Nicolai Laufer dives deep into the microbes of the sea
Nicolai Laufer is a new PhD student at the Department of Marine Sciences. In the Marine Microbial Ecology research group, he will, among other things, study the seasonality of bacterial communities in seawater. In his free time, he enjoys baking and cooking – and developing as a juggler!
What are you going to do here?
"The aim of my PhD project is to study how changes in environmental parameters affect bacterial communities. More specifically, how bacterial seasonal succession dynamics are affected by changes in temperature and phytoplankton-derived DOM (dissolved organic matter). Moreover, I want to investigate how heterotrophic bacteria interact with each other in metabolizing DOM."
What did you do before?
"After finishing a three-year apprenticeship to become a chemical laboratory assistant at a biotechnology company in Germany, I did my bachelor’s in molecular biotechnology at the University of Heidelberg. Afterwards I decided to switch research fields, came to Sweden and did my master´s in ecotoxicology here at Gothenburg university."
"I conducted my master´s thesis within the field of freshwater microbial ecotoxicology assessing the impact of micropollutants on bacterial communities in Kenyan riverine ecosystems. So, now I will dive further into the field of microbial ecology, however, this time within the marine ecosystem!"
What do you like do when you are not working?
"I love baking (my fellow PhD students here at Natrium can confirm that), cooking, reading fantasy, bicycling as well as listening to punk rock and going on concerts."
Something else you would like to share?
"I started juggling with three balls around three months ago and my aim is to be able to juggle five balls at the end of the PhD!"
Interview: Susanne Liljenström
