Roving riparian researcher

Save for a postdoc, Czech born researcher Lenka Kuglerová has spent the last 18 years in Umeå. Here, she earned her master’s at SLU, got a Ph. D. at Umeå university… and then returned across the campus meadows to SLU.

At SLU, Lenka works as a researcher, teacher and programme director of studies (PSR). Always active, she’s perhaps even more so this year, as the new green prep year (naturvetenskapliga gröna basåret) kicks off in the fall.

Work on the prep year has been going on for a year, and the purpose is to give those who currently are not eligible to apply to SLU a chance to change that, and earn the skills they need.

Green spice

Marketing for the prep year has been ambitious. And the applications have poured in:

- I don’t know much about marketing and how we’re supposed to present ourselves. But the marketing group did a good job. We were aiming for 20 applicants but we’re currently sitting at 44. That feels great, says Lenka.

Hopes are high that the prep year will get a flying start and that many of the students will continue studying at the forest faculty.

- One of the challenges has been to find that “green spice” that connects the general natural sciences to our research and our other programmes. And I’m hoping that as many as possible will continue their studies here at the faculty once they’re done with the prep year. Anyone who finishes will have a reserved spot at Skogsvetarprogrammet, says Lenka.

Show the diversity

One way to retain as many prep year students as possible, according to Lenka, is to show the full diversity of the forest faculty.

- We have an incredible breadth here at the faculty. You work in anything from forests to fish and water, to chemistry… it’s important that we show students that, and that they understand just how many opportunities there are once they’re done and eligible.

Aside from a certain amount of stress over the prep year, Lenka loves working in Umeå. She’s especially pleased with the collaboration between her and her close colleagues – both in Umeå and on other campuses.

- We work really well together and I enjoy my colleagues very much. You feel appreciated here and we have some very interesting discussions, like just last week, when we went to Skinnskatteberg.

Too much of a nanny state

Something Lenka is less pleased with, and that might be described as a culture shock, is the difference in how students work and communicate. And how teachers are supposed to respond to this. In Sweden, a teacher takes more responsibility than in Czechia, according to Lenka.

- I’ve seen this from both sides. First as a student, where I felt Czechia was much more hierarchic. You’re supposed to call a professor professor and so on, it’s very top down and quite stiff.

- Now that I see it from a teacher’s point of view, I can appreciate that it’s less hierarchical here. Students can call me by my first name. But sometimes, teachers also take more responsibility for students than the students themselves. It’s a nanny culture. For example if a student takes time off and misses an obligatory test, I have to create an additional assignment. That would never happen in Czechia; they’d just tell you to come back next year, says Lenka.

Preaching riparian buffers

Lenka Kuglerová was born and raised near Prague. She was schooled in Czechia but her higher education and professional career has been spent in Sweden, except for a two-year stint in Canada on a postdoc. Her expertise is riparian buffers, the narrow stretch of land between, say, a stream and the surrounding environment (like forest).

Currently, Lenka is responsible for two Ph. D. students and one postdoc. Outside of that, she also teaches two master’s courses. She likes teaching – a lot.

- I love teaching, I really do. It feels like you’re making a difference when you’re in the classroom and you can see that expression of “so THAT’S how it works?” on their faces. It’s a much better feeling than writing a manuscript and sending it in, only to be read by three people. I really enjoy teaching.

Her teaching has paid off in real life, too, as many of Lenka’s old students now hold positions in various forestry companies, pursuing the issue of consideration for riparian buffers and water.

- We have a great responsibility to influence the next generation working in the forest. I can see looking back over 8 years of teaching that it’s paid off. Today, riparian buffers are a legitimate concern and this wouldn’t be the case had we not taught it. That shows you the power of education, says Lenka.

Text and photo: Henrik Persson

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