Anna Oberle, PhD student
Mendelova univerzita v Brně (Mendel University in Brno, MENDELU)
How did you arrive in your current position?
In May 2018, one of my professors (FH Salzburg, Austria) organized a one-week excursion to several woodworking companies within Austria, Slovakia and Czech Republic. One-stop during the trip was dedicated to MENDELU in Brno. At that time, I was considering a PhD study. The deadline was approaching for applications for Brno, to be accurate the day after the arrival from the trip. During the trip, my current boss entered the bus and accompanied us to Útěchov and the Křtiny Castle. I was amazed by the laboratory equipment, chemical lab at the campus and research centre in Útěchov, and research projects background on the national and international level. It was what I was searching for. An additional point for choosing Brno was the "green paradise," i.e. arboretum belonging to the campus.
Open Science and especially Open Data is highly debated on various levels. What is your opinion?
Nowadays, thanks to the internet, distance and time delay does not play any role, and thus, scientific outputs are accessible almost without limitations. Open Science brings two important benefits: i) sharing the research findings with interested researchers, and ii) "news" distribution to people from the public and their education. If only researchers creating those new findings could look inside the issue/topic and nobody else could, research would not make enough sense.
Open Data also opens the question of not duplicating the data and security aspects (ownership vs access allowance). I believe that such things around databases will in the future be properly maintained. On the one hand, it might get more complicated to stay original and innovative with totally accessible data. On the other hand, being able to filter and select all similar trials done in some particular field until now would help in improving and distinguishing genuine, original works.
How do you maintain your work-life balance?
Honestly, this task I do not keep under proper control yet. There are times when I have more freedom and times when I work in a day-and-night regime. The issue with such time planning is that some tasks are not clear enough to get them done, for instance, the development of new methods, especially with biological material. They need to be completed within a short time (big boss: deadlines).
How difficult it is to have a carrier in science? How do you keep your motivation?
I am not able to say how difficult it is from my point of view. At my current stage, as a PhD student, I am still at the starting line. Science is, in general, a fast-changing field where researchers have to keep themselves updated and refresh their knowledge. Well, it seems to be quite tough, but life itself does not differ so much... Now, one of my favourite quotes from Albert Einstein fits at this point well: "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
Fortunately, I have great colleagues around me to learn from - not only how to deal with issues related to research and projects and how to build up new networks, but also how to get along well with other people. When deciding to pursue the PhD, I accepted the challenge. I try to see myself as a trainee who is allowed to try new things and technologies and thus, also to fail. Therefore, I appreciate the atmosphere at the department, which is focused on finding solutions, not excuses. Otherwise, my biggest motivators are curiosity, deadlines and great feeling after finishing intermediate goal.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°952314.