WPA timeline

Bad Cannstatt (a district of Stuttgart) comprises the highest amount of natural spring water in Western Europe (and second place in Europe, right after Budapest. The water is highly mineralized and led to the deposition of remarkable travertine terraces in the Quaternary. Our excursion guided by Priv.-Doz. Dr. Michael W. Rasser, Curator of Cenozoic Invertebrates led us across the Neckar bridge through Cannstatt to the Quaternary outcrops of Seelberg and to Kurbad/Kurpark. We had the opportunity to taste the different types of mineral water, and learn more about the hydrology and geology. We ended our tour at the travertine park (see here), an old travertine quarry, where we could see the complete travertine succession.

As part of our educational program, the Anton & Petra Ehrmann Foundation Graduate School "Water - People - Agriculture" organizes an annual World Water Day Colloquium with contributions from national and international guests. This year, the UN Water Organization has decided to make World Water Day 2022 themed "Groundwater: making the invisible visible". Thus, we had the pleasure of hearing interesting presentations from three different keynote speakers: Elisabeth Lictevout, Director of the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre - igrac, spoke about groundwater lessons from Chile, Yoshihide Wada, Professor of Global Water and Food Security at Utrecht University, gave us insights into the sustainability of global groundwater use, and Jan Fleckenstein, Professor of Hydrological Modeling at the University of Bayreuth and UFZ Leipzig, addressed groundwater - challenges in securing a "hidden" resource. Participants of the online colloquium also had the opportunity to learn about the projects of our scholars Natalie Palm and Kristian Johnson.

The steering committee has selected 4 new scholars to start their PhD projects in 2022!

Another year has passed and many new outstanding candidates have applied for our WPA scholarship.

We are therefore pleased to welcome our new scholars to our WPA graduate school:

(1)  Aaron River Willmott from Wales “ A functional diversity-based framework for assessing niche complementarity and identifying complementary species groups for multifunctionality in agroforestry”

(2)  Gabriella Leonor Vives Rivero from Peru “Macrophytes for wetland ecosystems management: Assessment of the spatial and temporal distribution of aquatic macrophytes as bioindicators of fishery production and nature conservation”

(3)  Sreymey Ngoun from Cambodia "Real color crop imaging for improved crop water status monitoring in cassava"

(4)  Syed Saqlain Abbas from Pakistan “Investigation of Ocean- and Land-Atmosphere Feedbacks using a new Synergy of Active Remote Sensing Systems."

The steering committee has selected 4 new scholars to start their PhD projects in 2021!

Once again, many national and international students applied for the WPA scholarship last year. We are therefore pleased to welcome four new scholars to our WPA graduate school:

(1)    Theresa Detering from Germany “Cleaning Wastewater with hydroponic plant production”

(2)     Natalie Palm from Germany “The water caltrop (Trapa natans L.): a neglected, endangered macrophyte as a multi-purpose crop species under the constraint of its invasive potential”

(3)    Mancha Lorraine Ramotjiki from South Africa “Interactive effects of pollination and irrigation on Macadamia crop production “

(4)    Sulemana Issifu from Ghana “Plant-associated microbiome responses in relation to perennial grain crops “

         Congratulations and all the best for the new projects!

“The Anton & Petra Ehrmann-Stiftung Graduate School "Water - People - Agriculture" organizes a World Water Day 2019 Colloquium in the castle of the University of Hohenheim under the topic "Leaving No One Behind (Human Rights and Refugees)".
Three invited speakers will talk about historical, present and future climate migration. The scholars of the Water - People - Agriculture graduate school will introduce their projects with selected talks and poster presentations to the visitors. Drinks and snacks after the presentations will provide a relaxed atmosphere to discuss about " Leaving No One Behind (Human Rights and Refugees)" and the topics of our graduate school.”

The World Water Day 2018 Colloquium organized by the Anton & Petra Ehrmann-Stiftung Graduate School "Water - People - Agriculture" was held in the castle of the University of Hohenheim under the topic "Nature based solutions for Societal Challenges Related to Water".
Three invited speakers introduced rivers, coasts and deltas as hot spots for areas where land-use conflicts and climate change are affecting ecosystem functions and where nature based solutions could be an option for sustainable improvements.
Of course the scholars of the Water - People - Agriculture graduate school were introducing their projects with selected talks and poster presentations to the visitors. Drinks and snacks after the presentations provided a relaxed atmosphere for discussions about "nature based solutions" and the topics of our graduate school. We are looking forward to the next World Water Day 2019,  with a colloquium scheduled for March 26th and featuring the topic "Leaving No One Behind (Human Rights and Refugees).

