked to advertise their work with one slide in a limited time of 30 seconds (for further details on the broad selection of topics see program in the attachment). This was followed by the actual poster session, which was open ended, so that discussion kept on going far into the night.
Saturday began with the second keynote presentation by Dr. Peter Fischer (University of Mainz) entitled “Terrestrial System Response to North Atlantic Climate Oscillations during the Last Glacial Period a new high- resolution Loess-Palaeosol-Sequence from the Schwalbenberg (Middle Rhine Valley, Germany)”. The keynote lecture was followed by the first session of oral presentations on “Paleoenvironmental Research”. Afterwards, the organizing team of the German YG gave a short overview of their activities in the past year and upcoming events (e.g. YG session at EGU, social events at conferences, YG meeting 2019 in Gießen). The YG introduced funding possibilities and awards from the AK Geomorphologie that are available to the YG members of the AK. Furthermore, we put our focus on the upcoming joint AK Geomorphologie and DEUQUA conference, the “Central European Conference on Geomorphology and Quaternary Sciences”, in Gießen and the election that will take place during the conference.
After lunch, Jun.-Prof. Dr. André Kirchner (University of Hildesheim) led an excursion to the sourroundings of Stadtoldendorf, where the participants could observe geomorphological features of the area (dolines, loess deposits and soil profiles, etc.). The first stop of the excursion was a close by surface mine (see pictures below), where anhydrite and gypsum are excavated and the regional geologic and geomorphological setting was elaborately introduced and explained. At the following stops soil profiles and sinkholes were shown, explained and discussed. Furthermore, there was plenty of time for continued discussions and networking as well as gaining impressions of the beautiful surroundings during the excursion.
The Spotlights-session was scheduled after the field trip. Spotlights are a new format with a maximum of 5 minutes of presentation which is followed by an in depth discussion of 10 minutes or more. This gives young researchers the opportunity to present their work in progress, unsolved problems or issues they face during their research. After dinner, the evening ended with the continuation of the poster session. On Sunday, the program started with two sessions of oral presentations on “Hard rocks and hard wood” and “Soil erosion, human impact and fluvial morphology”. The meeting ended with an evaluation of the conference and an open feedback round after lunch (see feedback).
Last years’ feedback included the comments to have more time for scientific presentations and discussions in general. Thus the YG meeting was followed by a two-day YG workshop on “Multidisciplinary subsurface exploration – Direct Push, Vibracoring and ERT” (May 28-29, 2018) organized by Jun.-Prof. André Kirchner (University of Hildesheim), Dr. Peter Fischer (University of Mainz) and their colleagues in Hildesheim. The very interesting and successful workshop had 20 participants and was a great addition to the YG meeting.
Feedback
Overall, the feedback on the meeting was very positive. The new session with spotlight was a great success and almost all participants of the workshop would like to have more spotlight-presentations at the next meetings. These sessions put the focus on scientific discussions (min. 10 minutes) instead of the presentations (max. 5 minutes). Other than that, the participants were very satisfied with the balance of the program.
During an open feedback round the participants mentioned the great venue (Waldpädagogikzentrum Weserbergland), the good size of the group (limited to 50 participants), the excursion by foot (no cars needed during the weekend) and the two keynote lectures. The attendees mentioned they would like to have two keynote lecture at all meetings, one on Friday focusing on a general topic (“After Dinner Talk”) and one scientific presentation on Saturday. The group played several games (table tennis, Frisbee, Kan Jam) during the breaks and in the evenings which added to a very positive atmosphere in the group.
Concerning new additions to the program it was suggested to have a workshop focusing on scientific discussions in the group (e.g. on the future of geomorphic research or research integrity and ethics). Furthermore, some participants would like to have an additional practical workshop on a certain method during the weekend. However, it is very challenging to fit more items to the already dense agenda and instead of adding an extra day to the program an additional workshop following the meeting was organized at the University of Hildesheim.
