30 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS XUHUI DONG AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Associate Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, China Area of research: Environmental change and geography Project title: Quantitative assessment on ecological changes and the contribution from climate in remote Greenland lakes: a multidisciplinary study My research is using multidisciplinary methods (biological and isotope signals) to quantitatively track environmental change across various spatiotemporal scales based on Greenland lake sediments. For a global implication, the research findings in this project will serve for comparison purpose with other aquatic ecosystems (i.e. strong human impacted Yangtze shallow lakes in China) to understand different ecological trajectories and mechanism of environmental changes. Currently some data on 18O isotope and taxonomy has been produced, along with wider application of paleolimnology in understanding complex systems (i.e. ecosystem service and resilience). Several papers based on existing data are in preparing or have been published. YONGHUI ZENG AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Associate Professor, previously Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic Area of Research: Environmental Microbiology Project title: Ecological Genomics of Phototrophic Gemmatimonadetes Bacteria in Diverse Environments Photosynthesis was recently found on a new branch of the tree of bacterial lives Gemmatimonadetes. However, very little is known about phototrophic Gemmatimonadetes bacteria (PGB) and what kind of insights it can provide regarding how and why bacteria in nature share the function of photosynthesis. With the AIAS project, I have assembled a sensitive infrared imaging system, which can easily identify bacteria containing the photosynthetic pigment bacteriochlorophyll. A homemade cultivation system for growing bacteria under micro-oxic environment was also set up. I am entering the second phase of this project isolating novel PGB isolates from environment. AARHUS INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED STUDIES AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 Photo: Maria Randima CONTENTS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 3 CONTENTS 4 Directors Account 6 What I have learnt about being an AIAS Fellow: Eight Dos and Donts 8 Circular bio-economy: from bio-waste to bio-fuel 10 The winding path to excellence 12 From AIAS to the Alban Hills. The so-called villa of Clodius a 4 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 DIRECTORS ACCOUNT DIRECTORS ACCOUNT OF 2016-2017 In the academic year of 2016-17, AIAS has once again been filled to capacity at 34 fellows of 17 different nationalities. The research areas include disciplines within all main academic areas of Aarhus University (AU) Photo: Morten Kyndrup by Maria Randima mandatory, joint Monday lunches, during which Fellows give small presentations the so-called 5 minutes on various subjects, and to which we welcome guests and Associates of the Institute. The series of Fellows Seminars also still take place according to a fi 6 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 WHAT I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT BEING AN AIAS FELLOW: EIGHT DOS AND DONTS WHAT I HAVE LEARNT ABOUT BEING AN AIAS FELLOW: EIGHT DOS AND DONTS By: Dorothee Birke AIAS Fellow Dorothee Birke came to AIAS almost two years ago from a position at the English department at the Un AIAS is both a place of work and a community, whose sum is more than its individual components. Photo: Fellows in conversation during the weekly Monday Lunch. By Maria Randima. DO JOIN THE PUB QUIZ Social life at AIAS is well-developed. On most days, there is a group of people having lunch together 8 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 CIRCULAR BIO-ECONOMY: FROM BIO-WASTE TO BIO-FUEL CIRCULAR BIO-ECONOMY: FROM BIO-WASTE TO BIO-FUEL By: Patrick Biller, AIAS-COFUND Fellow and Dept. of Engineering, Aarhus University Patrick Billers research at AIAS falls within the strategic area of the circular eco Photo: AIAS Fellow Patrick Biller at the Hydrothermal Liquefaction pilot plant at Foulum Campus, Aarhus University. By Maria Randima 9 10 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 THE WINDING PATH TO EXCELLENCE THE WINDING PATH TO EXCELLENCE By: AIAS-COFUND Fellows Filip Meysman, Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium and Magnus Kjærgaard, AIAS and DANDRITE, Aarhus University AIAS-COFUND Fellows Prof. Filip Meysman and Dr. Magnus Kjærgaard are par Atomic details of the NMDA receptor, a key protein in memory and central topic of the PROMEMO center. By: Magnus Kjærgaard, AIAS Cable bacteria (white threads in the image) develop elaborate filament networks in marine sediments across which electrical currents are transported over centimeter-scale 12 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FROM AIAS TO THE ALBAN HILLS. THE SO-CALLED VILLA OF CLODIUS AT THE VIA APPIA FROM AIAS TO THE ALBAN HILLS. THE SO-CALLED VILLA OF CLODIUS AT THE VIA APPIA By: Consuelo Manetta, AIAS Fellow and Birte Poulsen, Associate Professor, Dept. of History and Classical Stud 13 COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS BETWEEN AIAS FELLOWS AND RESEARCHERS AT AARHUS UNIVERSITY 2016-2018 Most AIAS Fellows have established or are establishing collaborative projects with AU researchers during their AIAS fellowship. These collaborations are important to both AIAS Fellows and to the research 14 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 HIGH IMPACT RESEARCH FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND HEALTH