Bingo
Student participants had a chance to boost their experience by fulfilling a number of tasks and challenges, of the Student Bingo organised by Justyna Wolinska. The tasks range from simple (ask a question after a talk) to creative (write a 4-line poem) to demanding (walk at least 10,000 steps on one of the conference days). Two of the students, Banaja Prakashini Samantaray from India and Chris Campbell from the USA, managed to complete all 25 tasks (i.e., they filled the whole 5×5 bingo card)!
Awards for oustanding student talks and posters
All student contributions were carefully scrutinized by a panel of more than 15 evaluators, who voted for the outstanding student talks and posters. The overall quality was high, but some of the contributions indeed stood out.
Best student oral presentations
1st place:
Zhixiong Deng (Fudan University, Shanghai, China): Predation has driven evolution of Daphnia
2nd place (shared):
Johanna Ahlers (University of Cologne, Germany): Chemical signaling in aquatic ecosystems: Quantifying the fish kairomone dynamics in order to assess its reliability as indicator for predation risk in Daphnia
Marvin Kiene (now University of Greifswald, but graduated from University of Bayreuth, Germany): Food quantity and quality modulates inducible defences in a common predator-prey system
Best student posters
1st place:
Joshua Huster (Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany): Predator induced cellular plasticity in Daphnia longicephala sensory antennules
2nd place:
Sophie Steigerwald (Stockholm University, Sweden): Combined Effects of Temperature and Chemical Exposure: Insights from Daphnia magna using a degree-days approach
3rd place (shared):
Simon Alev (Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany): Comprehensive annotation and phylogenetic analysis of Ionotropic Receptors in Daphnia
Broos Van de Moortel (KU Leuven campus Kortrijk, Belgium): Daphnia magna and microplastics: a multi-generational study assessing microbiome effects and microbial degradation
Student support
Several excellent students with restricted budgets from Czechia, Germany, India, Israel, Mexico and USA, have been supported by conference fee waiver. We have enjoyed their contributions!