YPSS

Young Professionals in Soil Science (YPSS)

YPSS is an independent initiative of early-career soil scientists, forming a platform for developing and implementing new ideas in the world of soil science. Scientists of all areas and career levels are invited to join the events.

Under the e-mail address you can also register for our mailing list (e-mail) and will be automatically informed about all activities.

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13th of Dezember 2022 - Special Issue “Soil Science Challenges: An Interdisciplinary Overview of Current and Future Topics”

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science (JPNSS), the YPSS initiated a special issue entitled "Soil Science Challenges: An Interdisciplinary Overview of Current and Future Topics", in which only young scientists acted as guest editors. This enabled 9 young scientists to collect their first experience as editors of a scientific journal. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Editor-in-Chief Hermann Jungkunst for this great opportunity!

 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15222624/2022/185/6

3rd to 8th of September 2022 - DBG Conference in Trier 2022 

After the long lockdown, the YPSS events kicked off this year in Trier with a two-day pre-meeting. During a canoe trip on the Saar and some tasty food, we had the opportunity to talk about the highs and lows of the (non-)academic life and to the discuss many fascinating research questions. Especially after the long time alone at home, it was nice to spend some time together, to get to know new faces and see old ones again. Especially for "DBG newcomers", the event offered the opportunity to network with other young academics and created at the same time a good basis for the following days at the conference. Thanks to the positive feedback we have received, we look forward to similar activities in the future! 

On Monday, the conference started with a lecture by Matthias Rillig (FU Berlin) on the topic "How to network in Science?". The discussion included the question of how young scientists can build up an effective network at an early stage, how conferences in particular can be used for this purpose and how social media can help to maintain this network.

For the third time, the first day of the conference ended with the traditional YPSS pub evening and anyone who was in the "Wintergarten" of the Bitburger Wirtshaus on Monday evening could be sure that they would meet soil science enthusiasts.

On Tuesday, we continued with our previously successful event "Meet the Editors - how to engage in a changing world of publishing". This year, Prof. Hermann Jungkunst, Prof. Delphine Derrien, Prof. Doris Vetterlein and PD Axel Don answered questions from young researchers and provided insights into the processes of reviewing, the work of editors and publishing.

On Wednesday, the event "Meet the Professionals - job opportunities in soil science" once again provided an opportunity to discuss career paths with representatives from various professional fields. Sonja Medwedski from the engineering office Umtec and Rainer Gryschko from Regioplus Ingenieurgesellschaft GbR provided information about career opportunities and tasks in consulting offices. Stefan Reth from Umwelt-Geräte-Technik GmbH gave an insight into the work of a mid-sized company in the field of environmental measurement technology.

Annegret Fier and Robin Stadtmann from the LBEG Lower Saxony, Dieter Kühn from the LBGR Brandenburg, Jens Utermann from the Environment Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia, Sebastian Kofalk and Elmar Fuchs from the BfG, and Klaus Kruse from the BGR shared their experiences from their work in state and federal authorities. The scientific coordinator of the Biodiversity Exploratories, Victoria Grießmeier, answered questions about her activity in science management, while Yvonne Oelmann from the University of Tübingen and Horst Gerke from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research provided insights into working conditions and tasks in university and non-university research. In addition, Maike Bosold gave insights into her work at the Bundesverband Bodens e.V. and Patrizia Schmitz-Möller provided information on the DFG's funding opportunities for early career researchers.

This year's YPSS events were organized by: Lydia Pohl, Sophie Drexler, Tina Frank, Marcus Schiedung, Katrin Schulz, Steffen Schweizer, Svenja Stock, Lilli Zeh and Jeroen Zethof.

26th to 29th of August 2019 - DBG Conference in Bern

At the DBG annual conference in Bern, the 'Young Professionals in Soil Science' (YPSS) organized for the third time a programme designed primarily for young scientists. Especially the first day of the conference on Monday was jam packed with 3 events. It started with the "Scientific Writing Workshop" with Dr. Joshua Schimel from the University of California (USA). Writing scientific publications is one of the most crucial skills for the successful accomplishment of a PhD thesis and a future career in science. In the almost 2-hour workshop, Dr. Joshua Schimel showed us how important a well-founded story is, even when writing objective texts, and how to engage the reader. With his experience as an author of numerous publications in leading journals and the book "Writing Science: how to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded", he had a wide range of experience to share. Afterwards it was time for the "Soil Pitch", in which each participant had one minute to present their project ideas and conference contributions. The language, dialect and type of presentation were freely selectable, resulting in a varied and entertaining program. After a short break, the program continued with "Meet the Editors".

At the event, the participants had the opportunity to discuss with Prof. Daniela Sauer, Prof. Markus Egli and Prof. Hermann Jungkunst, the role of the impact factor, the expectations of reviewers and editors as well as the opportunities for young researchers to participate in the peer review process. As last year, the first day of the conference ended with a pub evening. Due to the beautiful summer weather, the beer garden of the "Turnhalle" was well crowded and the first experiences could be exchanged in a relaxed atmosphere. On Tuesday, the event "Meet the Professionals - job opportunities in soil science" created a platform in which young professionals could directly discuss their questions about career paths and opportunities with twelve representatives from various professional fields. In the field of science, Yvonne Oelmann from the University of Tübingen, Horst Gerke from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research and Jörg Luster from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) provided insights into the university and non-university research environment. Patrizia Schmitz-Möller from the German Research Foundation answered questions on funding opportunities for each individual situation. 

Would you rather coordinate than research in science? Christiane Fischer, scientific coordinator of the Biodiversity Exploratories, shared her experiences from her work in science management. In conversation with Sebastian Köhli, founder of the engineering firm Soil Water Ecology Consult, and Hanspeter Graf from CSD Ingenieure AG, participants were able to get an idea of the tasks involved in soil science construction monitoring and the experience and skills required to work in an engineering firm. Maike Bosold, Managing Director of the German Soil Association (BVB), also gave an insight into the coordination of pedological construction support. Stefan Reth, Managing Director of Umwelt-Geräte-Technik GmbH, also gave an insight into working in a mid-sized company in the field of environmental measurement technology. Those who would prefer to work in the public sector rather than in the private sector after their studies were able to talk to Nicole Engel (LBEG Lower Saxony), Gudrun Schwilch (Federal Office for Soil, Switzerland), Jens Utermann (Ministry of the Environment NRW) and Klaus Kruse (BGR) about career profiles in state and federal authorities. 

This year's YPSS events were organized by: Steffen Schweizer, Tina Frank, Lydia Pohl, Marcus Schiedung, Svenja Stock, Tobias K. D. Weber und Maike Widdig.