News

January 2026

What a way to kick off the year! January has been a whirlwind of PhD endgame activities -- the kind where your to-do list actually gets longer as you tick things off. 

The big news: I accepted a postdoc position! So apparently someone thinks it's a good idea to let me keep doing science. I'm very much looking forward to starting once I've wrapped up this whole PhD thing. 

And: I've officially started writing my thesis. The mythical document has begun to take shape! Funny how accepting a postdoc suddenly turns thesis writing from 'someday' into 'right now' – deadlines are excellent motivators!

I also gave a talk at the CBU seminar, and spent considerable time on the paperwork of the final PhD phase -- turns out there are a lot of boxes to tick when you're trying to finish a doctorate.

The highlight of the month was the trip to Mørketidens Mattemøte in Tromsø. I presented my work, enjoyed some quality science time with collegues, and enjoyed the winter weather of northern Norway.

Onwards to February and more thesis writing!

December 2025

My academic year 2025 in numbers – I'm a statistician, after all.

published preprints: 2
published papers: 1
reviewed articles: 1
meetings with my supervisor: 17
meetings with collaborators at UiB: 3
in-person meetings with collaborators at University of Stuttgart: 3
online meetings with collaborators: 8
days at conferences, meetings, summer schools, workshops, etc. : 28
given lectures: 4
group sessions led: 46
graded exams: 364
hours spent grading assignments: 130
written research plans: 2
submitted postdoc applications: 2
talks: 2
posters: 1
new collaborators: 1
travelled kilometres: 33.064

November 2025

October was a quiet month – mostly teaching and writing – so I skipped the update. November, however, made up for it.

The semester wrapped up with my final teaching sessions (of the whole PhD!), and I spent a good chunk of the month on applications and writing. I submitted two postdoc applications (including research plans), which was equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking.

On the publication front, a lot of things happened: I posted a new preprint, resubmitted one paper after revisions, sent another to a journal for the first time, and reviewed someone else's paper – because apparently I now have opinions worth sharing.

The preprint – "An Algebraic Approach to Evolutionary Accumulation Models" – is one that's particularly close to my heart. It's the first project where I actually managed to bring together all three of my fields: algebra, statistics, and biology. It's also the first research idea I came up with entirely on my own, rather than something handed to me. And the co-authors are my current PhD advisor Iain Johnston and Frederik Witt, who supervised both my bachelor's and master's theses – basically the two people responsible for turning me into whatever kind of researcher I am now.

With most of the older projects finally off my desk, I'm looking forward to diving into some new research. Fresh ideas, fresh mistakes to make.

September 2025

September started with three days at the DLN Research School Conference in Stavanger, where I presented a poster and joined many sessions on career planning, communication, and other useful research skills. A highlight was catching up with a friend and former colleague, now at KTH in Stockholm.

Back home, the semester was in full swing, so most of my time went into teaching — grading assignments, exercise groups, and plenty of student questions.  In parallel, I had frequent meetings with a collaborator in Stuttgart — both online and during a family visit there — as we shape our paper draft.

August 2025

The first half of August was vacation time - a much-needed chance to recharge after a busy summer. 

In the second half, the autumn semester kicked off, and I stepped into teaching again. I gave my first lecture of the semester and led the first exercise groups. 

On the research side, I spent much of my time working on a paper that takes an algebraic perspective on evolutionary accumulation models (preprint hopefully to come soon) - continuing to connect applications with algebraic geometry.

July 2025

July kicked off with the second week of the SLMath Summer School on Discriminants at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. Besides the lectures, there was a big focus on group projects. My group worked on Horn matrices that come from A-discriminants, especially the ones tied to statistical models. It's a topic with a lot of potential, and I'm excited to possibly continue this work beyond the summer school.

Right after Leipzig, I hopped on a train to Munich, spent a night at an airport hotel, and then flew off to Madison, Wisconsin, for the SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry. It was fun to run into many familiar faces from Leipzig again. Staying in the dorms gave the whole thing a bit of a Klassenfahrt (kind of like a school trip) vibe, which made it all the more memorable. Apart from lots of inspiring math, I also enjoyed some classic summer moments - like making hot dogs over a fire by the lake. 

The last week brought a quieter pace back at the office. With most of Norway on vacation, I used the calm to make progress ton coding for my algebraic model. I also tackled some administrative tasks, including travel reimbursements, paper reading, and submitting a poster abstract. 

Now, it's finally my turn for some vacation time. Looking forward to a bit of rest before jumping back into things!

June 2025

A lot of things happened this month! Directly in the beginning, there was the Bioinformatics in Bergen meeting in Solstrand taking place. This meeting aims to bring together all scientists working in Bergen across different organizations and faculties. That's super cool, so far I've always met new people who even live and work in the same city. And one or two friendships have already developed there (mostly in the pool). I'm also pretty happy with the talk I gave there.