General points
The YG group is thankful for the financial support of the German Working Group on Geomorphology (AK Geomorphologie) and sponsoring companies (see attached) which makes it possible to run a Young Geomorphologists’ meeting every year affordable for young scientists. We also thank Simon Meyer-Heintze (University of Würzburg) for handling the participant communication. We would like to specially thank Prof. Dr. Andreas Lang and Dr. Peter Fischer for their excellent keynote presentations, Jun.-Prof. André Kirchner for guiding the great excursion, as well as Jun.-Prof. André Kirchner and Jasmin Karaschewski for organizing this great meeting in Stadtoldendorf.
Andrea Junge, Raphael Steup and Tilmann Wolpert (University of Gießen) will organize the 13th international meeting of the German Young Geomorphologists group. It will take place near Gießen/Marburg from May 17-19, 2019.
The three chairpersons and a support team of six young geomorphologists who were elected in 2017 will organize the activities of the YG in the upcoming year. The members of the team are Johannes Buckel (University of Salzburg), Christian Halla (University of Bonn), Jasmin Karaschewski (University of Hildesheim), Julia Meister (FU Berlin), Simon Meyer-Heintze (University of Würzburg), Anna Schoch (University of Bonn), Anne Schuchardt (University of Halle), Philipp Schulte (University of Aachen), and Anne Voigtländer (Technical University of Munich/GFZ).
Johannes Buckel, Christian Halla, Jasmin Karaschewski, André Kirchner, Julia Meister, Simon Meyer-Heintze, Anna Schoch, Anne Schuchardt, Philipp Schulte and Anne Voigtländer
11th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 19-21 May 2017
The German Young Geomorphologists (YG) conducted the 11th International Young Geomorphologists’ Workshop at the Ammersee from May 19-21, 2017. 57 German and international guests from Austria, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland gathered close to Herrsching for a three-day workshop. The list of attendees comprised undergraduate, graduate and PhD students as well as postdocs from 21 different universities and institutions. The focus was to present and discuss own research and general geomorphological topics in a rather informal and friendly environment.
The program started with a short introduction of the group of Young Geomorphologists and the participants shortly introduced themselves. The attendees could continue the get to know each other during dinner. Then the first session of oral presentations on “Landslides and Loess” took place. Afterwards, the persons responsible for the individual posters were asked to advertise their work with one slide in a limited time of 30 seconds (for further details on the broad selection of topics see the program). This was followed by the actual poster session, which was open ended, so that discussion kept on going far into the night.
Saturday began with the keynote presentation of Dr. Wolfgang Schwanghart (University of Potsdam) entitled “Models, parameters, and the unknown unknowns – issues in Landscape Evolution Modelling”. After lunch, Prof. Dr. Michael Krautblatter (Technical University of Munich) gave a short introduction into the glacially formed landscape of the surrounding of the Ammersee. He then led an excursion to the monastery of Andechs, where the participants could observe the geomorphological forms (drumlins, moraine ridges, etc.) which were left by the Wurmian glaciation in the field. The trip also provided the opportunity for further discussion and networking. One key aspect of the following general assembly of the German Young Geomorphologists was the election (held every two years) of the chairpersons and a support team of further young scientists. The evening ended with the continuation of the successful poster session.
On Sunday the program started with a change in the agenda. The first topic “Q&A 10 years later – open discussion with the “older” Young Geomorphologists” were convened by the organizing team of the YG. There was an open discussion where the young scientists could ask former founders and speakers of the YG (Dr. Sabine Kraushaar, Prof. Michael Krautblatter, Dr. Wolfgang Schwanghart) as well as a regular participant of the annual meetings and long-time support team member (Dr. David Morche) about their intentions on founding the group, the development of the group and perspectives on science. Important topics were early career planning, family (planning) and the increasing demands made on (young) scientists. The second part of the last meeting-day was the Session II: “(High) Mountain geomorphology” featuring oral talks by five participants.
