Invitation - Prof. Marcel Jansen's inaugural lecture as honorary doctor - Plant Biology

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Hereby, we cordially invite our students and colleagues to the inaugural lecture of prof. Marcel AK Jansen, who comes from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Ireland. The professor shall be the honorary doctor of our Faculty and he will hold his lecture on the 11th of March 2026, Wednesday, 15:00 (3 PM), at the Faculty's Boardroom (A/230) ("Kari Tanácsterem").

The title of the presentation:

Duckweed (Lemnaceae); from green nuisance weed to hero of the circular economy

Topic:

Duckweeds (Lemnaceae) are free floating aquatic plants that thrive in slow flowing rivers, streams and freshwater lakes. Effective dispersal, via epizoochory and endozoochory, has resulted in these species being widespread across the globe. Rapid growth, with in some cases doubling times from as little as two days, means that these weeds can dominate aquatic ecosystems with negative impacts on other forms of aquatic life.

Rapid duckweed growth is paralleled by rapid uptake of plant nutrients from the water, and this makes duckweed of considerable interest for remediation of eutrophic waters, and ultimately valorisation of wastewaters in line with the concept of the circular economy. The circular economy considers wastewater as a new resource. In the case of agricultural and food processing industries, such wastewater typically contains substantial concentrations of valuable plant nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus. By capturing these plant nutrients, nutrients are retained, and the
unsustainable need for synthetic fertilisers is decreased. Valorisation relates to the value of the duckweed biomass as an alternative to imported soybean in animal feeds, based on high protein content and good amino acid profile.

In the presentation, data will be presented on the growth of duckweed on wastewater, the development of cultivation systems and the challenge of upscaling from laboratory-based, small-scale experiments to large-scale, semi-commercial circular economy applications.