Following the successful conclusion of the PASCAL autumn school and hackathon in Ghana at the start of December, Jülich’s agrosphere research team and Geoverbund ABC/J are looking to continue and expand on their project in Africa. There are plans for an Africa Day in the second half of 2019, which will serve as a platform to present ongoing and recently completed research projects.
Deforestation, soil degredation, climate change: African countries face serious challenges in regard of a sustainable development, requiring a comprehensive integrated approach. The PASCAL training program aims at initiating a knowledge and technology transfer-bridge between Germany and Africa in the areas of soil science, nutrition and hydrology. An interview with Chioma Ogbenna shows how young scientists can utilize the training on HPC-enabled terrestrial modelling.
Wednesday, 28 November. Second day of the PASCAL side programme – a lot of input for the participants! The aim is to get them to know Germany (and especially Forschungszentrum Jülich!) as a place for excellent science. Therefore the programme provides information on Germany and Jülich as a science location, it wants to foster the exchange between African and German scientists and to support scientists who are interested in a work stay in Germany/Jülich. Welcome to the “Career Fair”!
Monday, November 26. Official start of PASCAL. Unlike the weekend, when the place had a certain sleepiness, the WASCAL headquarters now hum with activity. Time to say hello to all the people who helped us organizing the workshop in the last months, e.g. Piece Ahovi from PR. All of you did a very good job, thank you!
When German housewives or househusbands expect visitors, they wash the curtains, vacuum and bake a cake. Well, it’s quite similar with the colleagues of Corporate Communications when a guest from Kenya is due to arrive very soon.
The audience falls silent, the curtain is drawn, and there she is, on the stage, in the spotlight: Forschungszentrum proudly presents Sophia Mbugua, the winner of our journalistic scholarship! At the End of April we had 42 interesting applications – and believe me, it was real hard work finding the best candidate for the job. In the end it was Sophia who was one step ahead.