The idea for “Young diatomists/Young ISDR” was created at the European Geosciences Union general assembly in Vienna in 2015 as a possibility of bringing the energy of early-career researchers and technicians dealing with diatom research into the council of the International Society of Diatom Research (ISDR).
The aim was to create a platform for early career scientists and technicians in order to facilitate networking for them. Hannah Hartung (neé Vossel) prepared activities for the International Diatom Symposium (IDS) 2016 in Québéc such as the first Young Diatomist Meeting including a speedtalk session and the election.
During the IDS 2016 Québéc, Hannah was elected as the new Early-Career Representative (ECR) and with the aid of Xavier Benito started creating the network of early career researchers. In 2017 Andrea Burfeid was added to the newly created Young ISDR core team. This core of people started creating the network presence of the Young diatomists, where young diatomists (including early-career researchers and technicians) can share publications, job offers and blog posts about ongoing diatom research or get in contact with each other.
The Young ISDR core team also organized several activities at the IDS 2018 in Berlin including an informal get-together, speed-talk sessions, a day full of post-conference workshops and again elections for an new ECR. During the general ISDR meeting, a new system for the ECRs was established, adding a second ECR to the council, increasing the imprint of the ECR in it. Thus, since then, the 4 year ECR running time is set to overlap with the next ECR. At each International Diatom Symposium a new ECR will be elected to learn the ropes from the previous ECR and then teach them to the next elected. During IDS Berlin Andrea Burfeid was elected as new ECR in addition to Hannah as outgoing ECR.
The next ECR will be elected in Yamagata 2021.
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The Young ISDR Team
Postdoctoral fellow at the North-West University in South Africa Currently my research focus is on the South African National Diatom Collection where I work to further broaden our understanding of the taxonomy of endemic diatom species. I am also involved in the training of MSc students on diatom ecology and taxonomy, as well as supervising of an MSc student. My research have mainly focussed on freshwater (rivers and wetlands) diatom ecology, ecotoxicology, paleoecology and taxonomy. My research mainly focuses on diatom ecology and ecotoxicology, with ecotoxicology at the centre of my research where I study the effects of different chemicals on diatom morphology and vitality. My studies have been focussed on freshwater and river diatom taxonomy and ecology, with emphasis on diatoms from intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams. My aim is to understand how the effect of drying changes diatom community structure, and to some extent, physiology. I hope that, with the help of this website, Early Career Researchers will find a platform to communicate and network with fellow diatomists. Biodiversity, biogeography and evolution of marine eukaryotes is my field of research. Microalgae constitute an integral part of all photic habitats on the planet. My research aims at assessing the diversity of these algae and uncovering the unknowns. High throughput sequencing (HTS) and other parallel sequencing tools allow us to uncover hidden diversity, which goes unnoticed with the classical microscopic monitoring. In order to unveil this hidden diversity using HTS, the first and foremost important thing is the availability of a taxonomically validated reference dataset. Hence, my research focuses on bridging the gap between classical taxonomy and molecular tools, which allows generating reference barcodes. A reference barcode for a species is generated by collecting, cultivating and characterizing the species of interest by means of for instance microscopy and sequencing of particular DNA marker regions, called barcodes. These barcodes can then be used to identify and assess the species diversity in the HTS metabarcoding approaches. At present, my research focuses on assessing the harmful algae diversity in aquaculture farms. My personal interest has developed towards changes in microalgal assemblages with time, where I focus my interest on how species are evolving and how anthropogenic activity have impacted on the community and ecosystem as a whole. I study aquatic ecosystems across different time and spatial scales. My research interest lies on the interface between limnology, paleoecology and biogeography. Diatoms are at the core of my research. Particularly, I´m interested to use species and communities as sentinels of global change, in combination with biophysical and social records to understand complex socio-ecological systems. I am currently a PhD student & "young lecturer" at the University of Bonn. My research focus is the usage of fossilized diatoms in lacustrine sediment cores for the reconstruction of palaeoenvironments and palaeoclimate during the Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean region, especially Israel.
Anrich Kock
Early Career Representative 2021-2024
Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management
North-West University
Potchefstroom
South Africa
Andrea Burfeid Castellanos
Early Career Representative 2018-2020
Dr. Chetan Gaonkar
Dr. Xavier Benito-Granell
Coordinator. Aquatic Ecologist
Dr. Hannah Hartung (née Vossel)
Outgoing Early Career Representative of the International Society of Diatom Research. Palaeoecologist & Geologist