iDiv members elect new speakers and suggest directors

Halle (Saale). On Friday, the iDiv members elected their new speakers at the General Assembly. The speakers for the next two years are
·    Stefan Klotz (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ),
·    Birgitta König-Ries (Friedrich Schiller University Jena - FSU),
·    Ivo Große (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg - MLU),
·    Martin Schlegel (Leipzig University - UL),
·    Volker Grimm (UFZ),
·    Karsten Wesche (Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz - SMNG),
·    Frank Blattner (Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research - IPK) and
·    Markus Reichstein (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry - MPI BGC).
Markus Reichstein is the only new speaker and replaces his colleague Susan Trumbore (MPI BGC). The iDiv members also gave a unanimous vote to renew the mandate of the current four directors:
·    Christian Wirth (UL),
·    Kirsten Küsel (FSU),
·    Helge Bruelheide (MLU) and
·    François Buscot (UFZ).
The final decision regarding the directorate will be made by the Board of Trustees, which comprises representatives of the the three involved universities (FSU, MLU, UL), the UFZ and the ministries of science of the three federal states (Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony). Next to the elections, new iDiv members were introduced:
·    Anja Widdig (UL & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
·    Irene Ring (UFZ)
·    Franziska Krajinski-Barth (UL)
·    Joachim Denzler (FSU)
·    Andreas Gogol-Döring (Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen)
·    Carsten Neßhöver (UFZ)
·    Goddert von Oheimb (TU Dresden, membership in progress). At the General Assembly, short presentations by iDiv members highlighted research activities in and around iDiv. Furthermore, iDiv members discussed strategies on how to foster cooperations among themselves. Volker Hahn