We are very pleased to announce that our team has grown a lot last spring, some new people have arrived while others have changed their profile in the lab.
With a Post Doc position, Kate Johnson has joined our team from Australia, she started on the 20th of July this year and she’ll be here for one year. She is working on how climatic extremes affect plants, currently looking at the effects of heat and drought, and doing some more lab-based experiments on freezing. She is very excited to work with trees that lose their leaves (a novel concept for someone from Tasmania, Australia!)
Sara from the University of Neuchâtel, is one of our new master students, she has arrived at the beginning of July and she will stay with us until next June. She is working on heat tolerance of urban trees in cities in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. There, she collects tree leaves from five species (Quercus robur, Acer Platanoides, Carpinus Betulus, Platanus Acerifolia and Aesculus Hippotacastanum) and takes their QY measurements (photosystem II Quantum Yeld) with a fluoropen.
Valentin Meister is our new civiliste! He started at the end of May and he’ll stay with us for four months, he is supporting all kind of fieldwork and laboratory analysis.
Alvaro from the university of Neuchatel is working on his master project and he will stay in our team for one year. He accompanies Janisse in her project, studying the interactions between oak and beech trees along a thermal and altitude gradient.
A very warm welcome to all of you!
Now, some space to announce the role changes!
After having successfully defended their master thesis, Jolan and Maxwell became our new research assistants, they started in July and they will be here until the end of October. They are mostly helping on field campaigns and in the lab.
Later Jolan will help a new Master student who will do the continuation of his master thesis.
Patrick is now our new referee for technical expertise, he started on the 19th of July. His primary task is to develop a new design for the CaviCAM, an optical camera designed to capture close-up images of leaves in order to monitor cavitation caused by drought. He said that this project is a significant challenge for him as it involves a combination of mechanical, electronics, optics, and plant physiology which belong to different scientific domaines. Additionally, he is responsible for repairing and maintaining various devices and sensors in proper working condition.
Finally, Arianna has become the new lab manager. She will replace Alex who has left for starting a new adventure! It was a pleasure having you with us, thank you!
We are very glad to have PERL transformed into this new team, good luck to the whole group for all your new challenges!
