Attention ISDR members
by Sarah Spaulding |
As required by the Constitution, all members of the International Society for Diatom Research are invited to vote for three (3) new Ordinary Members to serve on the ISDR Council for the next four years. The following members have agreed to stand as candidates for election to the Council. You should have received a form via email. Return the voting form to the ISDR Secretary, Ingrid Jüttner (Ingrid.Juettner@museumwales.ac.uk), by Friday 21st October 2022. OR if you did not receive a form, contact us!
Dr Rebecca J. Bixby
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Rebecca Bixby leads a research program at the intersection of diatom biodiversity, aquatic ecology, and water management, focused on aquatic ecosystems in the arid southwestern United States. Her research examines responses and adaptation of aquatic organisms to natural and anthropogenic stressors including fire, drought, and flooding. She earned a PhD from the University of Michigan working on the diatom genus Hannaea and has been research faculty in the Department of Biology and the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico (UNM) since 2007. She was recently appointed Director of the UNM Water Resources Program, a graduate program focused on the science and policy of water. She has been active in the International Society for Diatom Research since her first International Diatom Symposium (IDS) meeting in Australia as a graduate student and has been an Associate Editor for Diatom Research since 2018.
“I naturally gravitate towards building communities. If elected, I am excited about the possibilities to continue to expand this important society by continuing to support students through scholarships and workshops. I am also motivated to help strengthen our worldwide network of diatomists. One thing we have learned during the pandemic is the use of technology that allows all of us to connect virtually. The ISDR sponsored great events like the IDS held virtually in Japan (2021) and the creative winter solstice party (2020). I propose to continue to utilize this technology to create virtual opportunities to connect our society between IDS meetings to foster a stronger sense of community.”
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Bixby
Prof. Dr Marco Cantonati
BIOME Lab, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences-BiGeA
University of Bologna
Bologna, Italy
Marco Cantonati is an environmental botanist and ecohydrogeologist specializing in the taxonomy and ecology of benthic algae with particular attention to diatoms. His main research interests include taxonomy and ecology of diatoms and cyanoprokaryotes, freshwater science, bioassessments and monitoring, ecohydrogeology, long-term ecological research, effects of climate and environmental change, and paleolimnology. After having been Section Head (Limnology & Phycology) for a long time at the MUSE – Museo delle Scienze, since March 14th, 2022, he is tenure-track professor at the University of Bologna. He is also an Associate Researcher at ANSP PCER Drexel University (PA, USA). He is / has been Associate Editor / EBM of 4 international journals (Phycologia, Wetlands, Journal of Limnology, Water), ad hoc reviewer for 90 journals, Guest Editor of 8 special volumes (Freshwater Science, STOTEN, ECOLIND). He has organized three international congresses (Use of algae for monitoring rivers and comparable habitats 2015, 2nd Central European Diatom Meeting, 1998 Meeting of German-speaking Diatomists), and numerous special sessions at international meetings. He has been invited as keynote speaker at several meetings and presented 50 talks at international meetings. He holds a Central European Habilitation (venia docendi, PD Prof.) in Limnology – Phycology (University of Innsbruck), Habilitations (ASN) in Italy (Botany and Ecology) and has been Contract Professor of ‘Biology of Photoautotrophic Organisms’ (University of Trento). He has published 118 articles in ISI international journals with IF, 27 book chapters or books, and numerous publications of other types. He discovered and described genera and species of algae (namely diatoms!) and cyanoprokaryotes new to science and has been the lead editor of one of the most widely used diatom identification texts internationally. He has been coordinator / work package coordinator of >30 projects, tenders, consultancies. During his career, he has received many awards, including the «Garbini» Prize for limnological research, as early as in 1992, and, more recently, inclusion in Top Italian Scientists (TIS) and, consistently, among the Top 2% worldwide Scientists in ‘Marine Biology & Hydrobiology‘ [updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators managed by Stanford University & data-updates]. He is a member of 10 scientific societies (of ISDR since 2000) in phycology, limnology, ecology, geosciences, and Member of the International Coordination Committee of the Society for Freshwater Science (SFS).