IMPROVEMENT HIGH IMPACT RESEARCH FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND HEALTH IMPROVEMENT By: Rima Obeid, AIAS Fellow, Associate Professor, Saarland University Hospital, Germany Metabolic changes in biological fluids ind Photo: By Melissa Bach Yildirim I had the unique opportunity to work with scientists from different disciplines and from all over the world. This offered me an opportunity to think about my own research from a different angle, gaining new aspects of conducting research and methodologies from other FELLOWS 2016-2017 FELL OWS 2016 2017 In the academic year of 2016/17, 38 fellows from 32 different research institutions from around the globe have been undertaking their excellent research at AIAS. Fellows come from all academic research areas and bring 17 different nationalities together in one house to inspire and challeng 18 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS ALEXANDER PANAYATOV AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Postdoc, previously Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Area of research: Jewish Studies Project title: Minority status and identity: A case study of the Jewish minority in Byzantium My FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 19 ARMIN W. GEERTZ Jens Christian Skou Senior Fellow Professor, Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University Area of research: Religion Project title: A Biocultural Approach to Embodiment, Ritual and Mysticism I study religious behavior from the pers 20 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS CONSUELO MANETTA AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Postdoc, previously Department of History, Culture and Society, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy Area of research: Classical Archeology Project title: The Different Faces of the Sky decorative culture, flora FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 21 DOROTHEE BIRKE AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Associate Professor, Previously, English Department, University of Freiburg, Germany Area of research: English Studies Project title: Situating Homelessness on the Contemporary British Stage My project examines how c 22 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS FRANTS H. JENSEN AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Postdoc, previously Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, USA Area of research: Biology Project title: Movement coordination, leadership and collective foraging in matrilineal toothed FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 23 ISABELLE TORRANCE AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Associate Professor, previously Department of Classics, University of Notre Dame, USA Area of Research: Classical Reception and Irish Studies Project Title: Greek Tragedy and Irish Politics My research at AIAS cha 24 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS JESSICA WISKUS AIAS COFUND Senior Fellow Professor, Department of Musicianship, Duquesne University, USA Area of research: Music and Philosophy Project title: Rhythmical Ethics (On Music and the Performance of Philosophy) My work examines the rhythmical rel FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 25 LUÍS PEDRO VIEGAS AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Assistant Professor, previously Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, Portugal Area of research: Theoretical and Computational Atmospheric Chemistry Project title: Green design of CFC alternatives: an in 26 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS MAGNUS KJÆRGAARD AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Assistant Professor, previously Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, UK Area of research: Molecular Biology Project title: Can a cooked noodle store information? The mechanisms of disordered proteins i FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 27 NAICHENG WU AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Postdoc, previously Kiel University, Germany Area of research: Hydroecology Project title: Developing a risk assessment system to evaluate the impacts of future land use and climate scenarios on aquatic ecosystems an i 28 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS REBECCA SIMMONS AIAS COFUND Senior Fellow Associate Professor, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Area of research: Epidemiology Project title: Screening and early treatment for type 2 diabetes My research this year has examined the intriguing possibil FELLOWS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 29 SVEND-ERIK SKAANING Jens Christian Skou Senior Fellow Professor, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark Area of research: Political science Project title: The Rise of Modern Democracy In my project, I pursue the following research quest 30 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS XUHUI DONG AIAS COFUND Junior Fellow Associate Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, China Area of research: Environmental change and geography Project title: Quantitative assessment on ecological changes and Photo: Morten Kyndrup at Fellows Seminar. By Maria Randima 31 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES PUBL ICAT IONS 34 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES PUBLICATIONS: BOOKS, BOOK CHAPTERS PUBLICATIONS JOURNAL ARTICLES Isabel Kusche is author of the book chapter Social Movements and Sociological Systems Theory in: Social Theory and Social Mov FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 35 Alfonso Blazquez is co-author of the article Exerting better control and specificity with singlet oxygen