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Welcome to the EESLMU wiki

EESLMU stands for the Munich Graduate School for Evolution, Ecology and Systematics. If you want to do a Master's or PhD degree in the fields of evolution, ecology or systematics, Munich is probably one of the best places in Germany and Europe. EESLMU started in September 2006 and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The EESLMU Master's program began in October 2007. In March 2008, we wrote a progress report for the Volkswagen Foundation, which you can download. If you don't find the answer to your questions on this site, please send an e-mail to Elena Berg.

News

EES students in the newspaper

First semester Master students Monica Arias and Jeanine Marquardt were photographed and interviewed for a small article in the Munich newspaper Münchener Merkur. Click here to download the article

IRT conferences

On the 3th of March the second EES cohort will present their IRT work. It will take place at 9 in the morning, in the room C00.013. Two days later, the 5th of March, the third EES cohort will present their IRT1 work. It is going to start at 2 pm in the same room. Everybody is welcome!! There will be snacks and drinks.

22 applicants will be interviewed this week

The admissions committee of the EES master program invited 22 applicants for interviews. The interviews will all take place this week, mostly by Skype and a few in person in the Biozentrum. Compared to previous years, the number of applicants was slightly lower, but the quality of the applications was generally good, so that more applicants will be interviewed than in previous years. EU residents can still apply to the program until the 30th of June, see Application procedure.

Newspaper article about Pleuni Pennings

Last week, the local edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung featured an article about EES staff member Pleuni Pennings and her "Evolution of Life" film project. You can download the pdf by clicking here. The website of the film project can be found here: link.

EES PhD program continues

12 PhD students from the fields of Evolution, Ecology and Systematics have joined the second cohort of the EES PhD program. On the 15th and 16th of February, the students spent two days together to get to know each other and to learn about EES, the LMU graduate center and the zoological collections. They also made plans for future activities, since the EES PhD program is a largely self-organized program.

Professor Overmann takes position in Braunschweig

Professor Joerg Overmann has left the LMU to take the position as a scientific director of the Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen of Leibniz Society in Braunschweig (see here). We regret that he is leaving EES and thank him for his contributions to our program.

EES program welcomes new secretary

Our new EES Secretary, Beate Meyer-Schmidt, has arrived! Please come by EES office any weekday morning and say hello!

On the 1st of February Prof.Dr Christoph Scheidegger talked about Dispersal and estabishment of a lichen symbiosis: patterns and processes at the landscape level

Abstract:Lichens reveal various reproductive strategies where the mycobiont and its photobionts either disperse separately, in the case of sexual reproduction (horizontal transmission of photobionts) or where the lichen symbionts are codispersed with clonal, symbiotic propagules (vertical transmission of photobionts). With a few exceptions, where photobionts grow between the meiosporangia of the mycobiont and are codispersed with the ascospores, sexual reproduction is always associated with horizontal transfer of photobionts. Clonal propagules are generally relatively large and are likely to have a more limited dispersal range than the sexual propagules. Several lichen species including Lobaria pulmonaria reproduce both with vegetative and sexual diaspores. Dispersal is the precondition for new habitats to be occupied, for habitat patches of a metapopulation to get colonised and for new populations to be founded. Some tree colonising lichen species reproducing with large propagules have been suggested to be dispersal limited. Such species are often restricted to old-growth sites and forests with a low disturbance regime und thus threatened in many parts of their distribution area. Establishment, i.e. the post-dispersal processes that involve adhesion, attachment and morphogenesis to a juvenile thallus that shows chemical and physiological properties of an adult thallus, is equally important as dispersal for a species to be successful at colonising new sites and for its long-term persistence. I will present recent studies on how disturbance at different spatial scales influence abundance, genetic diversity and dispersal range of the threatened forest –dwelling lichen species Lobaria pulmonaria.

See EES seminars 0910

EES student participated in Celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity in Berlin

On January 11, EES Master's student Jeannine Marquardt traveled to Berlin to participate in the Celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity. The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. The Celebration in Berlin was attended by chancellor Angela Merkel, Minister of the Environment Norbert Röttgen, Achim Steiner (executive director of UNEP, Ahmed Djoghlaf (executive secretary of CBD), and several other prominent leaders. Jeannine is an active member of the board of Young Friends of the Earth Germany and was invited to the event in Berlin by the Germany Federal Ministry for the Environment.

