Skander Elleuche

When I arrived at my first AGYA General Assembly in 2014, I immediately felt welcome. There is something special about the environment the academy fosters that highly motivates its members to work towards common values and visions. For me, AGYA was a place to develop new skills and establish collaborative interdisciplinary projects. I enjoyed making contact with young academics outside my research field and discussing topics as a microbiologist with, for instance, sociologists, hydrologists, political scientists and historians.

AGYA provides the opportunity to meet young, highly motivated scientists and the chance to realize your most creative ideas laying foundations for ambitious project plans. But it is also a place to make new friends!

My favorite project was a joint review article on salt-tolerant plants as a potential source of bioenergy. The article also resulted in a science comic and a method article on the development of such comics. The topic generated outreach and led to the presentation of our technique at conferences and on blogs and webinars. Through this project, we developed the character of the science jinn that has since become a kind of honorary member of the academy.