The steering committee has selected 3 new scholar to start their PhD projects in 2018!

We welcome

(1) Lisa Jach: "An assessment of land – atmosphere coupling strength due to land use change in the past and under two future climate scenarios in Europe"

(2) Mariana Pereira: "Assessing the Water Footprint of Beef Cattle Production in Integrated Systems in Central West Brazil"

(3) Hossein Zare: "Assimilation of soil moisture and leaf are index data from satellite remote sensing to improve the forecasting power of crop models".

IAHR (International Association of Hydro-Environmental Engineering and Research) organized their 18^th Annual Colloquium with the title “Water as a Key Factor for Sustainable Development Goals” at the University of Stuttgart on the 1^st of December. Anton und Petra Ehrmann Stiftung research training group “Water-People-Agriculture” was introduced arouse interest beyond the young professionals. more

From the 17-22th September 2017 a delegation on water research from Baden-Württemberg was visiting Toronto, Waterloo, Burlington, Kingston, Cornwall, Montreál (Canada). The eleven scientists, who were traveling together, are focusing on a board field of water research as chemist, hydrologist or physicist. Alexandra Schappert from the “Water - People - Agriculture” research training group was representing the agricultural research field and was introducing the Anton & Petra Ehrmann - Stiftung.
The main aim of the delegation was to exchange ideas and to support collaborations within the group and with Canadian scientists. more

The WPA seminar group was visiting the large Stuttgart-Ulm railway project construction site at the main railway station. We received an exceptional demonstration how the groundwater is treated during the construction time. A tremendous effort is undertaken to meet the required standards for water treatment.

Congratulations to Ms. Mya Lwin Lwin Aung who has been granted a scholarship for our PhD program

The German Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar had a small talk with Mrs. Aung and submitted their best wishes for the success of her PhD project! Here she conveyed the encouraging words. “I received the scholarship award from Anton and Petra Ehrmann-Stiftung Research Training Group, WPA Scholarship Program be a doctoral candidate for Dr.oec (Doctor of Economic Sciences)... at the Institute of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.  This is one of the great opportunities to me. I want to encourage people to try who interested to study more about research and economics.”

WPA would like to thank the German Embassy in Yangon for the support and this act of friendship!

Source of the drinking water

The Landeswasserversorgung (state water supply) obtains the water for the drinking water supply from three different sources: groundwater from Donauried and from Burgberg; spring water – strictly speaking also ground water, which appears on the surface – from the Buchbrunnen spring near Dischingen; and river water from the Danube.

We got an impressive update about how millions of people are supplied with drinking water.

The steering committee has selected 4 new scholar to start their PhD projects in 2017!

WPA received many interesting high level applications. The decision to support four proposals will increase the number of PhD projects to 14!

We welcome (1) Alexandra Schappert  "Effects of cover crops and conservation tillage on weed suppression", (2) Kevin Thellmann "Tipping points in water quality and quantity for human consumption and agricultural use", (3) Paolo Mori "Seasonal Forecasts for the Horn of Africa using high-resolution simulations with the WRF-NOAHMP-HYDRO model", and (4) Mya Lwin Lwin Aung "People’s willingness to pay and acceptance of a comprehensive flood protection program at the Chindwin River, Myanmar" in our WPW graduate school and wish our new scholars all the best for their projects!

WPA Scholars and scientists discuss with Newcomers about water and climate change

Water and climate change is one of the central topics of the WPA graduate school. And this topic was asked by the Humboldt reloaded project Coordinator Christian Poll to be presented during the Forscherschnupperwoche.

The program was quickly designed and thanks to the helpers Anna Krupp, Konrad Egenolf, Sabine Stürz, Alejandro Pieters, Marc Cotter, Katja Gölz and Irene Witte the student group got different impressions from their new University. Water and climate change was discussed from multiple perspective starting from a general introduction, running experiments at the University and group work with stakeholder discussions using the example of rubber cultivation.

