Industrial PhD at UNIBAS (Switzerland) and Heliospectra (Sweden)
Where are you working at the moment? Your position?
I'm doing an industrial/applied PhD together with the University of Basel and Heliospectra. Currently in Gøteborg, Sweden.
What are the tasks and responsibilities in your position?
Our actual experiments in science give results that are not always what we expect, so I’m trying to understand how the fluctuation of the environmental variables affect plants’ growth and how we can transfer this knowledge to our experiments to avoid opposite results. I spend my days between measurements and different applications or documents that are expected as outputs of the PhD.
What kind of education do you have?
I’m an agriculture engineer but I have been working mainly in research. After that I did a non-degree in statistics and my master in NMBU.
Have you found the education from NMBU relevant for your position?
Education is always relevant! In my case, specially the network that I was able to form during these years has been relevant to get my actual position and facilitate my actual work.
Why did you choose an education from NMBU?
Although the program in plant sciences is just a small program at NMBU, the highlight of NMBU is the big opportunities that NMBU offer you to study abroad or to connect with other countries/institutes/programs.
Do you have any advice for future students?
Specially for international students: Ås and NMBU are a nice combination and you will get to know a lot of people, but if you are staying longer than a normal Erasmus, I encourage you to try to spend time with Norwegians and learn the Norsk from the beginning. Building real relationships take time and effort…
Would you recommend NMBU to other students?
If I could repeat my master at NMBU I would do definitely do it!. A highly international environment together with a local Norwegian culture make NMBU a really nice place to do your master. Additionally, some of the programs are really good, what allow you to even “improve” your program adding different courses that you may be interested! Be picky, take lectures from other programs and don’t stay just with the basic program, after all, studying after university is really expensive…