When is the open day taking place?

On 25 April, we warmly invite anyone interested to visit us between 10 am and 3 pm. We are expecting over 250 guests, including Gabriele Richter, the mayor of the island of Poel. 

Recently, however, a second well-known local politician has also been on the island.

Yes, indeed! From mid-May, Florian Lechner will take over as mayor. Many know him as a referee in the German second division. A native of the island of Poel, he has of course been invited and we hope he will come.

What can guests expect?

After the welcome, we will begin with two presentations. Nils Stein, head of the IPK’s ‘Genebank department’, will speak on the topic of ‘Plant Genetic Resources: Turning Old into New’. We are also delighted to welcome Bettina Eichler-Löbermann from the University of Rostock as a speaker. She will discuss biodiversity in the field, asking whether it presents a conflict or an opportunity for yield and resource conservation.

What else is on the programme?

Not only are we offering three guided tours of our Genebank in Malchow, but we are also offering several experiments and tastings. Klaus J. Dehmer, head of the ‘Satellite Collections North’ research group, will host two potato tasting sessions. Manuela Nagel, head of the ‘Cryo- and Stress Biology’ research group at the institute’s main site in Saxony-Anhalt, will demonstrate cryopreservation using liquid nitrogen at minus 196 °C.

Are there any other people from Gatersleben present at the open day?

As well as Nils Stein and Manuela Nagel, other colleagues from Gatersleben supporting us. They are manning information stands at our open day. Ulrike Lohwasser specialises in medicinal and aromatic plants. Christian Hertig and two colleagues will present genome editing, among other topics, and Kerstin Neumann will provide information about the large-scale citizen science experiment on bean diversity to anyone interested. This experiment forms part of the EU-funded research project INCREASE. I am delighted that our colleagues from Gatersleben are supporting us.

So, how well is Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania represented?

The University of Rostock, Wismar University of Applied Sciences, the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) in Groß Lüsewitz, the State Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) are all representing the region with information stands. 

In addition to our PhD student Nagarjun Devabhakthini, our colleagues from the IPK in Groß Lüsewitz are planning a stand too. This stand will focus on potatoes. At our Groß Lüsewitz site, we house one of the largest collections of potato-related biological diversity.

If people are unable to attend on 25 April, can they still find out about your work?

We are happy to offer guided tours to groups by request. In any case, there is plenty of information available on the Institute’s website, as well as in videos, leaflets, and brochures. The new leaflet for the Malchow site is now ready in time for the open day and available to download.

Following Evelin Willner’s departure, this is the first event of this kind that you have organised as lead organiser. How was that?

Enjoyable and exhausting! We started preparations at the end of last year, and everything went well. We’re already looking forward to the next open day, which will be held in Gatersleben in June.

You can find more details here: 
https://meetings.ipk-gatersleben.de/offenetuer-malchow/

Click here for the new leaflet.