Master defence: Michael Sulk successfully defended his Master thesis today

Today, Michael Sulk defended his Master thesis in virtual front of our group, and in the presence of his supervisors, Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher and Dr. Shane O’Connell from IT Tralee in Ireland. We already have a long-standing collaboration with the group in Ireland who share our interest in plant biostimulants, but working with brown algal polysaccharides rather than chitosans. A number of PhD candidates, Bachelor and Master students from our group have already spent time there, mostly on developing microphenotyping assays to quantify biostimulant activities. And the collaboration has intensified since Dr. Maha Attjioui, who got her PhD with us a few years ago, is working as a post-doctoral researcher there. Michael investigated the influence of chitosans on root and shoot growth of Arabidopsis seedlings, and he succeeded in establishing the microphenotyping assays in our group when he returned from his months in Ireland. In his defense, we also discussed about future options for extending these investigations, and we are glad that Michael will continue to work with us for a few months to finalize his data for a strong publication we are now planning. We do not know yet where his future career will lead him, but we are convinced that his careful and meticulous work ethics will suit him well, whereever this will be. But first: let’s get these final data!