Andrea Bues and William Leiser win the Hans H. Ruthenberg-Graduate- Award 2011. Bues was awarded 2500 Euros for her master thesis work in Ethiopia, which focused on institutional analysis of agricultural foreign direct investment, water rights and conflicts. A student of Humbolt University, Berlin, Bues' research was able examine how access to water resources can contribute to alleviating poverty. Leiser from University of Hohenheim, won 2500 Euros for his work in Mali. He studied the variation for adaptation of sorghum to low phosphorous soils. His research is an effective contribution towards the reduction of hunger and improvement of food security. This award is given by the Fiat Panis Foundation. This year's jury members comprised of Prof. Tilman Brueck (Humboldt-University of Berlin), Prof. Ulrike Grote (University of Hannover) and Prof. Joachim Sauerborn (University of Hohenheim). The jury decided the award based on scientific excellence, innovation and applicability. (By : Priyanka Parvathi and Divya Rajeswari Swaminathan)

The following international scientific events and conferences have opened their registrations and are calling for paper submissions: The R User Conference 2011 will take place at the University of Warwick , Coventry on 16-18 August 2011. The conference is organized by the Department of Statistics, University of Warwick and supported by the R Foundation for Statistical Computing . Prior to the conference, on Monday 15 August 2011, tutorials will be offered at the conference website . Each tutorial has a length of 3 hours and takes place either in the morning or afternoon. Early registration & abstracts submission deadline: 1st April 2011. Registration deadline: 27th May 2011 The 2011 IASC European conference is organized by the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) . This year’s conference will be hosted by the Agricultural University of Plovdiv , Bulgaria on 14-18 September 2011 under the topic “Shared Resources in a Rapidly Changing World”. Prominent keynote speakers, including Jouni Paavola, Konrad Hagedorn, Marco Janssen, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Susan Buck and Tine de Moore, have agreed to participate.