Profile

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Gwendolyn Kirschner

    • About Me:

      I have recently moved to Scotland to work at a research institute here. Before, I have lived in Saudi Arabia, so it was quite a change to move. I brought my desert dog, who is better adapted to the rain than I am!

    • My Work:

      I work on plant roots – I try to understand their development and how they react to gravity.

    • Read more

      Specifically, I work on barley roots. Barley is grown a lot in Scotland, and is used for beer and whiskey production, but also for animal feed. Because plants cannot walk around to search for food and water, they need to make the most of their location – that’s why they need a strong root system to take up nutrients and water around them, and we need to understand how the roots develop and grow.

    • My Typical Day:

      I usually get up around 7, complain about the rain and walk the dog. Then I go to my work, where I read news about my research field, write about my own results, and do experiments in the lab and in the field. I go home around 5, then I walk the dog again or do sports.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would like to make some short videos about my research, and why it is so important that we understand plant roots  to be streamed on youtube, tiktok and twitter (maybe with the help of a professional).

    Candidate CV questions (extra)

    • Education:

      I went to school in Germany (Duesseldorf) because I am from Germany and moved to this city when I was 10 with my mum. After school, I planned to do some volunteering work at a horse ranch for a year, but instead and somewhat suddenly, bought my own horse and started to study biology, because that gave me enough time to work in the evenings and on the weekends to pay for my living. I did my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and discovered my interested for plant research. I find it very fascinating to look at plant cells under the microscope, and we used fluorescent proteins for our studies, that was particularly pretty. I did my PhD at the same university, and started to work on barley at that time. Afterwards, I moved to a different German city for 2 years, and then to Saudi Arabia. A friend of mine had become a professor in Saudi, and I found the opportunity to live there fantastic! I lived and worked there for 4 years, and it was the most interesting time of my life. The university is in the desert at the coast of the red sea, and people a lot of different nationalities study, work and live on campus. For my barley research, I came to Scotland last year, because barley is a very important crop plant here, and I have all the resources to study its development.

    • Qualifications:

      I went to school for 13 years in the German school system and took the exams qualifying for universities in the end (“Abitur”). Then I did a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree, and after that a PhD.

    • Employer:

      The James Hutton Institute in Dundee

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        barley root biologist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I wanted to work on a horse ranch

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Hardly ever

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I would want to work on something related to the Arabic language - maybe with refugees in Germany

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        A lot of techno DJs - but no specific one

        What's your favourite food?

        Manakeesh - an Arabic kind of pizza

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        unlimited sleep - being in a country without rain - living on a ranch with my horse

Questions answered by Gwendolyn

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