Ceremonial presentation of the doctoral degree: Prof. Dr Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimura (HUB), Marco Donat, Dr Kathrin Grahmann (ZALF), Prof. Dr Ralf Bloch (HNEE) | Source: David Lukow.

Successful promotion of Marco Donat

After 3.5 years as a doctoral student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin under the supervision of Prof. Dr Sonoko Dorothea Bellingrath-Kimura and at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research under the supervision of Dr Kathrin Grahmann, Marco Donat successfully completed his doctorate on 30 May 2024 with the topic “Digital tools to analyse high-dimensional data sets for diversified fields arrangements”.

Since 2019, he has been working in the “Resource-efficient cropping systems” working group and has worked on the projects “DAKIS – Digital Knowledge and Information System for Agriculture” and “patchCROP – An experimental approach to agricultural diversification through patch-like field arrangements at landscape level: The landscape laboratory “patchCROP””. We congratulate Marco Donat on his successfully defended dissertation and wish him all the best for the future.

To the publications:

• Patch cropping- a new methodological approach to determine new field arrangements that increase the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes
• Field path optimisation to reduce headland and turning maneuvers at regional scales: automated detection of cultivation direction in the state of Brandenburg, Germany
• Orientation of tree rows in alley cropping systems matters – The “ShadOT” modelling tool for tree growth and shading effects