A Nordic tropical diversity at our Faculty

I was born in Ecuador, am a US national, and have been self-transplanted several times throughout my life with my most recent move coming from the US to northern Sweden. One of the first things I learned about forestry in our Nordic latitudes is the specialization of species to extreme weather conditions that is reflected in a landscape that – as compared to tropical latitudes – is fairly less diverse. Just as the natural environment is a close determinant of the species that can survive and thrive in it, at our Faculty it is the human environment that allows each of us to navigate our distinct professional paths and create rich diversity that nurtures our thriving University.

One of the many privileges I enjoy at SLU in addition to being a professor in our Department of Forest Bioeconomy and Technology includes that of mentoring six wonderful doctoral students and supporting our young researchers Faculty-wide. I take on this latter role as a Vice Dean for early career researchers and being chair of our Docent Board. For instance, as a Vice Dean I work with our SLU Postdoctoral Association (SLUPA) on how to navigate a professional career after a doctorate. For those interested in SLUPA, which organizes both professional and social events, I will most kindly encourage you to join it by emailing slupostdocs@slu.se. Among the professional activities organized in coordination with SLUPA, I am supporting a series of webinars where we discuss how various colleagues have approached their career development and found fulfillment in academia but also in government positions and the private sector.

At our Docent Board we are charged with assessing colleagues who meet (and often surpass!) the criteria for what I call it is to be a VIP at our Faculty (V: Vision for a research program; I: Independence in one’s scholarship; P: Philosophy of teaching and sharing science). As a Board we always reflect on how much we learn about the wonderful research happening across all the campuses and research stations where our Faculty is present. We as a Docent Board always assess the trajectory of an individual’s unique career. But a common denominator is found in the eagerness to push science to new boundaries and disseminate it in the classroom and with our larger society. Another commonality is how we all try to solve real-world issues and come up with plausible alternatives to advancing a more sustainable forest sector.

The season is inviting us to get ready for winter sports, end-of-year holidays and a time of renewal. Our daylight hours are getting shorter, autumn colors are upon us, and some trees have already dropped their leaves. As a transplant myself, the upcoming season can be a trying one. Yet, I think we should always look at the current seasonal changes with individual and collective optimism. As a member of the faculty, I kindly invite each of us to pay close attention to our young scholars and early career researchers. Be ready to offer professional advice and share personal experiences that can make this a very fulfilling season. By equal measure, please try to lead by example in how we approach not just the seasons but our research. Let’s collectively continue to support our diverse and nurturing human environment in these autumn and winter seasons.