10th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 27.-29. May 2016
The 10th International Young Geomorphologists’ Workshop, organized by the German Young Geomorphologists (YG) was held from May 27-29, 2015 in Werbellinsee, northeast of Berlin. It was the third time after 2014 that international participants were explicitly invited. In total, 45 undergraduate, graduate, PhD students, and postdocs from 17 different Institutions and Universities (and 3 countries, including , Austria and Germany) came together for a three-day workshop to discuss their own research, as well as topics of geomorphologic interest in general, in a rather informal environment.
After a casual introduction of the participants this year’s program started in the evening (19:30 – 21:30) with a Keynote lecture on “The Geophysics and Geochemistry of Geomorphology: why surface processes matter in the big picture, and how we use scary tools to learn about them”, presented by Prof. Niels Hovius (GFZ Potsdam). Following this and a “Late-Night” poster session (22:00 – 23:30) with accompanying 30 seconds introductory talks from all presenters (see attached program for further details). Even though it was already late at night, the poster session was a great success and participants kept on discussing until midnight.
On Saturday the workshop started with a session on “Sediment – Surface – Erosion”, featuring 5 oral talks by participants between 09:00 and 11:00, before the group left for a short field-trip to the surroundings of Werbellinsee. The field trip was organized by Dr. Knut Kaiser (GFZ Potsdam), who introduced the group to the postglacial landscape features of the region. Returning from the field trip, the data acquisition for the workshop on on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) was accomplished at the lake side, where we also took the opportunity of taking nice group pictures. In the evening, the second poster session with accompanying 30 seconds introductory talks was held (see attached program for further details). Here, we took advantage of the nice weather conditions and held an outdoor poster session, which proved to be highly recommendable for future events.
On Sunday morning the second session on “Transport – Interactions” was held, featuring two oral presentations. Following the oral block, Dr. Kristen Cook (GFZ Potsdam) gave a hands-on workshop on UAV data processing and Structure from Motion analysis, using the data collected at the lake shore on Saturday night.
9th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 8.-10. May 2015
The 9th annual meeting of the German Young Geomorphologists (YG) was held from the 8th until the 10th of May 2015 in Heimbach-Hergarten in the vicinity of the Eifel Nationalpark, southeast of Aachen. It was the second time after 2014 that international participants were explicitly invited. In total, 41 undergraduate, graduate, PhD students, and postdocs from 16 different Institutions and Universities (and 5 countries, including UK, Australia, Belgium, Austria and Germany) came together for a three-day workshop to discuss their own research, as well as topics of geomorphologic interest in general, in a rather informal environment.After a casual introduction of the participants this year’s program started with a “Late-Night” poster session and accompanying 3 min. introductionary talks from all presenters (see attached program for further details). On Saturday morning, Prof. Sean Willet from ETH Zurich gave a “Wake-up lecture” entitled “River network response to tectonic forcing” which was followed by a Keynote talk given by Prof. Frank Lehmkuhl from RWTH Aachen about “Geomorphology: Processes and landscape evolution for geoecology, hydrology and geoarcheology. Examples from the Eifel Mountains towards the lower Rhine Embayment, Western Germany”.
A field trip to the surroundings of Heimbach-Hergarten was organized and held by Prof. Wolfgang Römer from RWTH Aachen. The fieldtrip focused on the geologic architecture of the Eifel orogeny and geomorphologic imprints of Cenozoic tectonics including middle Pleistocene terraces and meander cutoff development The program for the next two days included 11 work-in-progress reports as well as reports from advanced PhD-projects which were organized in three sessions (see attached report for details).