At EcoSummit 2016, 1500 delegates from 75 countries were meeting to hear 11 plenary presentations from some of the world’s premier ecologists and environmental scientists. Eco-Summit was hosting over 750 presentations in 93 sessions and 15 side events, in the form of workshops, round tables and world cafés. More than 600 posters will also be displayed during EcoSummit 2016. Together we will focus on finding solutions for today’s massive environmental problems. Sessions relate to ecological engineering, ecological restoration, green infrastructure, adaptation to climate change, earth stewardship, ecohydrology, eco-informatics, ecological modeling, sustainable agriculture, protection of biodiversity, carbon sequestration, human ecology and enhancement of ecosystem services.

WPA Scholars were visiting the famous zoological-botanical garden.

The "Lotus effect" was shown by Wilhelma Staff  Stefanie Reska during the WPA Seminar excursion to the Wilhelma in Stuttgart. Adaptation of plants to water limitations was the overall topic and we got first hand information about the impressive plant collections. Thanks to the Wilhelma educational program the visit was free of charge! We will come back!

WPA calls for new research topics until 1st September 2016!

New research topics offered for scholars will be collected until latest 1st September. The new topics will then be open for application until the 31 October 2016. The new scholars will be selected until December 2016.

Find the open topics here....

WPA Scholars were discussing with visitors about water issues.

Our Graduate School was taking the opportunity  of the "day of the open University 2016" to present some selected water topics to interested visitors. Thanks to the helpers Alexandra Schappert, Anna Krupp, Laura Mack, Hongxi Liu and Robert Kahle many questions related to water were answered. Visitors could test their knowledge about water and win some attractive prices.

Interesting presentations about the past, present and future of water resources and new projects at the Universityof Hohenheim organized by WPA.

read more...

What a nice surprise!

Charles Nwankwo' s poster presenting his WPA PhD topic " the seedball technology" was selected for 1st price of this years poster competition at the Tropentag conference 2015 in Berlin.

The price of EUR 500 was sponsored by Agrinatura and awarded for poster which are of outstanding quality.

Congratulations!

WPA open for scholarship applications until 31 October 2015.

Topics are related to "integrative solutions to water issues and conflicts". More information about how to apply for an Anton & Petra Ehrmann - Stiftung scholarship can be found here.

WPA was presenting its activities at the Dies academicus 2015. Small presents were distributed among the visitors after passing a "water-examination". The colorful place was designed by our WPA PhD students. We would like to thank Carolin, Anna, Laura, Hongxi and  Irene for presenting our graduate school!

Irene Witte (Water use efficiency of crops and groundwater recharge in Southwest Germany under Climate Change), Laura Mack (Water scarcity in Egypt - improving and developing water sound cropping systems for the ancient grains 'quinoa' and 'chia'), and Konrad Egenolf (Biological nitrification - a strategy to preserve the quality of groundwater bodies through reduced nitrate leaching in agroecosystems?) are the new WPA scholars starting their projects in 2015.

The WPA steering committee selected five scholars and topics for funding!

Hongxi Liu (Water yield and carbon export within watersheds affected by intensive rubber cultivation in Xishuangbanna, South-West China, Carolin Weiler (Water use conflicts of table grape production in Germany and Israel), Anna Krupp (Host recognition and resistance reactions in the interaction of the parasitic weed Orobanche cumana and cultivated sunflower), Sarah Glatzle (improving water management with intergrated crop-livestock systems in Brazil - the plant perspective), and Charles Nwankwo (The seed ball technology - a transdisciplinary approach to its development and implementation into Sahelian pearl millet production systems) have started their research projects!

Kick-Off !!!  Water - People - Agriculture: A new graduate school at Hohenheim University was funded for 12 years by the Anton & Petra Ehrmann-Stiftung. 

Opening ceremony 17th March 2014. The scientific director of the WPA Research Training Group Professor Dr. Folkard Asch, Anton and Roland Ehrmann executive committee members of the Anton und Petra Ehrmann-Stiftung, and the Rektor of the University of Hohenheim Professor Dr. Stephan Dabbert.

Starting from Summer 2014 the WPA Research Training Group will establish a new doctoral school open for PhD students from all three faculties at the University of Hohenheim. Our training module called "Water - People - Agriculture" focus on water related topics from the perspective of different scientific disciplines. WPA will frequently offer attractive 3-years PhD scholarships to support young scientist interested to work on water related topics during their early scientific career.  Scholarships are open to qualified national and international candidates.

The world in a vortex. The symbolic installment was started by Anton Ehrmann and will remain at the Hohenheim castle to represent the WPA Research Training Group.