News

The American Geophysical Union annual meeting took place in San Francisco in early December. Two sessions were chaired by Dr. Waldmann: 1) Exploring the high-resolution record of surface processes in near- and inshore water bodies (in cooperation with Dr. Mark Vardy from the University of Southampton) and 2) Continental archives of past climate and seismic events: How far have we gone since François-Alfonse Forel? (in cooperation with Prof. Daniel Ariztegui from the University of Geneva). The sessions were well attended and expanded the international visibility of our lab.

Dr. Nicolas Waldmann was an invited speaker at the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-Driving innovation and Growth in Europe meeting, which took place in Nicosia, Cyprus. The meeting aims to gather scientists holding a FP7 grant, such as the Marie Curie, in order to promote international and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers, and offer attractive career development opportunities of a high professional standard. The meeting was of high interest and very interdisciplinary.

As part of a long collaborative effort between the PetroLab and GFZ (under the umbrella of the ICDP drilling project in the Dead Sea), Dr. Markus Schwab and Ina Neugebauer visited the PetroLab to work on measurements and writing tasks. Furthermore, a five-day long trip to the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea took place. We sampled Holocene lacustrine sediments during this fieldwork as part of Ina Neugebauer's PhD thesis project and Elitsa Hadzhiivanova's MSc project. The fieldwork was highly successful. Stay tuned for developments and publications!

Scientists from over four continents got together for a 10 day sampling party of the cores obtained during the ICDP drilling project in the Dead Sea. From the PetroLab, Elitsa traveled to the GFZ facilities in Potsdam for the sampling party. It was a successful trip, with hundreds of samples retrieved. We are sure that very soon we will be notified of excellent publications from the different members of the project.

Congrats Elitsa!

As part of the integration of Israel to the IODP family, the first joint ESSAC and ECORD meeting took place in Haifa and was hosted by Dr. Nicolas Wladmann (Israeli representative to ESSAC). The meeting consisted of a four-day discussion among ESSAC members and ECORD representatives. Following the meeting, a one day field trip was organized to the Nahal Me’arot / Wadi el-Mughara, Baha'i Gardens in Haifa, Akko and Rosh Hanikrah (the first three sites are UNESCO world heritage localities). In addition, Prof. Carlota Escutia (University of Granada, Spain) and Prof. Dominique Weiss (University of British Columbia, Canada) visited the lab as part of a scientific cooperation.