1st VDSEE Retreat 2022
Since the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE) was founded during the pandemic, personal meetings unfortunately have been limited in the past two years. Therefore, we were even more excited that in the beginning of October 45 PhD-students and 19 group leaders followed our invitation to Illmitz, Burgenland for the first-ever annual retreat of the Doctoral School. At this occasion we also had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with our scientific advisory board, Marianne Holmer (University of Southern Denmark), Bernd Blasius (University of Oldenburg) and Nicolas Gompel (Ludwig-Maximilians-University München).
Since Illmitz is located next to Neusiedler See national park, our scientific session was focused on discussing ecological challenges of this region, followed by a guided bicycle-excursion through the park. In the evening we made sure to not miss out on the other highlight of this region and enjoyed local wine at a wine-tasting.
On the second day, the interactive World Café session, provided a platform for fruitful exchange among the participants and we evaluated challenges and opportunities of the DocSchool.
We would like to thank everyone who contributed to making this retreat a successful and enjoyable event. We’re already looking forward to next year and hope to meet many VDSEE-members there.
