Plantine-blog

Second stop: Greece with Eleni

The second stop of our little travel into the world of coffee is Greece, accompanied by Eleni.  I enjoyed our conversation from the start because she opened by saying that in Greece any time is coffee time! That’s how every Greek consumes 5.5 kg of coffee per year. Impossible you say?

Sun, 29 August 21

First stop: Indonesia with Lenny

I now realize that consciously or unconsciously I’ve been interested in getting to know somebody’s unique story and, through that, be able to connect with people. As Lenny nicely put it, I cannot just go around and suddenly come up to somebody asking ‘So, what’s your story?’. 

Mon, 07 June 21

Courtesy of A little bit Meg for the cover of this section. And if you like it, there is more from this comes from. Visit her IG page: https://instagram.com/alittlebitmeg?utm_medium=copy_link

PhD advice from Rishika

Rishika Agarwal is a scientist specialized in human skin organoids, who obtained her PhD at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

This scientific field is far from mine and it sparked curiosity in me. Before meeting her I read that organoid culture technology has advanced at an impressive pace in recent years, earning the title of “Method of the Year 2017” by Nature Methods for its transformative potential in studying human biology in both health and disease (Lancaster & Knoblich, 2014). These miniature, self-organizing 3D tissue models offer an unprecedented opportunity to bridge the gap between traditional 2D cell cultures and complex in vivo models, revolutionizing biomedical research (Agarwal et al., 2023). 

They sound like the perfect subject for a Sci-Fi story, right? 

Sun, 6 Apr 25

PhD advice from Elena

Did you ever drink an espresso (preferably) somewhere in Italy? If you close your eyes now, can you feel the nice energetic lift that drinking a good balanced espresso gives? Well… that’s Elena! Her words: if she was a coffee, she would be exactly an espresso! 

I hope you already had the pleasure to meet her! In this case, you know of what kind of passion I’m talking about. But in case you don’t know her yet, I’m sure you will want to connect with her as soon as you are done reading this post! 

Sun, 17 Sept 23

PhD advice from Dr Fabio Porru on mental health in academia

I belong to that category of people that had a difficult time during their PhD, not that I was depressed or unhappy, but I felt under constant strain. Every day. 

Although, I am sure a big portion of graduate students recognize this situation, I think it was not right to feel that way. 

The problem I see now is that what we experience during the PhD has consequences also afterwards. It is not going to go away just because we graduate. For this reason, taking care of your own mental health is important if you think about your whole working life in a sustainable way. 

Wed, 20 July 22

PhD advice from Juniper

Our brain’s objective is to allow us to survive by sticking to what we already know because that’s safe. That’s our comfort zone, the area where we survive. However, it’s only thanks to courage that we step away from the comfort zone and we go towards the area where magic happens. Only there, out there, we start LIVING! 

Thu, 30 September 21

PhD advice from Katharina

I recently had the opportunity to chat again with Katharina about her PhD path. She graduated last December and now she is happily working as Education Specialist in Wageningen.  Like, Miguel, she was one of my students during the MSc thesis.

Mon, 09 August 21

PhD advice from Miguel

Motivation is the process that starts, guides and sustains a PhD journey. At the beginning is the trigger that jump starts you. Afterwards, it becomes the drive that pushes you to continue till you reach your objective: getting the PhD. 

Sat, 10 July 21

Ode to failure in science

Some time ago I wrote a short post to a FB group of Italian researchers around the world asking if anyone would be willing to share his/her experience regarding an unforgettable mistake made in the lab that was powerful enough to teach him/her something important. 

I managed to get ghosted! Zero replies. And it made me think. Why is it so difficult to talk about mistakes and failures? I thought everybody would be sympathetic with such a question and also quick to unknowledge that failures are a huge part of their work. 

Thur, 25 Nov 2021

Ciao! Nice to have you here on my blog page.

My name is Michela and I have lived in the Netherlands for the past ten years. Still, when I have the chance to cook orecchiette con le rape you will know where my roots are, especially if you are Italian! Little help: I took this photo from Peschici, a town on the cost of Gargano. This is where I spent all my summers when I grew up.

Professionally speaking, I started by graduating in Agricultural Science and I specialised in Plant molecular biology and genetics by doing a PhD in Italy and in the Netherlands. So, it goes without saying, I love to be involved in scientific research. Since almost five years, I work as project manager in a Breeding company in the Netherlands.

During my long PhD life, and slightly before that, I met many people of different nationalities with whom I shared ideas, passions, struggles, dreams, hopes and advices. I received and learnt a lot from these exchanges and I want to give something back.

That’s why I hope you find here what you are looking for. And if not, write me and I will be more than happy to get in touch with you.