Announcements

A doctoral student from China, Zhihong Sun defended her PhD thesis „Isoprene emission from aspen (Populus sp.) in relation to environmental drivers“ at EMÜ today. She did her PhD studies at the Department of Plant Physiology under the supervision of Prof. Ülo Niinemets.

As she commented on her research, she pointed out that during the five years she spent at EMÜ, she had great opportunities to develop her research: „I obtained not only scientific knowledge, abut also high independent work ability with high quality science literacy - I published three papers on high-ranked journals, like Global Change Biology, New Phytologist and Springer.“

She also appreciates that here she acquired new friends and learned more about different cultures, especially Estonian: „It is small country compared to China, but it also is a great country with its special charming culture, customs, natural beauty and social environments. When it comes to Tartu, it’s a lovely small city with peaceful and convenient living, I like it.“

When asked about the study enviromnent in general, she said that she would not hesitate to recommend experiencing the different academic atmosphere and the different cultural life in Estonia.

Zhihong is the second citizen of China to defend a doctoral thesis in Estonia. The first Chinese to acquire his PhD in Estonia was from University of Tartu in 2011.

Zhihong's studies are 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/10492/822