https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/marco.cantonati
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marco-Cantonati
Prof. Dr Xu Chen
Department of Geography, School of Geography and Information Engineering
China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) Future City Campus
Wuhan, P.R. China
I am interested in paleoecology and biogeography of diatoms. My studies center on the application of diatoms to explore the response of lake and peatland ecosystems to climate change and human disturbances such as damming, eutrophication and atmospheric deposition over a variety of timescales. After receiving my PhD degree from Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011, I started working at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). My current project (2022-2025), funded by NSFC, is working on effects of nitrogen deposition and climate variability on algal communities of montane lakes in the middle Yangtze Basin. I teach the following modules at the university: Quaternary Environments and Global Change, Physical Geography and Geomorphology. In China, the most populous country in the world, the general public and students know very little about diatoms. As a young diatomist in China, I will try my best to increase awareness of the role and importance of diatoms among students, the general public and scientists.
www.researchgate.net/profile/Xu-Chen-102
Dr Xavier Benito Granell
Marine and Continental Waters Programme, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA)
La Ràpita, Spain
I am an aquatic ecologist motivated by fundamental and applied questions about ecological indicators, metacommunities, and environmental change. My studies combine empirical observations and models from aquatic ecosystems that receive the influence of processes occurring in the catchment and climate forcing at regional and global scales, such as mountain lakes and river deltas. To answer these questions, I primarily use diatoms and approaches that complement diatom-based reconstructions such as biogeography, geochemistry, and paleoclimatology. After earning a master’s degree in physical geography, and a PhD on aquatic paleoecology both from the University Rovira and Virgili (Spain), I held two postdoctoral positions—first at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and then at SESYNC, University of Maryland. Currently, I am a Beatriu de Pinós-Marie Curie COFUND postdoctoral fellow within the Marine and Continental Waters Programme at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (Spain), leading my own project on coastal paleoecological resilience.
My ISDR membership has been fundamental to grow as a researcher through exchanging ideas and learning from other colleagues’ approaches within a genuine collaborative spirit. I would like to mention especially my role as co-editor of the ISDR-supported Diatom of The Month series of blog posts, an outreach project of diatom topics involving researchers, practitioners, and academics from around the world. I also have been part of the core team (together with Hannah Hartung, Andrea Burfeid-Castellanos, and Anrich Kock) of the ISDR Young Diatomists section since its conception, organizing activities during and in between the IDS meetings. All these activities would not have been possible without the ISDR Council’s support. I feel ready to take on a more active role that would give back to the society and to the wider community what I’ve been fortunate to receive since 2017. I aim to broaden the societies’ network within the geosciences using more inclusive approaches, especially targeting early-career researchers from historically under-represented regions. ISDR’s values of sharing, communicating, and collaborating across diatom disciplines intersect significantly with my commitment and responsibility to become one of the future members of the ISDR Council if the membership considers so during the next election.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pzZHqQYAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr Elena Jovanovska
Department of Palaeoanthropology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum
Frankfurt, Germany
I am interested in the taxonomy, evolution, and ecology of freshwater diatoms in ancient lakes. I am particularly interested in the processes that lead to morphological, genetic, and ecological diversity, facilitate adaptation to different environmental and ecological conditions, and promote speciation or cause extinction. I work primarily at the species and community level at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, and currently focus on East African rift lakes, primarily Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi. I would like to join the ISDR Council because I would like to learn more about the scientific and organizational activities of the Society and collaborate with international scientists from all disciplines of diatom research. I will support international collaboration, promote the organization of international conferences, symposia, and meetings, and assist in the publication of their reports, as well as maintain contact with other international scientific associations.
