The Sustainable Food Systems Research Centre consists of an interdisciplinary group of professors and researchers across the different faculties of Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, to join forces and combine existing natural, engineering, social and economic expertise. The common goal of all members is to conduct research to help transform our food systems towards more sustainability.
Board
Florian Wichern
Professor of Soil Science and Plant NutritionSpokesperson of the Research Centre
Florian Wichern´s research focuses on improving nutrient and carbon use efficiency of food systems. He aims to quantify nutrient flows at different scales from the plant-soil-microbe interface to the regional scale in order to assess management and abiotic stress effects on soil organic matter accumulation and nutrient provision to plants.
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Alexander Struck
Professor for Theoretical Physics
Alexander Struck is interested in mathematical modelling of complex systems and advanced data analytics. His actual research focuses on machine learning algorithms for optical and spectroscopical data to determine microbiological organisms on various surfaces qualitatively and quantitatively.
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Nele Vahrenhorst
Project Coordinator ´SDG-Partnership`Steffi Wiedemann
Professor of Animal Science and Environmental Impacts
Steffi Wiedemann´s areas of interests include the characterization of biotic and abiotic effects on the welfare, health and performance of farm animals in different environments and in the establishment of preventive measures taking into account the production of safe food.
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Members
Rolf Becker
Professor of Physics with Focus on Sensors and MechatronicsPetra Blitgen-Heinecke
Professor of Process Engineering
Petra Blitgen-Heinecke´s research interests are engineering of processes and sustainable design of regional materials flows, especially food waste flows like coffee ground in order to use them as a raw material for the production of higher value goods.
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Dirk Bockmühl
Professor of Hygiene and Microbiology
Dirk Bockmühl´s research focuses on the analysis of microbial communities in the non-clinical setting and the investigation of antimicrobial efficacy of laundering, dishwashing and cleaning processes. The research also tries to elucidate the role of antimicrobial resistance in the domestic environment and the interactions with other areas, such as agriculture.
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Christoph Böhmer
Professor of PhysiologyBinal Dobariya
Research associate, Project ´Sufachain`Jens Gebauer
Professor of Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems
Jens Gebauers´ applied teaching and research activities are based on botanical knowledge, horticultural know-how, and interdisciplinary, regional and international cooperation.
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Maria Gomez Vale
Research associate and Start-up Scout Start Glocal
Maria Gomes Vale´s current research interests lay on interactions among environment, trade, and health; with the use of geographical evaluation methods and econometric modelling.
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Yahia Gumaa
Professor of Social Economics of Natural Resources ManagementJannike van Bruggen
Research associate and project coordinator ‘SUFACHAIN’
Jannike van Bruggen’s research interest lies in understanding climate change impacts on smallholder farming systems and their adaptive capacity, in particular in relation to agricultural water management. She has experience working on farm household level as well as on larger spatial scale combining information from household surveys with remotely sense information through geostatistical modelling approaches.
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Ute Hansen
Professor of Biology and environmental monitoring
Ute Hanse´s actual research focus is on new fast methods to detect microbiological contaminations relevant for sustainable food systems through applications in both, food production and monitoring of the safety of treated wastewater reused for agricultural irrigation.
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Lily Chambers
Professor of Bionics
Lily Chambers´ research interests are in Biomimetics and include the development of surfaces, sensors and actuators that mimic biological principles. Her expertise includes bio-inspired and soft robotics, flow sensors, antifouling surfaces and artificial muscles.
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Ronny Hartanto
Professor of Technical Computer Science
Ronny Hartanto´s research interests include the precision farming including robotics and application of the information technology in the agriculture domain as well as machine interpretation of the collected data from the farm or environment.
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Klaus Hegemann
Professor of Economics, Corporate Social Responsibility und Business EthicsMichael Hemkemeyer
Project coordinator‘C:N:P:et al.’
Michael Hemkemeyer’s research interest is in the field of soil microbial ecology. It focusses on the one hand on functions related to the stoichiometry of soil microbial biomass elements beyond carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus and on the other hand on soil particle size fractions as colonisation sites and microhabitats.