experiments in live mammalian cells in: Methods, 15 October 2016. Svend-Erik Skaaning is co-author of the article Measuring 36 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 Xuhui Dong is co-author of the paper Deciphering long-term records of natural variability and human impact as recorded in lake sediments: a palaeolimnological puzzle in: WIREs: water, 2017. Rima Obeid is co-author of the article Vitamin B-12fortified toothpaste impr FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES Rima Obeid is first-author of the paper The effectiveness of daily supplementation with 400 or 800 μg/day folate in reaching protective red blood folate concentrations in non-pregnant women: a randomized trial in: European Journal of Nutrition, 26 April 2017. Isa 38 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 Xuhui Dong gave the invited talk Paleolimnology: a key to understanding historical environmental changes, 30 September 2016, Nanchang Institute of Technology, China. Iryna Mazhak gave an invited talk Social Inequalities in Health in Developing Countries: a Compariso FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 39 Naicheng Wu gave the invited talk Integrated ecohydrological modelling for river basin management, 15 December 2016, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS), China. Consuelo Manetta gave 40 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES Dorothee Birke gave the presentation Discomfort and agency: representations of the homeless in contemporary British drama at the 13th SIEF Congress Ways of Dwelling, 26-30 March 2017, University of Göttingen, Germany. Naicheng W FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 41 Tomasz K. Wojdacz attended the Danish IP Fair, which presents inventions from the Danish Research Institutions, with his company MethylDetect, 9 May 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark. Isabelle Torrance gave the invited lecture (Im)mobil 42 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AWARDS, APPOINTMENTS AND GRANTS Ümit Akbey and Professor Jørgen Kjems, iNANO, Aarhus University received a collaborative project grant from the Aarhus University Research Foundation of DKK 96,000.00 for the project Biochemical an FELLOWS PUBLICATIONS AND ACTIVITIES AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 43 IN THE MEDIA Morten Kyndrup and AIAS: online article at altinget.dk: AU-professor ny formand for globalt forskningsnetværk on Kyndrups role as chair of the global UBIAS network, 1 September 2017. Michael G. Flaherty gave a podca AIAS EVENTS AIAS EVEN TS Dig in to the multitude of events, conferences, symposia, workshops, guest lectures, disciplinary as well as multi-disciplinary, that the AIAS Fellows have organized in 2016/17, and see the diversity of topics of the recurrent Fellows Seminar Series. At AIAS, we bring fellows, Aarhus Univers Photo: Maria Randima AIAS EVENTS AIAS Guest Lecture: Fear of Threat, Security Policies and Passportization in the Late Ottoman Empire by Dr. Ilkay Yilmaz, Faculty of Political Science, Istanbul University, Turkey. Invited by AIAS Fellow Ümit Akbey, 2 September 2016 AIAS Fellows Seminar: Social Ineq AIAS EVENTS AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 47 AIAS Fellows Seminar: What should we do about the diabetes epidemic? Insights from epidemiology by AIAS Fellow Kate Simmons, 5 December 2016 AIAS Fellows Seminar: Plug-and-Play Photosynthesis. Resolving the Building Blocks of Bacterial Photosynthetic R AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 AIAS EVENTS HOSTED EVENTS University: Fear, Fictionality and the Rhetoric of Post-Humanitarianism. Organized by AIAS Fellow Armin W. Geertz, 15 May 2017 AIAS Fellows Seminar: Tragedy and Politics. Oedipus on the Irish Stage 1926-2015 by AIAS Fellow Isabelle Torrance, Photo: Maria Randima HOSTED EVENTS HOSH ED AIAS facilities are open to Aarhus University faculty members and external institutions, and we will continue to welcome academic events in the year to come. In the academic year of 2016-17 AIAS has hosted a still growing number of events for all four Aarhus University faculties. See a selec 52 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 HOSTED EVENTS HOSTED EVENTS Conference: Hitchin 70: Differential Geometry and Quantization organized by Dept. of Mathematics, Aarhus University, Denmark, 5-8 September 2016 DANDRITE guest lecture: Emotional Arousal and Lasting Memories by James McGaugh, Research Pr Photo: Maria Randima Lundbeckfond Lecture: Den aldrende hjerne organized by Folkeuniversitet, 21 March 2017 Marie Curie Master Class: Organized by International Academic Staff Services (IAS), 17 May 2017 Symposium: August II Symposium and Workshop in Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses organize 54 AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 ORGANISATION, STAFF AND FUNDING ORGANISATION, STAFF AND FUNDING BOARD OF DIRECTORS ADVISORY BOARD Jørgen Frøkiær Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health, Aarhus University, Vice-Chair Bertil Andersson Professor, Nanyang Technological Univer AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017 SELECTION BOARD STAFF Heide Schulz-Vogt Professor. Dr., Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Germany Morten Kyndrup AIAS Executive Director, Professor, kyndrup@aias.au.dk Li Bennich-Björkman Professor, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden Maya Jepsen, Deputy Director, 56 Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies Aarhus University Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B DK-8000 Aarhus C Denmark PHONE: +45 8715 3692 E-MAIL: info@aias.au.dk WEB: aias.au.dk AIAS ANNUAL REPORT 2016-2017