The following weeks were mainly characterized by correcting STAT110 final exams (120 of them...), before the month ended with another highlight - the SLMath Summer School on Discriminants at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig. Only the first week is over so far, but I've already learned so much that the trip was definitely worth it (even if I had to fund myself and it is super warm - which I'm really not used in Norway anymore...).

10.02.2025

I have rarely had such a helpful exchange about research as in these four days at the Numerical (Nonlinear) Algebra in the Real World Workshop at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden - even if it has provided more new questions than concrete answers...

Many thanks to the organisers from the MPI CBG Dresden, who made it possible for me to participate in this workshop with their financial support! 

23.09.2024

Last weekend I had the chance to take part at"Forskningsdagene" in Bergen. It is a very cool event, organised every year as a cooperation by the different research and educational institutions in Bergen.  Among other things, there is a large tent in the city centre where the research institutions can present themselves at various stands and offer activities for kids. I made "genetic bracelets" with the kids, what was so much fun! It's also super cool to see that the offer is so well received and that so many families decide to spend their Saturday afternoon at a science festival! There really wasn't a second when our table wasn't surrounded by children :)

16.09.2024

My conference summer was closed last week with the Nasjonalt Matematikermøte in Oslo. After a series of conferences and meetings focusing on very application-oriented topics from biology, I really enjoyed listening to lectures on pure maths and algebra in particular. It was also very interesting to see what is being researched in maths across Norway, and to establish new connections. And all this with a fantastic view over Oslo, definitely a successful finale. 

12.06.2024

What a great experience to have been part of SMB 2024!

It was an amazing week, where I was allowed to present my research in form of a contributed talk, meet friends, making new friends and professional connections, but also just having a lot of fun by the program SMB offered, as well as our Korean BBQ and Karaoke nights!

The KSMB has set the bar very high for the next meetings, they have organized a fantastic meeting! Thanks for all that made it what it was!

15.06.2024

The last months ended up with my first paper peer-reviewed and published in a journal! 

Apart from this very special moment, I also got the change to talk at the Norwegian Bioinformatics Days 2024, which took place here in Bergen. It was very nice two days with a lot of diverse and interesting talks, an amazing conference dinner up on Ulriken and time to meet new and old friends. I think, especially all the meetings and conversations with so many different people, make conferences that important and interesting for me, and I am very thankful that I have the chance to experience this!

We also had the annual meeting of the CAMRIA project at Solstrand in Os, where I could be a member of the organizing team for the first time and chair a session. Apart from many short research talks, we learned also about communication of science, what was great! Generally, I think we should talk and learn more about that, too!

After grading around 100 final exams in STAT110, it is now time for holidays, before SMB 2024 in South Korea is calling in two weeks! Looking forward to it!

15.03.2024

After one and a half months of research work and teaching back in Bergen, this week I attended the Nordic AMR Research Center Conference 2024 in Tromsø, Northern Norway. 

It was a fully packed program and I got a lot of new insights and another perspective on some AMR related topics. Definitely enough to think about during the next months!

Besides  many helpful and interesting discussions during the poster session, I was also awarded one of the three poster prizes! Thanks a lot for that, it is an hour!

Now it is time to leave snowy Tromsø and travel back to Bergen, looking forward to do more research and also some Peer Review Meeting of the Bachelor students next week.

26.01.2024

Learning a lot, meeting cool people, having a lot of fun, enjoying an amazing hotel and amazing food in a winter wonder land, and even get some sun (important when you life in Bergen...) - it is hard to put together a better week! 

Thanks to everyone who made the Geilo Winter School 2024 happen! I am always impressed how much one can learn in only one week. This winter school, it was about graphs and their applications and it opens me a new world about programming and learning networks. In addition to the three sessions every day, there was also time to enjoy the winter, relax in the spa, and getting amazing food at Dr Holms Hotel. I will also miss the discussions about all the non-research topics while breakfast, lunch and dinner, that made me feel to really meet new people! Another highlight was the bowling event on our last evening - was a lot of fun. And I was  at least able to make one strike... 

Hopefully see you all next year!

15.01.2024

Just came back from the first conference of the year. I had the opportunity to join the Oxford hub of the MEEhubs 2024 conference, that was held in a quite innovative format: there were six different hubs in Lausanne, Oxford, Boston, Atlanta, Cuernavaca and San Diego, that you could join in person. The idea of having these different hubs was to reduce travel distances, when everyone visits the hub closest to the own institution. I think, especially regarding the climate problematic we are facing, this is an important step, also in academics, where people travel a lot. In addition to the six hubs, there was also the option to join fully remotely, what could be a chance for people that are not able to travel because of other obligations or costs. In my opinion, this experiment was a success! You were able to network with the people at your hub, and visiting the talks from the other hubs together in the auditorium via zoom. I was also allowed to present a poster (in person and in the virtual poster gallery), and had a lot of very good discussions. Thanks to the organizers, who created a very cool conference!

And, by the way, Oxford itself is also definitely worth a visit!