PPC interview with....

What is your PhD topic?

My PhD topic is to analyse European forest regrowth rates. For this we use repeated national forest inventory data that many European countries have been collecting over the last decades. We compare how much carbon the forests had stored in the past and how this changes in following measurements over the next years and decades. From this we can assess the regrowth rates of different forests. 

These rates are then useful for all kind of carbon accounting models and to inform management and climate policy.

When you applied for this job, what interested you the most about the PhD topic?

During my master’s, and as a project assistant after my master’s, I did global mechanistic vegetation modelling. And while I like that a lot, you don't actually see what’s happening on the ground or what the forests look like. I think it was crucial for me to find a PhD that included fieldwork and would allow me to work more directly with real data, while also complementing my background of global or big pattern thinking. Therefore this position worked quite well for me. 

What is your favourite thing about the research groups you work in?

In FEM I like the scientific exchange and the international bubble. In SFE I like the general support for research ideas, generally in whatever direction I want to investigate. 

What is something that you would like to contribute to these groups?

At FEM, everyone loves to study tropical forests. I'm trying to keep people interested in the forest around us instead of always looking overseas into these, you know, warm regions. On the SFE side, I like to bring knowledge on mechanistic modelling and big data management, as we work in a field with growing datasets. I think the group is generally quite appreciative of this. 

How has this project so far influenced or changed you as a person or maybe your goals or future interests?

As a master student, you mostly work on your own on a little problem. Sure, you talk to your supervisors, but it's not really integrated into a bigger context. Now, for my PhD, there is a large network. I’ve visited research groups in Munich, in Oslo and Umeå. We can link our ideas and see how our research interests can combine into a larger project. I appreciate that a lot.