Outreach Programs

Outreach Lecturer: Sebastian Doetterl

Sebastian Doetterl is a physical geographer with a special focus on soil development. He is working as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) for Soil Resources at ETH Zurich’s Department of Environmental Systems Science since 2019, is the group leader of the DFG funded Emmy Noether research group “TropSOC” and co-founder of the Congo Biogeochemistry Observatory. Doetterl is especially passionate about engaging stakeholders, decision makers and scientists in the Global South to profit from and advance our knowledge of biogeochemical cycles in tropical environments. With this, he contributes towards a better understanding of tropical soil systems and how these differ from temperate regions, where most of our knowledge is derived from.

His research is oriented towards carbon and nutrient dynamics across geo-climatic gradients with a focus on the effects of anthropogenic disturbances on soil development. He is particularly interested in helping to bridge the gap between process understanding from experimental data to model development and spatial representation of biogeochemical cycles. He has been working on soil development and its consequences for biogeochemical cycles in a large variety of ecosystems, including large scale gradients and chronosequences, with his latest focusing being on tropical African landscapes.

Lectures, locations and dates

As part of the EAG-GS Outreach Program, Dr. Doetterl gave two connected lectures on the role of biogeochemistry and soil development in complex tropical landscapes for carbon and nutrient cycling. A special emphasis will be given on the rapid land cover changes we are observing in tropical Africa as population grows, and climate as well as land management changes.

The first lecture focused on the role of pedogenesis for understanding today’s soil landscapes and their properties in tropical and subtropical Africa with a focus on natural ecosystems. This lecture will illustrate how soil development can govern and control carbon input, turnover and stabilization in soils and how ecosystems adapt towards but also shape the properties of tropical soils.

The second lecture focused on the emergence of new soil landscapes and their relevance for biogeochemical cycles in the 21st century and beyond with a special focus on tropical Africa. Emphasis will be given on the effects of land conversion for soil biogeochemistry and soil fertility, how these effects differ across soil types and landforms and how knowledge on soil biogeochemistry can help us to improve cropland management but also reforestation.

Each lecture was about 90 minutes long. Participants were invited to reach out to the lecturer for an extended discussion afterwards.

Sebastian Doetterl discussing with students at the University of Rwanda.

Outreach Lecture Tour

2019 Outreach Lecturer: Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane (Hassan II University of Casablanca)

Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane is a Moroccan scientist in the fields of Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences and Geochemistry, and is Professor at the Hassan II University of Casablanca, Director of the GAIA Laboratory and Coordinator of the Centre of Research on Geo-ressources and Environment. Hasnaa was the first woman to graduate in Meteoritics in Morocco and Arabic countries. She obtained her first PhD, in Noble Gas Geochemistry, from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, France, and defended her “Thèse d’état” on Meteoritics at the Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco. Read more

Locations and dates

Hasnaa presented a series of workshops and seminars on meteoritics and planetary sciences in universities and institutes across Africa in 2019.

• 28 January 2019: Seminar: Morocco and Mauritania meteorites: A large contribution to meteoritics and planetary sciences download abstract
  University of Nouakchott & l’Institut Français de Mauritania, Nouakchott, Mauritania
• 17 March 2019: Workshop: Meteorites of Morocco and the Arab world
  National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt
• 29-30 November 2019: Seminars on ‘Meteorites in Morocco and Arab countries‘ and Workshop on identification of meteorites
  Cité des Sciences de Tunis and Faculty of Science of Tunis, Tunisia

EAG Co-Sponsorship of the 6th SGA-SEG-UNESCO-IUGS Short Course on African Metallogeny

“Gold Deposits: from Exploration to Mining”

Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, 28 October – 1 November 2019

This five-day short course on gold deposits, exploration and mining was held at the Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Yamassoukro, Ivory Coast. It was addressed to researchers, lecturers, PhD students, geologists from exploration, mining companies and government institutions, and was composed of 2.5 days of lectures and 2 days of field excursion (Yaoure gold mine and surroundings). EAG made grants available to support the attendance of students and young researchers.

Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences

As part of the 2018 Outreach Program to Africa, the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) and the Geochemical Society (GS) co-sponsored the Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences (AFIPS), whose objectives are:

• to connect African Planetary and Space Scientists with their international peers;
• to build a road map for Planetary and Space Sciences in Africa, by identifying key research areas where African scientists can make significant contributions;
• to solicit sponsors to support the development of this research domain in Africa;
• to contribute to sustainable development in Africa through research, education, and public outreach in Planetary and Space sciences.

