Outreach

NEED FOR OUTREACH   

It is critical for scientists to communicate results and ignite excitement.  The network-wide training in “communication toolkits” within ICEBIO will explore the ways ICEBIO can take its results out of the ivory tower and into homes, schools, and private sector boardrooms. Life on glaciers and ice sheets captivates the public imagination because of its links to climate change, sustainability of life during the Snowball Earth period, connections to possible life on other extraterrestrial cold bodies, as well as practical aspects, such as the biotechnological potential of the use of cold adapted organisms in the new green revolution.

ICEBIO DCs will become Marie Curie Ambassadors in schools and the wider community, conducting outreach activities (talks and hands-on demonstrations), as well as writing articles in clear, accessible language with interesting graphics to inform the general public, school children, interest groups, policy makers, the media, stakeholders, and potential end users.  As ICEBIO fellows engage in Outreach activities, details will be provided here. 

VISIT OUR INSTAGRAM PAGE

ICEBIO DCs regularly update their Instagram page here with information about their fieldwork and other activities. Some posts are in multiple languages.

15 APRIL 2025

DC Léa Francomme participated in Science Promotion Day, Alpole EPFL in Switzerland where she presented her work to approximately 24 students aged between 10 and 11 years old.

3 March 2025

DC Léa Francomme participated in a round table in her former school, le Collège St Joseph, Romilly-sur-Seine, France, to talk with 14-15 year-old children about high school, university studies and potential careers in the sciences.

18 February 2025

DC Anirban Majumder recently gave a public science talk alongside Mirjam Paasch in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, on February 18, 2025. The audience comprised a diverse group, including the station leader, personnel from various backgrounds, as well as bachelor's and master's students, PhD candidates, and scientists. The presentation was designed to be accessible to both scientific and non-scientific audiences, aiming to effectively communicate our research in an engaging and understandable manner.

4 February 2025

DC Nasim Kashiri gave a presentation to 10 master’s students from the University of Bremen visiting Brill. She presented the ICEBIO project to them followed by a discussion about environmental microbiology.

12 December 2024

DC Harpreet Sing, with assistance from Prof. Timothy Vogel,   created a linkedin post targeting the general public about how to sequence DNA. The post can be viewed here.  

12 December 2024

DC Lars van Dijk gave a talk at the “Schlaue Haus” and Interview for their YouTube channel about IceBio and Glacier Science.

November - December  2024

DC2 Harpreet Singh prepared a general walkthrough of cleaning DNA/RNA libraries for sequencing and how RNA libraries are prepared for sequencing and posted the information to linkedin here.     

1 December 2024

DC Alex Cuzzeri gave a talk to approximately 20 students and the general public in the framework of APRI Germany polar talk – Postcard from the field on Antarctica Day. More info here.

26 November 2024

DC Anirban Majumder provided an introduction to microbial ecology and relevant techniques to a school student. As part of the session, they also carried out DNA extraction and other laboratory work.

17 November 2024

DC Léa Francomme gave a presentation of her work to a group of artists working on glaciers at the RIVER laboratory facilities – EPFL, Sion, Switzerland.

8 November 2024

During a fieldwork outing, ICEBIO DC Léa Francomme had a conversation with 3 people who were wondering what she was doing in the stream with a colleague. They first thought she was checking for the pollution level of the stream but she explained to them the work she conducts on the alga Hydrudrus foetidus and introduced them to other microorganisms found in streams such as bacteria which form biofilms on rocks.

4 November 2024

Silje Waaler participated in the Inspiration Days, Science for Schools - Arctic Frontiers. She gave a talk to approximately 115 schoolchildren.

19 October 2024

ICEBIO DC Léa Francomme participated in the Annual Congress of l’Union des professeurs de Physiologie Biochimie et Microbiologie (UPBM) in Troyes, France. This was an opportunity for her to talk about her academic journey to the teachers who transmitted their passion for biology to her. She introduced them to the cryosphere, an uncovered topic in high schools.

03 October 2024

ICEBIO DC Léa Francomme participated in the Day of Orientation and Ecological Transition organized at Collège - Lycée de la Planta in Sion, Switzerland. During this event, Léa and a colleague gave talks to students in the biochemistry major to introduce them to climate change and its effect on glacier-fed streams microbiome with a special emphasis on Hydrurus foetidus and viruses found in biofilms.

29 September 2024

ICEBIO DC Silje Waaler gave a 10 min presentation during the Science Days (“Forskningsdagene”) in Tromsø to approximately 50 members of the public. More information about the event is available here: https://uit.no/tavla/artikkel/857689/pa_helsa_los?p_document_id=857689

24 May 2024

ICEBIO DC Alex Cuzzeri from University of Innsbruck participated in the Long Night of Research. As Austria's largest event dedicated to science, research, and innovation, LNF 2024 offered an unparalleled opportunity for the public to engage with cutting-edge science across 270 locations nationwide, featuring over 2,800 program points. The City of Innsbruck and University of Innsbruck are major partners of the LNF. For more information: https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/mip/events/lange-nacht-der-forschung/

24 May 2024

ICEBIO DC Lars van Dijk gave a 1-hour presentation to approximately 25 4th-grade high school students at his former high school “Almere College” in Kampen the Netherlands. The presentation was divided into two parts. First, he discussed his personal journey from high school to pursuing a PhD and explained what a PhD is and how one can reach it within the Dutch educational system. After that, he briefly talked about his PhD project and ICEBIO, as well as the goals we are trying to achieve within the network. The second and main part of his presentation was about life in the cryosphere in which he showed the students that it exists of more than just a few polar bears and penguins. Microorganisms dominate these systems, and he unveiled this “unseen” world through the visual cues that microbial life leaves behind. Finally, he discussed the environmental impacts of these microorganisms on the melting ice.

