First European Geothermal PhD-Day – EGPD2010

The first European Geothermal PhD-day (EGPD2010) was held at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences - on February 12th, 2010, as a result of an initiative of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) joint program in geothermal energy. The goal of the PhD-day was to bring together young scientists working in various fields of geothermal energy research and offer them the opportunity to share ideas and build up a network between them, which leads to synergies and collaborations. During the last year, addresses of more than 180 PhD students working in geothermal energy research have been collected from 20 European countries. About half of them participated in the EGDP2010. In total, participants from 16 countries and various scientific disciplines attended the PhD-day, showing that there is a broad interest in geothermal energy research throughout Europe. The presented topics ranged from socio-economic observations over engineering aspects to geoscientific studies.

The PhD-day started with the keynote lecture “Research frontiers in geothermal development – a wide open field for PhD students” given by Ladislaus Rybach/Switzerland. Afterwards, the participants each gave a short presentation to introduce their topics of research, which were discussed in detail in the subsequent poster session. This was followed by a concluding presentation by Fausto Batini/Italy about the EERA joint program in geothermal energy. 

The scientific quality of the presentations was evaluated and a poster prize was awarded by the scientific committee, which consisted of Eva Schill/Switzerland, Jan-Diederick van Wees/Netherlands, Ernst Huenges/Germany, Fausto Batini/Italy, Martyn Unsworth/Canada, Ólafur Flovenz/Iceland and Thomas Kohl/Switzerland. Financial support for the organisation of the event was generously given by Vattenfall Europe Technology Research GmbH, Schlumberger GmbH, Gasag - Berliner Gaswerke AG, RWE Innogy GmbH, Baker Hughes INTEQ GmbH, Ferrostaal AG, and GPC Instrumentation Process (GPC IP). The general consensus was that the EGPD2010 was a successful event and yielded interesting contacts and fruitful discussions among the PhD students. Thus, and in order to strengthen the newly developed network among the European geothermal PhD students, annual meetings are planned to be held in different European countries. The next meeting, EGPD2011, was scheduled for next year and take place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Article cited from "Henning Francke, Thomas Reinsch, Ansgar Schepers, Matthis Thorade, Newsletter of the International Geothermal Association, Quarterly No. 79" (Link)

 

 

 

Questions? Please contact us!

info-EGPD2019@gfz-potsdam.de