This weeks PhDetails features another Silwood alumnus who chose to do his PhD in Switzerland, Josep Ramoneda. Josep started his studies in Spain before moving to Imperial for his Masters and then onto the ETH in Zurich for his PhD. Josep has already had a fruitful scientific career and is probably the fastest person I have ever heard to have published his masters thesis with (if i'm not mistaken) the paper accepted before he even finished his masters. He has also made significant moves between subjects which I admire, pursuing topics which really inspire and excite him. I hope this interview can provide an insight into how changing subjects can really work and give some of you the inspiration to move sideways into topics which might interest you, even if the prospect is scary!
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff. What's your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Miles Davis’ sextet that recorded the album Kind of Blue, which included John Coltrane and Bill Evans, among others.
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Inherited from my parents: JJ Cale and Carlos Santana.
Favourite movie?
I couldn’t choose a single one, emotionally I choose The Return of the King, rationally Rope.
Where do you study and who is/are your supervisor(s)?
I am currently at the Group of Plant Nutrition, at ETH Zürich. My supervisors are Prof. Emmanuel Frossard, Prof. Jaco Le Roux and Dr. Beat Frey.
What year of your PhD are you in?
I am halfway in my 2nd year.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
My project is funded for 3 years by the World Food Systems Center, an organization belonging to the ETH.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
I have 3 publications. The first one came from a collaboration during my Bachelor studies in Barcelona, in which we investigated sexual phenotype modification in mites by parasitic nematodes, published in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. The following ones came from microcosm experiments I did during my masters, both dealing with bacterial community assembly and invasion, published in Ecology and Ecology Letters.
Did you do a masters - was it about?
I did a Masters of Research in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College London. I did both master theses on microbial ecology. The first one looked at how the successional stage and composition of a bacterial community can buffer the expansion of another bacterial invader. The second one studied the composition and abundance of cyanobacterial mat communities from seasonally connected lakes in Antarctica.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
Difficult to remember, I think 6 in total. I had very broad interests in community ecology, but I wanted to relate to the topics I touched during the masters or bachelor theses. At the same time, I was willing to expand on new molecular methods I was learning back then. I applied for projects as diverse as pollination networks, plant herbivores, soil microbes, and even bats!
What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
The fieldwork during my 1st year of the PhD in South Africa was unbelievable. We were sampling the very remote small-scale rooibos plantations at the northern limit of its distribution range, driving over 60km on dirty roads to reach remote cultivated and wild rooibos populations in a semi-desert – stunning landscapes!
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during fieldwork – did it work?
20 large metal sheaths and an irrigation system we had to transport in order to set up a pot experiment in South Africa. We reached the place by car, but it was too small to fit everything in, so we had to drive it with the back door open on those horrible roads. Building the irrigation system in that place was also a struggle…
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
I would stay very open to different topics. From my experience, supervisors often allow the PhD student to shift the project to his main interests, and it is then when original discoveries are made.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
Open-mindedness, sense of humour, and quick answering of e-mails!
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
These would be impatience, intolerance, pessimism, and overprotection.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
It is about characterizing communities of root symbiotic microbes in wild and cultivated populations of the rooibos tea plant, in order to address if symbiotic partnership under differing nutrient availabilities matters to plant performance.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Proving for the first time that rooibos plants establish symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, the oldest fungal root symbionts on Earth!
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
As an Erasmus student at the University of Bergen I was lucky to attend the last lectures of Emeritus Prof. John Birks, the father of quantitative paleoecology! I enjoyed his teaching and great sense of humour, as well as his amazing field trips out sampling Norwegian lakes. We gave him a nice farewell party in his final lecture.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Prof. David Tilman, because of his impact on how we measure and understand biodiversity and its functions.
Do you have a favourite paper?
Not really, but I was impressed by The Tragedy of the Commons (Hardin, 1968).
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
The Plant Microbiome Symposium 2018, held in Amsterdam. It was extremely interactive, well organized event in which microbial ecology unified people from extremely distant subjects. It was nice to see how well trained in different fields people were, a key feature when you study the interaction between organisms of different Kingdoms. I also got very useful practical feedback there.
What hours do you typically work?
Doing fieldwork in South Africa we averaged 12h a day, but my regular working hours are 8:30-18:30h.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your phd?
After a very intense start in my PhD I realised I had to take time for myself, because there was always more work I could do, and I was not pragmatic enough to stop it. That was when I started socializing more, doing bouldering, football, and learning some German. These activities, combined with my all-time hobby which is birding, keep me busy most if my spare time. Night and cultural life in Zürich are also very interesting!
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your phd what would you wish for?
I would wish for a biomolecular lab technician helping me with the lab work. I would save a huge amount of time.
What would be your dream job?
Having a professorship position that allowed me to carry out ecological research independently.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Doing a PostDoc somewhere in Europe or the US.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Optimistic.
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I want to explore the steppes and high mountains of Kazakhstan, and to read more.
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