22 May 2024

ICEBIO DC Kara Sampsell spoke with 7 AP Biology and AP Physics students and their two teachers at the American School of Grenoble (in English). She prepared a 1 hour presentation that began with a discussion of what a PhD is and various paths in academics to lead to it. She   then presented the importance of the cryosphere and microbial life in glacial environments which was followed by an introduction to the research being done in the IceBio project. (Attached photo courtesy of Laurie Rebut (AP Biology Teacher)).

23 April 2024

ICEBIO DC Lea Francomme (EPFL) gave a tour of her local laboratory to a vistor without any scientific background. Léa introduced her to the different facilities of the lab with a focus on the ones to be used for her PhD such as the microscopes and the climatic chambers. She also explained to her the type of material needed for fieldwork and how samples are preserved from degradation after sampling.

March 2024

DC 3 Annika Morische spoke with a group of 5 tourists to the Greenland ice sheet  about the objectives of the ICEBIO project.

March 2024

DC 11 Julien Cergneux gave an interview for the Swiss Polar Institute which will be used in their education program. For more information:  https://polar-class.ch/

22 March 2024

DC 12 Léa Francomme (EPFL) gave a talk to three groups of 13 year old  pupils from her former school named Collège Saint-Joseph in Romilly-sur-Seine, France. This presentation was entitled « Climate change, Glaciers and Microorganisms ». Léa introduced pupils to the effects of climate change on the glacial biome and the aim of ICEBIO in this context as well as an easy explanation of her work in this context.

7 March 2024

DC2 Harpreet Singh (CNRS) gave a poster presentation at the Junior Scientist and Industry Annual Meeting held on March 7 in Grenoble, France. This annual meeting is a networking event intended for PhD students and postdocs to meet industry, startup and consulting professionals. More information about the event is available here.

 

6 March 2024

DC10 Nasim Kashiri (Brill) gave an online presentation to people within the company who attended the Science Week event. Over 20 people attended the event. Nasim spoke about her background, the earth's cold environments, microorganisms of glacial environments and her ICEBIO research project. The presentation was followed by questions from the group.

 

22 February  2024

DC1 Alessandro Cuzzeri (UIBK) and DC7 Marco Ajmar (GFZ) organised an outreach activity at Liceo Classico “Carlo Alberto”, Novara, Italy on Feb 22nd, 2024. The audience was composed of approximately 40 5th grade high school students and the presentation was done in Italian. The event title was: “Glacial Ecosystems and Climate Change: today’s situation and future perspectives” The two-hour presentation focused on three main themes: firstly, a scientific introduction to glacial systems, including the macro and microscopic communities they host and the diversity of habitats characterizing such systems, before moving on to their functionality and importance (DC1). The second part mainly addressed climate change, explaining what it is, how the IPCC operates, the most critical consequences of glacier melting, and the concept of sustainability (DC7). The third and final part was about orientation: discussing the DCs university paths, offering some important advice, explaining what it means to work in this field, and outlining job prospects in this sector. More information here. 

 

29 JANUARY 2024

DC12 Léa Francomme (EPFL) gave a talk to two groups of biotechnology students between 16 and 20 years old from her former high school named « Lycée Les Lombards » inTroyes, France. This presentation was titled « Climate change, Glaciers and Microorganisms ». She ntroduced students to the effects of climate change on the glacial biome and what is the aim of ICEBIO in this context as well as her PhD work in a bit more detail. She also explained to them how she ended up doing a PhD, what she studied etc. to give them an idea about what is possible to do with the diploma they will obtain.

 

19 DECEMBER 2023

DC3 Annika Morische attended the Greenlandic house meeting for outreach in Greenland with fellow IceBIO DCs and Deep Purple affiliates. The goal of the meeting was to plan outreach for a large audience in Greenland.

01 DECEMBER 2023

ICEBIO DCs Klara Köhler and Léa Francomme gave an online talk, presenting the IceBio Project at the Antarctica day 2023 (organized by APECS).  The event was open to everyone interested in Polar Science, and the link to  the live online talk was shared on the APECS and IceBio Social Media Channels, 9 live viewers attended. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0Tau lPqfiz/

23 NOVEMBER 2023

DC7 Marco Ajmar worked with two high school interns at GFZ. He gave them a brief introduction to ion chromatography and they analysed some standards and samples from Iceland together.

 

23 NOVEMBER 2023

DC4 Lars van Dijkr mentored and was interviewed by a primary school student.

 

21 NOVEMBER 2023

DC5 Anirban Majumder  explained sampling strategy from glaciers and microbial research in cold environments to 9th grade schoolchidren  from Humboldt-Gymnasium Potsdam (Robin and Vera). He performed and explained DNA extraction with them in the lab, and the students spent the entire day at the institute.   

 

19 September 2023

DC3 Annika Morische and DC6  Klara Köhler contributed to “Polar Week” for the social media channels (Instagram, X) of APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists). Link. 

 

12 September 2023

DC8 Silje Waller Pedersen discusses the ICEBIO project, the kickoff training event, glacial microbiology and climate change with singer and songwriter Lauren from the Berry (https://theberry.bandcamp.com/track/nirvana) during a layover at Frankfurt airport on September 12.  Silje also showed Lauren a video taken during the ICEBIO glacier field safety training day.

 

08 MAY 2023

DC6 Klara Köhler started to collect contributions to the “Meet the team” series on Instagram, where the DC group is introduced. Link.