{"id":331,"date":"2017-04-19T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T10:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/?p=331"},"modified":"2018-02-16T11:20:57","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T10:20:57","slug":"plant-genomics-and-early-academic-life-with-new-phd-malene-nygard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/2017\/04\/19\/plant-genomics-and-early-academic-life-with-new-phd-malene-nygard\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Plant Genomics and Early Academic Life with New PhD Malene Nyg\u00e5rd"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NTNU University Museum plays home to a number of diverse subspecies of academics: master\u2019s students, PhD candidates, research technicians to name a few. I spoke to Malene Nyg\u00e5rd, who has been all three over the last three years, about designing her own Masters and PhD theses, her international master\u2019s course and getting past \u2018winter depression\u2019 in Trondheim.<\/p>\n

\"Picture
Malene started her PhD at NTNU University Museum this year. Photo: Mika Bendiksby, NTNU University Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Malene, you completed almost your entire Masters program down here at the University Museum, how did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was part of the NABIS program<\/a>, a Scandinavian Masters program in Biodiversity and Systematics. It\u2019s a collaboration between 7 Scandinavian universities. I took online courses and wrote my thesis down here at the Museum.<\/p>\n

How did you find your thesis project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I heard they were going to start a project on Carex<\/em> species (sedges), and I really love Carex<\/em>. I was really fascinated by them during my floristics course. They\u2019ve got a really complex history, there\u2019s a lot of hybridisation between them. So once I heard they were going to start a project I made contact and told them I wanted to be a part of this.<\/p>\n

Magni Kyrkjeeide<\/a>, who now works at NiNA, she was a teacher\u2019s assistant during that floristics course I took in my Bachelors. Magni knew that I was interested in Carex<\/em>, so she contacted me and put me in touch with the right people.<\/p>\n

In total it was one year, but the work took place over two years. I actually started my field work before I started my Masters. I said I wanted to be a part of the project during the last year of my Bachelors, so half a year before I was finished I knew the project I wanted to work with.<\/p>\n

Was the project a deciding factor in bringing you to the museum?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely, but I also knew I wanted to study Biosystematics, and that\u2019s mostly done here, at the NTNU University Museum.<\/p>\n

Tell me about the goals of your thesis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a population genetic study of 2 threatened Carex <\/em>species. People disagree about the delimitation of species within the Ceratocystis (a small group within Carex<\/em>), where these two sedges belong. The largest disagreement concerns Carex jemtlandica<\/em> and Carex lepidocarpa, <\/em>whether they are one or two species. We wanted to study the population genetic structure to see if they are genetically distinct and if they are hybridising in natural populations. So I included almost all the Norwegian species in Ceratocystis<\/em>, and it was a huge dataset. We ended up limiting the dataset so it didn\u2019t get too big. I have plans to use all the data in future publications.<\/p>\n

Did you manage to draw any conclusions from your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found two separate genetic clusters that corresponded to two separate morphologies, which was interesting.\u00a0 Also, gene flow occurred between them. There was both hybridisation and introgression (when hybrids repeatedly back-cross with parental species) occurring between them, but they still remained genetically distinct, even in locations where they co-occurred. It\u2019s difficult to say if we should consider them as species or subspecies, but they should definitely be considered as two genetically distinct clusters.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Carex jemtlandica<\/em> (probably). Photo: Heidi Solstad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who was your supervisor for the project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mika Bendiksby<\/a>. We have a really nice connection, and Mika makes it really easy to open up and discuss your weaknesses. She turns it into a strength, by helping you overcome those weaknesses. If she\u2019s not an expert on the area you\u2019re working with, she will find the right person to help you. If she can\u2019t help you directly she\u2019ll find someone who can.<\/p>\n

Your master\u2019s course, were there opportunities to meet other students?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I had a course in Uppsala in Sweden as well, near the start of the course. It was the second course of the program. The first part was internet based, with individual tasks and exercises. Then we met in Sweden and had practical training and collected material. We worked in a lab, analysed the results, and got to know each other. It\u2019s important to be able to put a face to a person if you\u2019re going to be working together over a few years. There were 6 of us in my cohort.<\/p>\n

I would imagine that would produce some pretty handy connections?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure. I still have contact with most of the people from the course. Some of the people from Sweden are now doing PhDs as well. I\u2019m meeting one of them in a conference in Gothenburg. We discuss projects, we talk about different ways we\u2019ve solved problems and such.<\/p>\n

So what happened after you\u2019d finished your Master\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Five days after I finished my thesis, I started work here as a technician.<\/p>\n

How did you organise that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mika knew that I wanted to stay on at the museum and do a PhD, and she knew that it\u2019s hard to stay in the academic circle if you don\u2019t do anything academically. So Mika applied for money for different pilot studies for me to work on and I got the position as a technician. I worked here for 5 months, spending time in the lab, herbarium, and filling in for Mika a lot. We had to reorganise a lot of the herbarium material, and helped prepare for the installation of a new archiving system.<\/p>\n

I successfully applied during the end of my Masters for a PhD, and that started in February.<\/p>\n

\"Mika
Mika and Malene at work- «It’s important to find a supervisor that you can connect with». Photo: Vibekke Vange<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How have the first few months of your PhD been?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really like it. I get to design my own project, of course it\u2019s hard when you have to build it from scratch, but I think it will help me be more interested in everything and build motivation, because it feels more like it\u2019s my project.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be working with conservation genomics on red-listed plants in Norway, specifically the Trondheim area. In order to conserve the species diversity, we need to know what species exist and their ecological needs to maintain a viable population. I\u2019ll be using a genomics approach to identify, describe and delimit diversity in different threatened vascular plants, and unravel processes that influence the genetic diversity within and between these species.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the environment like at the museum?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really good, especially now that we have a lot of new young people. It\u2019s such a social environment, it\u2019s a small institution so it\u2019s more cosy, compared to Gl\u00f8shaugen where you could walk by the person sitting in the office next to you and never really talk to them. But here you really get to know other people, what they\u2019re like, what they\u2019re working on. You can also learn more about other disciplines.<\/p>\n

What brought you to Trondheim originally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m originally from Kristiansand, but I wanted to study somewhere else, I wanted something new. I went directly from high school to university, and didn\u2019t have the time to travel, so I wanted to experience something new while I was studying.<\/p>\n

So how do you enjoy life in Trondheim?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah it\u2019s great! I had some problems after about 4 years, I had really bad winter depression, which made it tough. I was thinking about moving south after my Masters. But then the summer came back and all these bad thoughts went away. So now I take supplements during the winter and everything\u2019s fine. I learned that every bad thought that I had put down to overwork was just a product of the winter.<\/p>\n

Do you have any advice for people looking for a master\u2019s thesis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to find a supervisor that you can connect with and work really well with. It\u2019s possible to complete a masters without that, but it makes it a bit more difficult. As long as you have a really interesting subject it\u2019s easy to get focussed and be motivated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NTNU University Museum plays home to a number of diverse subspecies of academics: master\u2019s students, PhD candidates, research technicians to name a few. I spoke to Malene Nyg\u00e5rd, who has been all three over the last three years, about designing her own Masters and PhD theses, her international master\u2019s course and getting past \u2018winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[49,50],"class_list":["post-331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-and-interviews","tag-genetics","tag-master-project","byline-sam-perrin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.vm.ntnu.no\/naturviten\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}