News archive 2015
December 2015 / January 2016: PopGen dances
Walz, Cha Cha and Fox sounds recently billowed through the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics. PhD student Anna Langmüller (Schlötterer group) organised two dance workshops with drinks and snacks: Anna's dance-trained sister and her tournament partner gave us easy-to-follow Standard Dance instructions. We’re now ready for one of Vienna’s ball events.
December 2015: Christmas Event
On December 4 PopGen invaded the Wiener Eislaufverein! It was lots of fun for beginners and more experienced ice skaters alike. Nearly 40 students, postdocs and faculty of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics then moved on to a local beer pub to replenish their energies and to reminisce about the successful scientific year that is coming to an end.
November 2015: DOC scholarship awarded to PopGen student
Congratulations to our PhD student Thomas Taus who received a prestigious DOC scholarship awarded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) for his project investigating the genomic basis of adaptation to a new environment using replicated evolve and resequence studies in the fruit fly.
Thomas with Dr. Mahrer (left, Secretary of State) and Prof. Zeilinger (right, president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences). © Reinhard Öhner
November 2015: PhD defense
Raymond Tobler successfully defended his thesis "Adaptation to Thermal Stress in Experimental Drosophila Populations" on November 4.
Congratulations, Ray, and all the best for your Postdoc position Down Under!
October 2015: Mini-Symposium
Animal Genetics: The Step Ahead
06.10., 16:00. Lecture Hall G, building LA, Vetmeduni Vienna
Michel Georges (GIGA-R & Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Unit of Animal Genomics, Univ. of Liege)
"NGS-based reverse genetic screen for embryonic lethal mutations compromising fertility in livestock"
UNFORTUNATELY CANCELLED: Leif Andersson (Dept. of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University)
“Molecular consequences of animal breeding”
October 2015: PhD retreat
This year we went back to the hut village of good old Feuerkogel after two years at Altaussee. At 1592 m, high above Lake Traun, 31 new and senior PhD students, postdocs, faculty and associated guests of PopGen Vienna enjoyed a weekend with seminars and discussions. The weather was nice and sunny, and we enjoyed hiking, climbing and social dinner cooking inbetween the seminar programme.
September 2015: Introductory course
We're happy that four new PhD students of the Vienna Graduate School for Population Genetics are attending this year's introductory course alongside with several external students.
August 2015: Alumni career news
Congratulations to our former graduate student Claudia Bank who accepted a group leader position starting in January 2016 (following her Postdoc stay at the EFPL in Lausanne) at the Gulbenkian Institute in Portugal. The Bank lab website is already online.
July 2015: SMBE annual meeting in Vienna
Faculty members of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics organized SMBE 2015, the annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, from July 12th to 16th, 2015, in Vienna. More than 1400 participants from around the world convened at the royal setting of the Hofburg. The program featured 4 plenary sessions, a dedicated Fitch prize symposium for young scientists and nearly 350 invited and contributing talks, 5 poster sessions with 750 posters, and ample opportunities to network and socialise.
Two current PopGen Vienna students and four graduates contributed talks while other students of PopGen Vienna presented their work at the poster sessions. At a special Alumni meeting, 36 current and former members of PopGen Vienna came together to mingle and network in a Viennese beer garden and to catch up with their current research projects.
July 2015: PopGen grows
A few months ago, the PopGen community garden lot was nothing more than a few inches of rough soil. Our students started to plan and plot, and their dedicated work along with the sunny and hot weather of this Summer transformed the earth into a green wealth of salads, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and spices! Members of PopGen Vienna also already enjoyed fresh samples of the produce during seminars and journal clubs.
July 2015: Visiting scientist
Research assistant professor Christopher Willett is visiting PopGen Vienna again for a month. Chris investigates the nature of genetic variation that underlies speciation and adaptation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In collaboration with members of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics, he will continue to study the genes that interact deleteriously to generate postzygotic reproductive isolation in a copepod system. He also looks at thermal tolerance and its potential interactions with reproductive isolation.
May 2015: PopGen Vienna participates at Open University Day
For the 250 year anniversary of the Vetmeduni Vienna, our students thought of an additional attraction for visitors at the booth of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics: participants were instructed how to extract DNA from Strawberries using everyday materials. The feedback of the visitors of all ages was very positive. One pupil was so impressed that he will repeat the experiment at school with all his class mates!
As usual, the audience was also fascinated by our temperature-adapted fruit flies, bizarre mutants and close-up shots of electron microscope images of Drosophila.
April 2015: Faculty meeting
The faculty met on April 25.
April 2015: SAB meeting
The yearly Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) meeting took place from April 22-24. The students reported their progress to four visiting SAB members who gave their valuable feedback. After the busy meetings, there were also opportunities for the students to socialise with the SAB members in an informal setting.
March 2015: visiting scientist
Dr. Giorgio Bertorelle from University of Ferrara, Italy, spends three months at the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics, working on NGS data analyses in conservation and evolutionary genetics.
January 2015: Start of 2nd funding period
We're happy and proud that a second run time was funded by the FWF!
