12 months in the life of a scientist

Last week we shared ICE Fish research’s first anniversary. 1 year of sharing exciting fish research & fun facts with you, diving deeper into the person “behind” the scientist, & coming up with many more ideas for this science communication platform. A lot can happen in one year. But what can one year mean for a scientist?

In the spring of 2024, Alessandra, Lieke, Michelle, and Theresa got to take part in a science communication workshop led by Anaïs Remili and organised by VistIs where the idea of ICE fish research initially sparked. Throughout the last year you got some glimpses into our personal academic journeys, but let’s check, what has happened over the past 12 months?

Theresa:

It has been a busy 12 months for Theresa. After five years in the making, she submitted her PhD thesis on European flounder in Iceland in October and successfully defended it in January. Three of her four PhD chapters have already been published (we introduced 2 of them on ICE Fish Research see here & here). Between finalising her PhD thesis throughout the summer of 2024, she was busy packing up her life and saying many goodbyes as a new adventure was waiting around the corner. In September she exchanged life in northwest Iceland for living at the Mediterranean Sea in southern Spain, having to adjust from wearing multiple layers on a day-to-day basis to learning the value of 50+ sunscreen. Leaving the flounder research behind (for now), she joined the IRIS lab at the Estación Experimental de Zónas Aridas (CSIC) in Almería, where she continues her work in invasion science. Besides wrapping up her PhD and starting her postdoc position in Spain, she also attended the Neobiota conference in Lisbon, Portugal in September, co-lead the Nordic symposium for biodiversity across the natural and social sciences in Trondheim, Norway in October and attended workshops in invasion culturomics and social dimensions of naturalised alien flora (SoNAF) in Pruhonice, Czech Republic in February.

Alessandra: 

Much has happened in the past year for Alessandra. In October 2024 Alessandra was part of a unique networking opportunity upon the RRS Sir David Attenborough, where she gained first hand insight into the workings on a state of the art research vessel fit to sail the polar oceans. After submitting her PhD thesis in February, she then presented her work and represented ICE Fish Research at the national OIKOS conference in Finland. Alessandra then took a one month vacation in India to recharge her batteries for her defence which she passed with flying colours this past May. Currently she is working on publishing the manuscripts from her PhD thesis as well as applying for funding to continue her research in Iceland. In the coming months Alessandra will focus on producing the new ICE Fish Research podcast for which she will sit down with fish researchers across the country. 

Lieke:

Since the beginning of ICE Fish Research, Lieke has been busy working on her PhD. She is writing her second and third chapters which involve acoustic telemetry (read more about it here!). This is a new area for her, so a lot of the time she has been learning how to work with this data, and results are slowly coming in. Very exciting! Furthermore, in the autumn of 2024 she was teaching a cartography class for bachelor and master students at the University of Iceland. This year is looking a little different but much was accomplished. At the beginning of 2025, she was awarded a PhD grant from Rannís as an extension for her PhD as well as a grant from Reykjavík Energy to study the impact of Nesjavellir waste water on Arctic charr behaviour. This, however, has to wait a bit, as earlier this year her daughter was born and she is currently on maternity leave. She is looking forward to working on her projects again starting in mid September but for now will enjoy all the baby cuddles!

Michelle: 

Michelle completed her fieldwork last summer and is now in the process of compiling her papers for her PhD. In addition to her main research, she submitted two side project papers—one of which is under peer review and is based on an interdisciplinary workshop called Cod Construction and Communities while the other has been accepted for publication and includes dive survey data from her Masters Thesis.  Last year, she traveled to South Africa to attend an international conference and volunteered at the South African Shark Conservation Academy (SASC). Earlier this year, she began preliminary fieldwork for her postdoctoral research on Atlantic cod as part of the CodSpa Nordforsk project grant (find out more here). Currently, she is finishing up her first PhD manuscript and is looking forward to presenting her findings at an international conference later this month in Tokyo, Japan.