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Drini Imami
Project Coordinator ´SusAVaIR`Ingrid Jungwirth
Professor of Social Sciences, Focus on Diversity and Inclusion
Ingrid Jungwirth´s research fields are mobility and migration, gender and diversity studies, sociology of work and gender as well as social theories. Her research and teaching focus on questions of participation in society.
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Matthias Kleinke
Professor of Environmental Technology
Matthias Kleinke´s research interests are applied environmental research and the recycling of material flow. Prof. Kleinke considers implementation-oriented cooperation with companies in the region as well as cooperation with international partners to be indispensable.
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Kerstin Koch
Professor of Biology and Nanobiotechnology
Kerstin Koch´s main fields of research: origin and functions of micro- and nanostructures on biological surfaces. Solid-liquid interfaces at superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, structure formation by molecular self-assembly, molecular architectur of plant waxes, self-healing and crystallinity of plant waxes, development of biomimetic surfaces, e.g. with replica techniques.
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Waltraud Kofer
Projects ´Green FabLab` and ´HAW.International Modul B`Ana Kreter
Project coordinator ´Agroforestry Living Laboratory`, TransRegINTFlorian Kugler
Professor of Food Science and TechnologyNatalie Laibach
Professor of Sustainable Land Use Systems
Natalie Laibach’s research activities are directed towards the integration of plant resources in sustainable land use and food systems. They encompass plant metabolism, sterol biosynthesis, environmental impacts as well as sustainable technology management. She believes dialog between stakeholders & an interdisciplinary perspective are crucial for successful transformation and transfer.
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Daniela Lud
Professor of Environmental assessment and remediationWilliam Megill
Professor of Bionics, Focus on Sensors and RoboticsMaryam Mehri
Research associatein the third-party funded project "Pro4-HSRW"
Maryam Mehri's research focus includes Life cycle and Impact assessment, Risk analysis, Determination of the elemental composition, Data classification, Verification of sustainability standards and labels.
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Jannis Menne
Research Associate ´Agroforestry Living Laboratory`, TransRegINT
Jannis Menne's research interest
is the interaction between
(agro-)silvopastoral systems and livestock husbandry within the context of environmental factors and animal welfare. Employing a technology-based approach, the aim is to gain a better understanding of the environmental and animal welfare implications of agroforestry systems.
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Ute Merbecks
Professor of Sustainable Finance und Sustainability Reporting
Ute Merbecks´ current research interests are in the field of sustainability reporting across different industries, e.g., the food industry. Additionally, corporate responsibility in the digital age is on her research agenda. Her expertise lies in the areas of corporate finance, management accounting, financial accounting, group control, and risk management.
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Anna-Lea Ortmann
Research Associate ´Agroforestry Living Laboratory`, TransRegINTZhyldyz Oskonbaeva
Research associate ´Influence of environmental factors on walnut quality`
Simone Pauling
Professor of Safety, Quality control, Health and Environmental Protection
Simone Pauling´s research interests include quality and sustainability along agri-food chains, in regional as well as global value chains. It is her aim to foster the production of safe, high quality, affordable and sustainable food while safeguarding the natural environment, using natural resources sensibly and enabling all participants in the supply chains a good living standard.
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Frank Platte
Professor of Chemical Process EngineeringPhilip Schierning
Project ´Sufachain`, Development of sustainable agroforestry systems
Philip Schierning´s research focuses on agroforestry systems in Central Asia, particularly the sustainable management of apricot and walnut orchards in Kyrgyzstan. He explores how agroforestry can enhance resilience and sustainability in these systems, with a strong connection to the SUFACHAIN project and his PhD work.
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Roland Schmetz
Professor of Drivetrain Engineering, Power Electronics
Roland Schmetz´s research interests focus on energy-efficient and sustainable drive systems, the efficient energy supply of (mobile) machinery, tractors, other agricultural machinery, construction machinery and (rail) vehicles including appropriate methodology and energy and environmental impact analyses for their development, design and comparison.
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Sanja Schwalb
Research AssociateProject INGRAIN Component
Neil Shirtcliffe
Professor of Biomaterials
Neil Shirtcliffe´s research interests incl. measuring the degradation of biomaterials; investigating superhydrophobicity and similar phenomena, interactions of implants, measuring and extracting information from spectroscopy and electrochemistry in the food field that involved analysing spectra to detect bacteria on the surface and reactions of polyphenols in food.
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