Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

Dr Silke Merchel from Germany, for instance, spent her fellowshipat the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement desGéosciences de l’Environnement (Cerege) in France. ‘For me, thegeological focus in the training was key in order to understandthe power of cosmogenic nuclides for geological applications,’she says. ‘Fortunately, this kind of education was not onlyperformed at the beginning of the project. Later, I learned howto take samples the best way possible. I also saw my fi rstglacier ever and witnessed the results of the forces of ice on theunderlying bedrock, which allow the dating of glacier movementsand reconstruction of climatic changes in the past. In return,I could play a part in Cronus-EU by improving the chemicalseparation procedures, which are needed to successfully performcosmogenic nuclide dating.’Dr Merchel believes that her current position, as the headof the ion beam analysis division at the ForschungszentrumDresden-Rossendorf in Germany, came her way preciselybecause of these experiences.Fellow countryman Björn Schneider, PhD at the time of hisfellowship at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands,feels that Cronus-EU has contributed to his professionalprospects to no small extent by providing a wealth of networkingopportunities very early in his scientifi c career. In addition, theinternational character of the network proved to have huge value.‘Having graduated in Germany, my international experience wasrather limited,’ he admits. ‘The Cronus-EU network was likea guided tour through the international world of sciencefor me. Besides showing me the principles of an internationalscientifi c network, it stimulated the acquisition and transfer ofknowledge to the benefi t of the work of others and myself. Thesupport from multiple institutes was of great help for decidingon a research strategy early on.’Project acronymCronus-EUFull project titleCosmic ray produced nuclide systematics on Earth –the European contributionType of grantTraining NetworkBudgetEUR 3.42 millionDuration of project01-12-2004 - 31-11-2009Scientific disciplineEnvironmentLead partnerUniversity of EdinburghSchool of GeosciencesDrummond StreetGB-Edinburgh EH8 9XPCoordinator: Dr Tibor J. Dunai // e-mail: tabor.dunai@ed.ac.ukHost institutionsUniversity of Edinburgh, United Kingdom - Glasgow University,United Kingdom - ETH Zürich, Switzerland - GFZ-Potsdam, Germany - UniversitätHannover, Germany - Cerege, Aix-en-Provence (CNRS), France - CRPG, Nancy(CNRS), France - University Bratislava, Slovenia - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,Netherlands - Utrecht University, NetherlandsOther partnersTU-München (Germany, subcontractor to UHann)31