Life as an academic researcher

Just realized I have not posted in a while and that I will be away this week as well. Things have not been standing still here and in past few weeks a lot has happened.

1. Travels: I have been to Novi Sad (Serbia) to talk to enthusiastic DRAGON students about soil biodiversity and how to measure it. Tomorrow, I will head to Belfast (#BES) for the rest of the week and will there give a talk on the Plant-soil feedbacks and soil microbes regulating plant communities
2. Writing and proofing: This month five (!!!) manuscripts I co-authored have been accepted. Some are already online so check out this (on how to increase fungal biomass in soils) and this (what happens to soils when you grow 37 different plants on it – and how does this change in microbiome affects the following plant). Coming soon is a story on thrips and what happens to the microbes we add to the roots (New Phytologist), a story on how microbiomes change in time (mBio), and a story on how to cure a soil full of diseases (Applied Soil Ecology). Recently have been also revising some manuscripts with colleagues and there are still few ‘under review’
3. Reviewing: This month has been a bit more silent (don’t tell the editors!!). This year I have reviewed so far 27 manuscripts and have four more on my desk (to complete before christmas). As an editor I have handled three more and one is on my desk…
4. Reading: the pile of interesting articles is getting bigger and bigger on my desk. Hope to finish reading it all before Christmas and the moment that I put them back to my drawer (and forget about them for good). At the moment reading: FunFun!
5. Seminars: I joined NIOO-seminar committee this year and have chaired past two seminars (held every Monday at 11.30!). Learned a lot of new things already!
6. Personal: Sinterklaas came and left and gifts were exchanged. As a dual-nationality family, we moved on quickly to prepare for the arrival of Santa Clause. Got a tree from a national park (with permission!) and gift-hunting is starting. Gingerbread house will be a village this year…

This is a short snapshot on what has happened so that you see that it is not pure research we get to do all the time…

Hope to see some of you in the BES and have a good December month!

Emilia