Program

The circular economy offers a wide range of opportunities for the European industry and society as a whole. Not only does it give companies the opportunity to be market pioneers and anticipate the changes they need, but it can also help to bring the necessary changes in consumer behavior. At the end of 2015, the Commission presented a comprehensive action plan for the transition to a circular economy covering all stages of the economic cycle from raw material to the recovery of secondary raw materials from primary products. The process of drawing up and implementing the action plan has made the concept of transition to a circular economy an integral part of the EU's overall economic strategy. The 54 steps of the action plan cover the entire value chain, from production and consumption to disposal and are implemented by the Commission since 2015.

All interested personen are invited to the KRÜGER-KOLLOQUIUM. The event is free of charge and not bound to a participation in the BHT - Freiberger University Forum. A separate registration is not required. After the presentation, there will be a opportunity to joint finger food and cold drinks and to discuss the topic.

The International Workshop E-Mobility & Circular Economy will be held for the first time in 2018. It respects the fact, that e-mobility will be a game changer for circular economy, since several classes of new materials are entering into the materials circle. On the other side the importance and market share of traditional construction materials e.g. casting aluminum will decrease in the future.

The conference will deal with technological and economical key questions arising from the processing of characteristic materials as they are used in e-mobility. It aims at showing new solutions for mechanical and metallurgical recycling as well as the substitution of conventional construction materials. Since more and more elements are needed and used to generate the electronical, electrical and mechanical properties in e-mobility trace and critical elements are also in the focus.

Winning of metals in general is confronted with a number of challenges, which include mining at larger depth and in more complex ore deposits, mining of mine and processing waste and tailings and (electronic) scrap, the requirement for leaving a lower footprint from mining activities, reduced consumption of drinking water etc. Specific challenges include the development of in situ-leaching strategies, and a special focus on the exploitation of economically strategic elements like indium, germanium or cobalt from regional sources. These regional sources include flotation tailings and mine dams from previous mining activities as well deposits of smelter dusts such as Theisen sludge. One option to approach these challenges is to develop new biohydrometallurgical or other improved hydrometallurgical strategies for the winning of metals.

The colloquium will touch on various issues related to winning of metals, from availability of rare metals and formation of deposits, via (bio-)leaching of ores and other materials, to winning of metals from the aqueous phase. Since the stability of biological processes is a key issue, the stresses to which the bacteria are exposed will be a topic well as the use of such stresses to achieve certain results. The colloquium will also be open for other biotechnological processes concerning metal winning or removal, e.g. using siderophores for metal extraction or for bioflotation.

The outcome of our research can never be seen as fully detached from our social surrounding.

We as PhD candidates are not only responsible to accurately conduct and document our results, but to discuss the impacts of our findings and debate the appropriate use of science in a social context. With climate change, increasing social injustice and the lacking accessibility of clean water breathing down our necks, we should never stop discussing our responsibilities as scientists when doing research and teaching students.

We therefore invite you to actively participate in this year's PhD conference organized by the PhD council of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg together with the PhD councils of the Verbund Mitteldeutscher Promovierendenvertretungen (VMPV) as a part of BHT Freiberg within the Forum of young Scientists. After an introduction to the topic by our key note speaker we will have contributed talks.

All PhD students are invited to give a talk on their research idealy including some thoughts about the role of responsibility in their work. If possible, the talks should be related to the BHT's topic 'Future Materials - Safe Resources Supply - Circular Economy'. However, the talks are not limited to that - every topic is welcome.

Please register with a tentative title of your presentation so we can assign you to the most appropriate session. At the end of each session, there will be a summarizing discussion of the talks in the session and giving feedback to the speakers.

Independent of talks, you can also contribute posters, which can be discussed within the coffee breaks. These will help to bring people from different fields together and to give the opportunity for networking and for planning future collaborations.

The 3rd interdisciplinary colloquium will take place on Thursday 7th June 2017 in the New Mensa, Conference room.

We will finish the day with a BBQ so you can further exchange your experiences with PhD candidates from different fields.

 More informations can be found under
http://tu-freiberg.de/prorat/upcoming-events/freiberger-promovierendenkonferenz

For further questions and suggestions feel free to contact us:

infoprorat [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de