8th International Workshop of Young Geomorphologists, 23.-25. May 2014
For the 8th annual meeting of the Jungen Geomorphologen we were gathering on the island of Usedom, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. For the first time the meeting was held in English in order to open it for the international community of young geomorphologists. We were very glad to have participants from France, the USA and South Africa joining for the meeting. In total, we had 41 undergrads, PhD Students, and PostDocs from 14 different Institutions/Universities gathered for three days to discuss their own research, as well as topics of geomorphic interest in general, in a rather informal environment. For the first time we sucessfully organized an evening poster session, in order to allow more participants to present and discuss their work. The program was completed by three presentations from invited speakers:
The 7th annual meeting of the German Young Geomorpholgists group (YG) was held in Fleckl (Warmensteinach, Fichtel Mountains, Bavaria). This year, 24 Undergrads, PhD Students, and PostDocs from 13 different Institutions/Universities gathered for three days to discuss their own research, as well as topics of geomorphic interest in general, in a rather informal environment. In addition to the presentations and discussions indoor, a hands-on workshop on the use of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in geomorphology was held, where participants could familiarize with the methodology and equipment of this approach, and discuss geomorphological applications. An afternoon field trip was organized on Saturday, during which geomorphological aspects of the Fichtel Mountains, their land-use and mining history were introduced by Mathias Will (Uni Exeter).
Das sechste Arbeitstreffen der Jungen Geomorphologen fand 2012 in Aicha (Eichstätt) statt. Eine Vorexkursion (geleitet von Peter Fischer, Eichstätt) führte in den Donau-Auwald. Das Arbeitstreffen thematisierte mit Keynote-Vorträgen Landscape Evolution Modelling (Wolfgang Schwanghart, Potsdam) und Robuste Auswertung multivariater Daten (Elisabeth Dietze, Potsdam). Die Fachvortragsblöcke umrissen die Themen “Sedimentflüsse und Landschaftsdynamik” sowie “Angewandte Geomorphologie”. Drei Workshops, u.a. von Stuart Lane (Lausanne) zum Thema “Authorship as a young geomorphologist” (pdf), füllten die drei Tage des Arbeitstreffens reichhaltig. Die bisherigen Sprecher, Sabine Kraushaar (Leipzig) und Michael Dietze (Dresden), wurden bestätigt.
Das fünfte Arbeitstreffen der Jungen Geomorphologen fand 2011 in Freienorla (Jena) statt. Entsprechend der Thematik der AK-Tagung behandelten die Keynote-Vorträge periglaziale Hangsedimente und den Wert von Böden und Sedimenten als Umweltarchiv. Ein weiterer Keynote-vortrag behandelte die Wissenschaftsförderung in Deutschland. Die Wanderung führte durch den Thüringischen Muschelkalk und Buntsandstein. Als neue Sprecher wurden Sabine Kraushaar und Michael Dietze gewählt.
Das vierte Arbeitstreffen der Jungen Geomorphologen fand 2010 in Wilhelmsaue (Oderbruch) statt. Keynote-Vorträge und Diskussionen u.a. zu Forschungsanträgen und Förderungsmöglichkeiten bildeten den fachlichen Kern. Die Wanderung führte durch die Brandenburger Jungmoränenlandschaft. Die bisherigen Sprecher, Michael Krautblatter und Wolfgang Schwanghart, wurden bestätigt.
Das dritte Arbeitstreffen der Jungen Geomorphologen fand 2009 in Herrischried (Südschwarzwald) statt. Die projektbezogenen Vorträge waren meist Werkstattberichte und ermöglichten methodische und inhaltliche Diskussionen. Der Themenschwerpunkt des Treffens hatte den Titel: Alleskönner Geomorphologen? Beiträge der Geomorphologie zu interdisziplinärer Forschung. Außerdem wurden übergeordnete Diskussionsrunden eingerichtet. Als neue Sprecher wurden Michael Krautblatter und Wolfgang Schwanghart gewählt.
Das zweite Arbeitstreffen der Jungen Geomorphologen fand 2008 in Schwrizheim (Eifel) statt. Neben den projektbezogenen Vorträgen stand die Theorie Komplexer Systeme im Fokus und inwiefern sich diese Ansätze als wissenschaftstheoretischer Rahmen in wissenschaftliche Arbeiten integrieren lassen kann. Während des Treffens wurde das aktuelle Logo und der Name selbst entwickelt. Thomas Hoffmann als kommissarischer Sprecher der Jungen Geomorphologen gewählt. Die Wanderung unter Führung von Manuel Seeger führte zum Meerfelder Maar.
