This weeks PhDetails comes from Anna Feller who studies with me at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Anna and I are colleagues at Eawag, both being members of the Fish Ecology and Evolution group as well as being good friends, spending a fair bit of time chatting about evolution and our respective projects. Anna arrived at her PhD after doing an array of other jobs including teaching and is one of the most motivated PhD students I have ever met, working at quite a pace (which makes me feel guilty about my productivity sometimes!). She has worked in a variety of systems including stickleback and even helping us with breeding whitefish, but has most recently been getting stuck into the Lake Victoria cichlid radiation, the topic of her PhD. Todays interview is the fishiest PhDetails yet and I hope you enjoy!
The Beatles
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980
This question is impossible to answer! I listen to so many different genres and I repeatedly discover new favourites. At this very moment, I’m With Her, Pauline Croze, and Martha Argerich are the top three artists in my playlists.
Favourite movie?
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Where do you study and who is/are your supervisor(s)?
I study at the University of Bern (Aquatic Ecology group) and at Eawag (Fish Ecology and Evolution group) and my supervisor is Ole Seehausen. Additionally and more informally, Katie Peichel acts as co-advisor.
What year of your PhD are you in?
I have just started the second year.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
My projects are funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation through a grant to my supervisor, and my salary is paid by Eawag. It is for four years.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
Yes, my Bachelor’s thesis on stickleback behaviour is published in Evolutionary Ecology Research, and I’m a co-author on a Molecular Ecology paper on the same system.
Did you do a masters - was it about?
I did a Masters in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern. I studied how morphological and behavioural ‘novelty’ can arise via transgressive segregation in cichlid hybrids.
What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
I loved the fieldwork I had to do for my Bachelor’s thesis. It involved locating, observing, photographing and finally catching threespine stickleback males on their nest sites in a 3-4 m deep really cold pond. I was frozen through and through after every dive, but it was so interesting and often funny to observe these animals, and taking a hot shower afterwards always felt like the best thing ever.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during fieldwork – did it work?
Hmm… all I can think of just now is a silly story involving a minnow trap – I had not bothered to take a new piece of line to attach to it and instead I just tied two old lines together, which of course came apart when I threw it into the water. I swear that minnow trap flew in slow motion and I while it was flying I had loads of time to anticipate how cold it will be to go into the water and dive down to get it back out…
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
You need to be convinced that a project and the lab are right for you - three years or more is a long time to spend on something (or somewhere) you don’t really like. So take your time to figure this out for yourself.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
To me it is important that a supervisor is (still) excited about their work, including that of their students, and that they value their students - their work and them as human beings. Also, being able to give constructive feedback is a really important trait in my opinion.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Unsupportive and uncaring are probably two of the worst traits a supervisor could have, I think.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I am investigating the genetics/genetic architecture underlying traits that are important to (rapid) speciation in East African cichlid fishes.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Winning the internal poster competition at our institute felt pretty good – it’s nice to see your work is appreciated.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
Dolph Schluter
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
There’s many great scientists out there I’d like to talk to.
Do you have a favourite paper?
I couldn’t say!
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
Going to the ESEB (European Society for Evolutionary Biology) congress in Groningen last year was a good experience - interacting with people from all over the world who have similar interests was great.
What hours do you typically work?
I like having a routine, so I usually stick to regular office hours, meaning I start sometime between 8 and 9am and finish sometime between 5 and 7pm. But there is always the odd day or week with weird and sometimes very long hours, especially when I’m doing labwork.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your phd?
I play music (mostly the bassoon, with which I more or less regularly play in an orchestra and in a wind quintet), and I go running. Usually I do a little bit of both but focus on one more for certain phases - ah, the days are just too short for everything I’d like to do! It is also really important to me to spend time with my friends and family.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your phd what would you wish for?
To slow down time to at least half the speed at which it is currently running!
What would be your dream job?
One that allows me to do something I really like (and that could be many things but with doing basic research being the most exciting thing to me), and that allows for a good work-life balance.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Doing a Postdoc abroad somewhere. If I had to choose only based on geography I would probably pick Scandinavia.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Exciting
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
Run a 10k in less than 50 minutes.
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