An article on the activities of AFIPS initiative, written by the AFIPS Steering Committee, was published in the February 2018 issue of Elements Magazine.

As part of the initiative, two workshops were organised with financial support from the EAG and GS:

• 4-7 February 2019: First Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Science Workshop – Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI) and Bahir Dar University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
• 13-17 May 2019: Eastern Africa Global Navigation Satellite Systems and Space Weather Capacity Building – Pwani University, Kenya.

Outreach Lecturer: Axel Hofmann

Associate Professor, Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Axel Hofmann holds a doctorate from the University of Mainz in Germany and has worked as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Wits University in Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. His main interest and expertise is centred on the Archaean geological record of southern Africa. His research emphasizes the importance of field work and the usage of an integrated suite of petrological and geochemical tools in order to decipher the geological history of Archaean volcano-sedimentary successions. His research is undertaken at the interface between geology, geochemistry and geobiology, utilizing analytical equipment for in-situ trace element geochemistry, geochronology and (non-traditional) stable isotope geochemistry at the micro- and nano-scale, for the understanding of Archaean surface processes, early life and sediment-hosted mineral deposits.

Short course

Early Earth Life and Mineral Systems

Locations and dates

Photos from Ghana

Outreach Lecturer: François Chabaux

François Chabaux is Full Professor of Geoscience and Geochemistry at the “Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST)” at the University of Strasbourg, France. Since 2000, he chairs the Isotope Geochemistry and Environmental Chemistry team (co-chairs with D. Lemarchand since 2014). Currently, he heads the “Laboratoire d’Hydrologie et de Géochimie de Strasbourg” (LHyGES- Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg), which he founded in 2009 with his colleague P. Ackerer (Research Director, CNRS). Read more

Lectures and Workshops

• Lecture: U Activity Ratios in Surface Waters as Tracers and Chronometers of Water Transfers in the Critical zone
• Lecture: Interest of U-series nuclides for dating soils and weathering profiles: Principles, applications and limitations
• Workshop: Principle of functioning and use of U-series nuclides in Earth Science
  View details

Locations and dates

Photos from Cameroon

François Chabaux and the Earth Sciences Department at University of Yaoundé I

The very attentive audience of the Earth Sciences Department, University of Yaoundé I

Outreach Lecturer: Pierre Deschamps

Pierre Deschamps is Research Scientist at IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and he is currently working in the Geochemistry and Geochronology Group at CEREGE (European Centre of Research and Teaching in Environmental Sciences).
His fields of expertise cover isotopic geochemistry and geochronology by using a large range of isotopic tracers, including U-Th and U-Pb chronometers and cosmonuclides (¹⁴C, ³⁶Cl, ¹⁰Be). He uses this isotopic toolbox in studies ranging from Earth surface processes, human evolution to quaternary climate change. For the last years, a large part of his research has been carried out on the African continent and has focused on the past climate variability and its impact on hydrological cycle, including groundwater. Read more

Lectures and seminars:

• Groundwater dating: the isotopic toolbox (3-day seminar)
• Quaternary geochronology: the geochemical toolbox for Archaeology, Palaeontology and Paleoclimatology (2-day seminar)
• Sea-level variations: past, present and future (half-a-day lecture)
• Climate Change and its impact on the African continent (2 hour lecture)

Locations and dates

Outreach Lecturer: Bernhard Wehrli

Bernhard Wehrli is Full Professor for Aquatic Chemistry at the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. He is a member of the directorate of Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

The research of his group is focused on the assessment of biogeochemical processes in rivers and lakes. The group combines chemical sensors, stable isotope techniques and molecular ecology to quantify carbon and nutrient cycles in aquatic systems. Part of his research is focused on the development of interdisciplinary approaches to improve the sustainable management of water resources. Read more

Lectures and seminars abstracts:

• In search or rare elements: mining for cell phones (lecture)
• Where oxygen disappears: the deep waters of East African lakes (lecture)
• Chemistry for safer drinking water (lecture)
• Global water quality issues (seminar)
• Water and nutrient supply for agriculture (seminar)
• Stable isotope techniques for analyzing geochemical processes (seminar)
• Chemical sensors, analytical chemistry (seminar)

Location and dates