Science Breakfast

On the first Wednesday of every month during the lecture term, BioTechMed-Graz organizes a Science Breakfast.

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Next Event:

The next BioTechMed-Graz Science Breakfast will take place on October 4, 2023 after the summer break.

HS-Prof. ILn Mag. Dr. Silke Luttenberger, BEd from the Pädagogische Hochschule Steiermark will give a lecture on the topic „Empowering Girls in STEM: Bridging the Educational Gap“.

There are many situations where girls and women lose interest or fail to build up interest in STEM over their formative years from childhood to school and tertiary education. Pathways into STEM careers are not only related to personal factors like building up a positive self-concept. Teachers can serve as catalysts for change, providing vital support and encouragement on the path to STEM careers. This talk will focus on a training intervention for elementary pre-service and in-service teachers for promoting girls (and boys) in STEM.

You can register here until October 2, 2023.

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Past Events:

The BioTechMed-Graz Science Breakfast took place on June 7, 2023 with Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katja Corcoran from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Graz. She gave a talk on „The climate crises – a collective problem asks for a collective solution“. Psychology focuses on the individuum, but humans are social beings and social groups are part of their identity. To solve collective problems these social identities might be an important asset. Prof. Corcoran presented the research focusing on social identity aspects to explain sustainable energy behavior and introduced the understanding of energy citizenship. (Digest - German only)

Assoc.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Spirk from the Institute of Bioproducts and Paper Technology at the Graz University of Technology, gave a talk on „Renewable energy storage materials - myth or reality?“ on May 3,2023. Energy storage materials have been dominated by compounds which have a rather poor environmental performance. This includes the electrochemically active materials based on inorganic materials, polymer separators as well as electrodes. In this talk, Prof. Spirk summarizes recent developments in the usage of renewable materials in such applications, with emphasis on polysaccharides and lignin derived compounds. He also covers issues related to the availability and sustainability aspects related to the production, use and after end of life of selected components.

Ass.-Prof. Mathias Benedek, Head of the Creative Cognition Lab at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Graz, gave an exciting talk on "Creativity - Myths and Facts" at the BioTechMed-Graz Science Breakfast on April 12, 2023. This talk corrected some popular notions about creativity such as the importance of the right hemisphere of the brain, the role of spontaneous insight, higher creativity in children in the context of available empirical evidence, and derived implications for promoting creativity in scientific work. (Digest - German only)

On March 8, 2023, DI Dr. Alexandra Ribarits, Senior Expert at the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) gave a lecture on the topic "Seeds: Facts and myths". In the lecture, Ms. Ribartis showed, among other things, the beauty of seeds, gave insights into the multi-layered procedure of seed certification and touched on the topic of genetic modification. Finally, with regard to seeds, she pointed out aspects of the prevailing climate crisis as well as the need for biodiversity. (Digest - German only)

University assistant Gabriela Hofer, PhD and research associate Hilmar Brohmer, PhD, both at the Institute of Psychology, both running the Graz Open Science Initiative (GOSI), gave a talk on January 11th, 2023 on „How Open Science Practices Improve Research" and provided suggestions how researcher can start implementing Open Science practices in their workflow. (Digest - German only)

More information on the past BioTechMed-Graz Science Breakfasts: