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A doctoral student from Spain, Miguel Portillo Estrada defended his PhD thesis thesis „On the relationships between plant litter and the carbon and nitrogen cycles in European forest ecosystems” at EMÜ yesterday. He did his PhD studies at the Department of Plant Physiology under the supervision of Prof. Ülo Niinemets and Dr. Steffen M. Noe.

He was pleased with the good opportunities offered by EMÜ: „In my case, I got to have high responsibilities in international research projects. This is of outstanding importance when you are forming yourself as a scientist, and difficult to get in other universities, where you are considered only as a student during your PhD studies. Also there were possibilities of funding for visiting research stations abroad and meet other scientists in conferences. All these things permitted me to share my data with great scientists and write articles in high-ranked journals, which is of paramount importance for a scientist's career.“

He also invited others to do their studies at EMÜ:  „From my experience, I got great opportunities to develop my research during my PhD studies, and since Estonia is a small country, there is a fair relationship with other Universities abroad. I am so satisfied of my period in EMÜ, that I will enlarge my stage after my PhD defense. Tartu is so lovely city that I just want to stay here.“

Miguel's studies were supported by European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalisation Programme DoRa. Programme DoRa is carried out by Archimedes Foundation.

PhD thesis is available here: http://hdl.handle.net/10492/821