Alumni meeting
Online Wageningen Experience Day - Saturday 2 October 2021
Have you already put the Wageningen Experience Day in your calendar on 2 October? We are organising this day for you! After all: once a Wageninger, always a Wageninger!
During the Wageningen Experience Day, with ‘Finding Answers Together’ as the theme of the day, you digitally return to Wageningen and we will give you knowledge and inspiration. Of course, you will also bump into other Wageningen people from all over the world! Are you coming too?
Experience the campus from home
Especially for you, we digitally recreated the campus. Curious to see what that looks like? Then sign up and come and discover it on Saturday 2 October from 15:30 to 17:00 CET!
Good to know: the language of the day is (mostly) English.
What if I am unavailable on 2 October?
Can't make it on 2 October? Be sure to register either way! The platform will remain open the entire month (for those who have registered), so you can read all the inspiring stories and view the videos at a later moment when it suits you. The live sessions will not be available anymore after 2 October.
The experts
At several spots on the digital campus, experts are ready to tell you more about five specially selected topics.
Biodiversity - by Liesje Mommer
Liesje Mommer is professor at WUR and works at the Department of Environmental Science. In her research, Liesje focuses on what lies belowground: the plant root and the rhizosphere. While initially she focused on the on the role of root-root interactions for the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, her research focus has now widened to include belowground plant-fungal interactions. Root-root interactions cannot be understood without considering the myriad of microbes in the rhizosphere. Read more about Liesje here.
Liesje Mommer
Nature-based solutions - by Tim van Hattum
Tim van Hattum is programme leader Green Climate Solutions at WUR. The World Economic Forum identified failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation as one of the risks with the largest expected impact on the global economy over the coming decades (WEF Global Risk Report, 2020). Climate change will increase the risks for floods, droughts and heat waves with large impact worldwide. There is a need for innovative and integrated solutions for mitigation and adaptation. We offer climate services and evidence base for nature based solutions: Green Climate Solutions. Read more about Tim here and more about climate solutions.
Tim van Hattum
Zoonotic emergencies - by Joukje Siebenga
Joukje Siebenga is the Programme Manager of ERRAZE@WUR. ERRAZE stands for Early Recognition and Rapid Action in Zoonotic Emergencies. In her role as Programme Manager, she brings together researchers from across the university and Wageningen Research institutes to establish a solid base for an ambitious collaborative research programme, with a strong international outlook. Read more about Joukje here.
Joukje Siebenga
Artificial intelligence - by Willem Jan Knibbe
Willem Jan is the Director Wageningen Data Competence Center. The Wageningen Data Competence Center provides focus to the ambitions of Wageningen University & Research in applications of digital technology. We support and coordinate data management and infrastructure, education in applications of data sciences, and research or applications of artificial intelligence, robotics and decision support. Our mission is to explore the potential of data to improve the quality of life. Read more about Willem Jan here.
Willem Jan Knibbe
Food system approach - by Ivo Demmers
Ivo Demmers is Head of Programme Food Security and Valuing Water Programme. He directs a multi disciplinary, multi annual and organisation-wide programme on research, impact and valorisation in Food security and Valuing water across WUR. The programme aims to develop new routes toward a sustainable food system. The main challenges achieving this goal are the depletion of freshwater resources, climate change, land management, soil degradation, declining biodiversity, migration and the increase in agricultural production. Not just the amount of food, but its availability and affordability are crucial. Read more about Ivo here and more about the programme here.
Ivo Demmers
Do you want to dive into these topics more deeply? Then join the live expert sessions on 2 October and talk to the experts in two sessions of half an hour each!
Meet, discover and network
Besides knowledge sessions, there are also plenty of options to meet other alumni and to network. You can do this in the brand new building Omnia. For example, drop by an alumni network and learn more about the events they organize each year. Visit the session with University Fund Wageningen (UFW) and learn more about the ways in which you, as a Friend of UFW, can support the development of students and young alumni at the start of their career. Current Friends of UFW are also invited to meet UFW and other friends, learn more about the projects and ask questions.
Moreover, we invite you for a tour through the new education building Aurora. Visit the Carillon, a gift in honor of the 100-year jubilee of WUR donated by University Fund Wageningen, Wageningen Ambassadors and a select group of donors, and listen to some specially recorded tunes. Or maybe you are curious to know more about the campus, all the other buildings and the art that can be viewed? All of this can be found on our special digital campus!
Reconnect with fellow alumni and 25- and 50-year reunions
Join your fellow alumni in the new Aurora building on our digital Campus! Did you start studying in 1971, 1970, 1995 or 1996? There is a special reunion organized just for your year! Join each other in small, alternating groups and recall all your favourite Wageningen memories. Reconnect the ties with your study friends and share photos from your time at WUR on the social wall, that you can find in the Forum building on the digital campus.
Is this not your reunion year? Of course you are still welcome in Aurora to connect and reminisce with your study friends!
The programme
•15.30 Welcome
Hosts Simone Ritzer and Sybren Zondervan, both alumni, welcome you and talk to Rector Magnificus Arthur Mol. Following that, discover the digital campus on your own and get to know our experts!
•16.00 Live programme
Talk to the experts
Get to know more about networks and opportunities for alumni
Reconnect with fellow alumni or join the 25 and 50-year Reunions
•17.00 Closing event
Louise O. Fresco, President of the Executive Board, rounds off the day and Wageningen city poet and student, Ellen van der Kolk, gives the scoop on the very first campus poem
