Doctoral students will engage in expert- and peer-led workshops to enhance skills that are crucial for their success. Scientific writing constitutes a major part of this course. Additional topics will be chosen by students and could include publishing, data visualization, genAI and presentation skills. Students will bolster their scientific networks by learning and collaborating with peers.

This course sensitises doctoral students to ethical issues that may occur during their doctorate. After an introduction to ethics and good scientific practice, students are familiarised with resources that can assist them with ethical decision-making. Students get the chance to apply their knowledge in a discipline specific context.

We will study traces in the lithosphere that have been left behind by organisms during the course of Earth history and mineral components, which were built through biological processes or used as sources of energy and nutrients by organisms. Traces of life from the past will be compared with the development of the diversity of today's organisms.

Geochemistry: C-sequestration in glacial flood plains, soil formation on different bedrocks, nutrient scavenging in lakesGeo-Ecology: Geochemical, hydrologic, atmospheric interactionsGeo-Microbiology: Pioneering organisms in "new" habitats in glacial retreat areas, their role in carbon cycling. Microbes dissolving/forming mineralsLifestyles: Physiological adaptation to extreme conditions

1. Analysis of organic molecules in extracts from soils of different ages in glacial flood fields, in altitudinal gradients from different bedrocks, from sediments, from Cryoconites in glacial ice and from living biofilms in high altitude aquatic ecosystems, and from mineral springs.2. Analysis of matrix components of the ecosystems: dissolved compounds, minerals, clays, trace metals.

The course provides an introduction to the key micropaleontological and molecular fossils from marine and terrestrial niches, and the use of these fossils for reconstructing environmental and evolutionary changes.

The carbon cycle connects different reservoirs of C, including life on Earth, atmospheric CO2, and economically important geological reserves of C. Much of this C is in reduced (organic) form, and is composed of complex chemical structures that reflect diverse biological activity, processes and transformations.

Transfer and redistribution of material on Earth’s surface is controlled by myriad processes. To investigate these, this course will address the production, transport, and deposition of sediments and will probe their interactions with biogeochemical cycles. We will integrate catchment-scale sediment dynamics with associated (organic) carbon cycling at all stages of the “source to sink” continuum.