Carsten Montzka

I really appreciate AGYA members’ broad scientific expertise, creativity and motivation to move things forward.

Both climate change as well as societal and political transformations are increasing pressure on local and global water resources. Such changes require innovative strategies for securing agricultural production, particularly in Arab countries. AGYA membership has provided optimal conditions in which to learn about perceptions, technical challenges, and possible solutions for such water problems in relation to science, society, economics and politics. With several of my fellow AGYA members, I published a review paper about the potential of salt plants for biofuel production, a topic I would have never considered as a hydrologist and soil scientist without AGYA’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research cooperation. We later developed this paper into a comic explaining the topic to the general public, which was a new and innovative medium for me. In another interesting AGYA project, I analysed contaminants in food crops that originated from wastewater irrigation. AGYA’s innovative, collaborative, and transcultural environment has opened up new intellectual horizons for me beyond the natural sciences, contributing new perspectives, for example, in how I approach monuments, lyrics and art.