Two EES students at DAAD meeting in Bonn

In December two of our Master's students, Andres Carvajal and Francisco Velasquez from Colombia traveled to Bonn to the annual orientation seminar of the DAAD. DAAD stands for Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service). Andres and Francisco hold a scholarship in the agreement between Colfuturo and DAAD which enables them to study and live in Munich. In Bonn they met with 74 Colombians, 3 Ecuadorians, 4 Bolivians, 3 Peruvians, and 13 Argentinians who are supported by the DAAD in Master and PhD programs in Germany. The DAAD is a helpful organization for those wanting to study in Germany.

New EES Newsletter

The fifth issue of the EES Newsletter is now available, just in time for the Christmas holidays!

Photo shoot for the new flyer

All master students were photographed recently so that we have some nice pictures for the new flyer and poster.

LMU is hiring new aquatic ecology professor

Prof Sebastian Diehl left for an exciting new position in Umea, Sweden (see here). Therefore the university is now looking for candidates to fill his position. The deadline for applications is the 20th of November. For more information, see here.

Updates to website: Erasmus Mundus Master's Program

We have added a page to our website (see sidebar at left, or click here) that describes the new Erasmus Mundus Master's Program in Evolutionary Biology (MEME). Five universities are participating in this prestigious program, including the LMU, Groningen University (Netherlands), Uppsala University (Sweden), University of Montpellier II (France), and Harvard University (USA). Please check out the MEME website.

Professor Susanne Renner chosen as member of German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

The Leopoldina is the German national academy of sciences. The total number of members is limited to 1,000 outstanding academics. Three quarters of the members are from German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and one quarter from about 30 other nations. The election to membership of the Leopoldina is the highest academic honour awarded by an institution in Germany (from Wikipedia).

New book by EES Professor

One of our EES professors and the Director of the Zoological State Collections, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Haszprunar, has just published a new book, entitled Evolution und Schöpfung - Versuch einer Synthese (EOS-Verlag; ISBN 978-3-8306-7384-2). The official presentation of the book will take place at the Museum Mensch & Natur (Nymphenburg Castle) on Thursday November 5th at 6.30 p.m. (with Kardinal Friedrich Wetter and Herzog Franz v. Bayern). The author and a theologist will also be leading a "discussion evening" on the subject at the Zoologische Staatssammlung (Münchhausenstr. 21, S2-Obermenzing) on "Darwin Day", Tuesday Nov. 24th , 7 p.m.

Winter Semester Seminar Series

The EES Masters Program and the Forschergruppe are happy to invite you to the upcoming Winter Semester Seminar Series 2009-2010!!. To see what is all about (names, dates and abstracts) see EES seminars 0910.

You can also download the Winter Semester Seminar Series Poster here

The EES Conference was a great success!!

On Oct. 12 and 13, the EES faculty and students participated in the third annual EES Conference. There were two invited speakers, and Ph.D. and Masters students gave talks and presented posters. Two Masters and two Ph.D. students were awarded the 2009 Young Researcher Prizes for outstanding research: Pablo Duchen, Rebecca Meredith, Elisabeth Bolund, and Winfried Hense. Also, we held the graduation ceremony for our first cohort of Masters students - congratulations Pablo, Rob, Rebecca, Delsy, Ricardo, and Jennifer. Thank you to everyone who organized and participated in this event!

EES Master Guidelines

The EES curriculum committee has made new EES Guidelines for the Master´s program (eg. IRT projects). Please click here EES Master Guidelines.

Some interesting research groups in Munich outside EES.

Contact

Elena Berg

EES Coordinator

Tel: 0049 89 2180 74 208

berg*at*bio.lmu.de

Our address:

LMU Biozentrum

Department Biologie II, Room B02.007

University of Munich (LMU)

Großhaderner Str. 2

D-82152 Planegg-Martinsried

How to find the Biozentrum

How to use the wiki

Please see the User's Guide for usage and configuration help.

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