Landscape Hydrology Laboratory

HYDROLOGY + HUMANS

Synthesis hosts! International inspirations and research collaborations

The week of 12 February 2018 our lab hosted an international research workshop on the topic “Dynamic Complex Networks: Structure and Function” with 21 attendees, including guests from Australia, Brazil, Germany, South Korea, and also Purdue University. The meeting was focused on supporting and mentoring graduate student research in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment.

This was the most recent installment of a series that started in August 2015 in Seoul, South Korea and has been sustained since November 2015 by a continuing memorandum of agreement (MOU) between UF, Purdue, Technical University-Dresden (Germany), and UFZ (Zentrum für Umweltforschung, the German federal government Environmental Research Center).

Each meeting, though possessing a unique work and relational atmosphere, has a common network-centric theme. The analyses we investigate and execute encompass natural, social, or engineered networks and their interactions. This dynamic perspective allows for broad scale, far-reaching scientific questions that have major implications for coupled socio-techno-eco-systems impacted by climate change and societal evolution.

Since the summer of 2015, our groups have convened in various places around the world, with participants amassing from as many as 17 different countries and all 6 inhabitable continents (in just one meeting!). At each exotic location, we have cultivated professional pursuits and ignited friendships that transcend time zones.

Our recent meeting included group work updates, individualized talks among students and faculty mentors, and a couple of social outings around town. It’s particularly enjoyable showing international visitors our local theme park: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, featuring abundant alligators and plenty of other wildlife.

Participation in such collaborative efforts has proven intangibly valuable, in that it edifies students’ personal sense of fulfillment and program progress, and it has also bred outputs in the form of publications and proposals. Outlooks from varying vantage points allow for extensive enlightenment, breaking down traditional disciplinary barriers. Many students and faculty have attended several of these meetings and also new faces pop up at each gathering, expanding the foundation and structure of our own collaborative networks. We look forward with anticipation to the next synthesis workshop!

Saxon Switzerland, near Dresden, Germany!

Czech Republic!