Ian T. Baldwin received the 2014 Jean-Marie Delwart Award
For his pioneer works and constant excellence in studying plant communication and plant defense mechanisms, Ian T. Baldwin received the 2014 Jean-Marie Delwart Award. This International Prize , which is endowed with $10.000, is awarded by the Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation and received the patronage of the Académie Royale des Sciences de Belgique.
Outstanding Oral Presentation by Christoph Brütting
During the 7th European Workshop for Plant Senescence, held at Aarhus University, Denmark, November 10-14, 2014, Christoph Brütting, PhD candidate in the Department of Molecular Ecology (Ian T. Baldwin), was awarded a prize for his outstanding talk on "Cytokinin-mediated regulation of plant development controls herbivore resistance in Nicotiana attenuata".
Bill S. Hansson honored with ISCE Silverstein-Simeone Lecture Award
During the 30th annual meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE) from July 8-12, 2014, in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA, Bill S. Hansson, director of the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, will hold the prestigious Silverstein-Simeone Lecture. The title of his lecture is "Olfactory-based resource location and danger avoidance in Drosophila". The Silverstein-Simeone lecture award is made in honor of Robert M. Silverstein and John B. Simeone, the founding editors of the Journal of Chemical Ecology, and recognizes outstanding recent or current work in chemical ecology. The award is sponsored by Springer.
www.chemecol.org
New managing director and IMPRS spokesperson
Since June 1, 2014, David G. Heckel, director of the Department of Entomology, is the new managing director of the MPI for Chemical Ecology. The new spokesperson of the International Max Planck Research School, a position David Heckel held since 2007, is Jonathan Gershenzon, director of the Department of Biochemistry.
Otto Hahn Medal awarded to Cornelia Bühlmann
The Max Planck Society honored Cornelia Bühlmann with the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievements. From 2010 until 2013, the young scientists did her PhD on "Flexible use of multiple cues: Multimodal navigation in the desert ant Cataglyphis" in the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology under the supervision of Markus Knaden and Bill Hansson. The prestigious prize is endowed with 7500 euros and was awarded during the 65th Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society from June 4-5, 2014, in Munich.
Bill S. Hansson new vice president of the Max Planck Society
During the annual meeting of the Max Planck Society in Munich on June 5, the managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Bill Hansson, was elected vice president. He is the first person to accept this office who is not a German. During the 6-year term, he will be responsible for the 27 institutes in the Section of Biology and Medicine, including the new Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience in the United States. One of his main tasks is to take steps to ensure scientific quality
Ian Baldwin newly elected EMBO member
On the occasion of its 50th anniversary the European Molecular Biology Organization EMBO welcomed 106 outstanding researchers in life sciences as newly elected members. Among them: Ian Baldwin, head of the Department of Molecular Ecology.
www.embo.org
Max Planck Scientists from Jena on "Fact Finding Mission" in Slovenia
Axel Mithöfer and Jost Lavric from the Jena Max Planck Institutes for Chemical Ecology and Biogeochemistry were among a delegation of scientists in the Max Planck Society who followed an invitation by the Slovenian Ministry of Science. They traveled to Ljubljana on April 2-3, 2014, where they met with representatives of the Slovenian research infrastructure to discuss possible future cooperation. The specific goal of these meetings was to prepare the basis for EU-funded Teaming or Twinning projects. Such projects support the development of the research infrastructure in structurally weak regions by cooperating with research partners from well established institutions.
Laura Flórez and Julia Wilde received MiCom 2014 Awards for the best talk and the best poster
Laura Flórez and Julia Wilde received the MiCom 2014 Awards for the best talk and the best poster during the 4th International Student Conference on Microbial Communication (MiCom 2014), which was held in Jena from March 31 - April 3, 2014. Laura Flórez, who is a PhD student in the Max Planck Research Group Insect Symbiosis and who had already received the IMPRS Travel Award for the best talk during the annual IMPRS symposium this February, gave a talk on "Bacteria-mediated egg protection? Transmission and defensive function of symbiotic bacteria in lagriid beetles". Julia Wilde is a PhD student in the Department of Molecular Ecology. Her award winning poster is entitled "The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal infection on Nicotiana attenuata communities in their natural habitat" and is co-authored by Karin Groten and Ian Baldwin.
Bill S. Hansson elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters
Bill S. Hansson, director of the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology, is a new foreign member of the Societas Scientiarum Fennica (Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters) and joined the section of biosciences. The national science academy of Finland was founded in order to promote scientific discussion within sciences and humanities. In 2013, the society celebrated its 175th anniversary.
http://www.scientiarum.fi/eng/