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&tzom=-120&user=RHZkTDEAAAAJ
Dr Somayyeh Kheiri
Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO)
Tehran, Iran
I am Assistant Professor in plant systematics at the Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands in Iran. I have a 12- year background of teaching and working on ecology and systematics of diatoms. My research is focused primarily on diversity and ecology of diatoms in springs and rivers of Alborz mountains. I am also leading projects on the systematics of hypersaline diatoms in different parts of the country including in the Lut Desert, in Urmia Lake and in Central Iran and I am enthusiastic to work on the application of diatoms in the water quality assessment in aquatic ecosystems.
My goal for being a member of the ISDR council is to improve the relationship and interactions with other diatomists worldwide and to contribute to a better understanding of the science of diatoms.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Somayyeh-Kheiri-2
Prof. Dr Linda K. Medlin
Marine Biological Association
Plymouth, UK
Linda K. Medlin is currently a Research Fellow at the MBA and CEO of Algae Save the World. She worked previously at the Observatoire Oceanologique of UPMC, France, as head of research at Mircobia, France, and at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany. She received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1983 in marine botany and is an expert in marine phytoplankton evolution/phylogenetics. She published over 260 papers, 37 books chapters, two edited books and two special issues, and one manual for microarray analysis. She was awarded 52 research grants of which 18 were from the EU, won the Tyge Christensen award for best paper in Phycologia three times and was the winner of the Provasoli award for best paper in the Journal of Phycology. She received the 2021 lifetime achievement award from the Society for the study of Harmful Algae for her work on the molecular detection of toxic algae. She was elected foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science for her pioneering work in phytoplankton phylogenetics. Her 1988 benchmark publication for first PCR primers for 18S gene opened the door for rRNA genes as biodiversity genes. Her current research develops phylochips/microarrays/biosensors for early warning systems for toxic algae and freshwater pathogens and for analyzing marine biodiversity. Linda Medlin was the person responsible for generating the seed money to start the ISDR from the profits from the 5th International Symposium for recent and fossil diatoms in Bristol UK in 1986. She has continuously supported the Society. She has repeatedly suggested reforms and modifications to the ISDR. But as an outsider to the Council, she has not seen any results from these suggestions. She would like to become a member of the Council to renew the suggestions she has made in the past and to make sure that suggestions that are made now are acted upon and are not just pushed aside.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Linda-Medlin-2
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=Do2H074AAAAJ&hl=en
Dr Carlos Wetzel
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
Belvaux, Luxembourg
A Brazilian/German botanist and a researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology that has authored and co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in the last 15 years dealing with the taxonomy and ecology of diatoms from rivers, lakes, soils, and marine environments. Carlos has been teaching numerous training courses on diatom taxonomy and ecology designed for biologists and technicians from public and private institutions, contributing to the continuous improvement of the European Water Framework Directive. Still, he has collaborated with many diatomists worldwide, notably in his home country Brazil. His research interests focus on using diatoms as indicators in several branches and fields of diatom research. I have been a member of the ISDR since my first participation at the symposium in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in 2008. My interest in joining the council is to keep an active and diversified community, connected, well-informed and accessible to everyone.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carlos-Wetzel
Dr Jonas Zimmermann
Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem
Berlin, Germany
Jonas Zimmermann is head of the Research Group Diatoms at the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Freie Universität Berlin, since 2019. He has many years of experience in integrative taxonomic research on the evolution and systematics of diatoms using morphological, molecular, biogeographical and phylogenetic data. Another focus of his research and work is the implementation and improvement of the usability of eDNA metabarcoding for the refined evaluation of diatom diversity and for the applied field of water quality assessment (e.g., EU WFD). This also includes the establishment and curation of a corresponding taxonomically validated reference database for diatoms. Among others, he is an expert for DIN and CEN regarding normalisation of phytobenthos monitoring in the EU WFD, specifically concerning DNA based methods. I expect that becoming a member of the ISDR Council will give me the opportunity to support the very important work of the ISDR to foster all fascinating aspects of diatom research, the “diatom” community and the promotion of early career scientists.
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=Ae24y6oAAAAJ&hl=de
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonas-Zimmermann-2