Circular economy: JLU chemistry hosts a summer school on sustainability
80 MSc and doctoral students from ten different European universities attended a summer school on design principles for a sustainable future, organized by the group of Prof. B. Smarsly in cooperation with Prof. Silvia Gross (Padua)
From September 02nd to 5th the “CLOCKS” summer school on circular economy took place in the chemistry department at JLU Giessen. Students from various European countries attended lectures and tutorials of renowed experts, on relevant topics such as circularity issues in Li ion battery recycling and construction materials.
“CLOCKS” is an initiative to promote high-quality teaching for students in the field of circular economy (CLOCKS = CLOsing the loop: building Circular sKillS on the entire value chain) and represents a joint project of different European institutions, supported the EIT initiative. The university of Padua, university of Ljubljana and JLU jointly act as the main academic partners in this consortium (see https://clocksproject.eu/), which is embedded in the long-lasting successful cooperation in chemistry and materials sciences.
As main content, the CLOCKS project develops and performs international summer schools on circular economy, offered to students in the field of natural sciences. Following the summer school in Padua in 2023, the summer school at JLU in 2024 focused on “Circularity and sustainability by design” and was coordinated by Prof. Silvia Gross (Padua) and Prof. Bernd Smarsly (JLU). 80 MSc and doctoral students from various European countries attended lectures of renowned experts such as Prof. Klaus Kümmerer (Lüneburg), a pioneer in the field of sustainable chemistry, and spurred lively discussions on strategies towards circularity. In addition, in a hackathon challenge the students focused on developing creative solutions to preset tasks in the field of electronic and textile waste.
Since the participating students expressed themselves very satisfied with the summer school and since “sustainability” is a focus area in chemistry and materials sciences at the partner institutions, it is planned to perform this joint summer school annually in the future.
- Kontakt:
Prof. Dr. Bernd Smarsly
Physikalisch-Chemisches Institut
Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, 35392 Gießen
Telefon: 0641 99-34590
bernd.smarsly