Author: Rahul Rajkarnikar

IGCS Summer School 2018 Public Lecture

Deltas, Floodplains, and Harbours as Geo-Bio-Archives: Human-Environment Interactions in Western Anatolia

July 16, 2018 | RWTH Aachen University

As part of the IGCS Summer School 2018 “Coastal and River Hazards & Management strategies”, we invite you to a public lecture by Prof Dr Helmut Brückner on July 16, 2018, at 18:00 hrs. The lecture will take place in the Generali-Saal of the SuperC (6th floor, Templargraben 57, Aachen) at RWTH Aachen University.

In Western Anatolia, the human footprint on the ecosystems, especially in Greek and Roman times, resulted in massive landscape changes. This holds particularly true for the ancient harbour cities of Ephesus, Miletus and Elaia. It will be demonstrated how the rise and fall of these settlements were closely connected with the life cycle of their harbours, which in turn was strongly dependent on the delta growth of the rivers Kaystros, Maiandros and Kaikos respectively.

Prof Brückner holds the Chair in Geomorphology at the University of Cologne. He studied Geography and Mathematics at the University of Düsseldorf. After his PhD and habilitation he lectured as a professor in Passau and Marburg; in 2010 he followed the call to Cologne. His research is focussed on aspects of coastal geomorphology, geoarchaeology and geochronology; regional foci are the Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, Chile, South and Southeast Asia. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Inauguration of IGCS-premises at IIT Madras

November 1, 2017 at IIT Madras in Chennai

On 1st November 2017 the director of IIT Madras, Bhaskar Ramamurthi, and rector of RWTH Aachen University, Ernst Schmachtenberg, celebrated the inauguration of the new IGCS premises in the Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences. HE Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Achim Fabig, and Dr Akilesh Gupta, Head/Senior Scientist-G, DST, GoI, were chief guests at the function that was followed by a one-day symposium at IC&SR building, Hall 3, IIT Madras. The IGCS team, the Indian and German researchers and students will have an entire floor dedicated to it. The IGCS will now have access to large spaces, new equipment and new furniture that they can use to work with. The aim of the new premise is to have the entire IGCS team under one roof, enabling them to collaborate together to achieve their mutual goals of sustainability.

An important step in further joint research was taken by signing a document on a new project within the framework of the IGCS Research Program on Sustainable Power Engineering financed by Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen.

At the one day symposium on Sustainability: Issues and Challenges Indian and German professors held lectures and discussed the issues at length with the student participants. Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Dept. of Energy Studies, IIT Bombay and Prof. HN Chanakya, Centre for Sustainability, IISc Bangalore started the first technical session. The IGCS was able to invite IGCS alumni such as long term visiting professors Prof Dr Ch. Woiwode, Prof Dr P. Fiener and Dr K. Steger to complement the Indo-German program.

The felicitations that followed the Symposium to Prof R. Azzam were conducted by Prof S. Chella Rajan. Both directors/rectors, all Indian and German Coordinators and Alumni Professors wished Prof Azzam a prosperous time after his retirement.

For further information on the IGCS inauguration please contact:

Prof. Dr. BS Murty | IGCS Centre Coordinator, IIT Madras

Prof. Dr. R. Azzam | IGCS Centre Coordinator, RWTH Aachen University

IGCS Bulletin 19

The IGCS Bulletin Vol. 5 (4) is published. The last month was turbulent. Demonetization (Nov 8th), Honorable Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s demise (Dec 5th), and cyclone Vardah (Dec 12th) are testing the resilience of people in India, Tamil Nadu and Chennai, the latter coping with all three events accumulated. Apart from this, this bulletin demonstrates that the IGCS is as vibrant as ever. We held several workshops, were present at the Cityscapes Conference in New Delhi and UN Habitat III Conference in Quito. An interesting feature is published by Dr. Christoph Woiwode on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience in the Chennai Metropolitan Region.