ESR8- PhD Journey with MonoGutHealth
Three years of MonoGutHealth work went by fast, even faster than expected. Looking back, I cannot believe how much happened, how much I learned and changed. I chose this project to pursue my passion for chickens, to learn more about them and maybe help improve the conditions for commercial chickens. And looking back, this was a great decision. With the involvement in MonoGutHealth, I got even more than I expected. These are my highlights from the last three years:
The first highlight is that I got to live in the beautiful city of Aarhus in Denmark and thereby get to know a new country and working environment. I spent a really great and enriching time there, met amazing people and collected lots of memories. The Department of Food Science is an international and welcoming institution and despite arriving during Covid I felt part of the community from the beginning on.
Soon, I got to know my fellow MonoGutHealth ESRs during the first training school in Bydgoszcz, Poland. These training schools were highlights during the PhD because I got to see new places in Poland, Ireland, and Denmark, spent time with amazing people and got valuable input for research and links to the industry.
After my first experiment, my first secondment was planned, a research stay at the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz were I learned new methods in the lab and got to participate in interesting experiments. I am really grateful to everyone involved for making this a comfortable and fruitful stay!
Finally, everyone met again at the EAAP meeting 2023 in Lyon, which was my first conference with my own presentation and thus a special experience. The event was quite big, with professionals and scientists from all fields related to animal science and therefore a big and diverse audience to communicate my research. I didn’t expect to have this opportunity and I know that this is not something that every PhD student gets to experience.
The last months of the PhD were busy, as expected, but now I am grateful for the whole experience and very happy that I had the opportunity to participate in project MonoGutHealth, which not only enabled me to pursue a PhD degree, but also gave me a great network and many chances to connect to other scientists and the industry. Thanks to everyone involved!