F (Femke) van Beersum, MSc

’Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.’
- Helen Keller

Finding answers to scientific questions often involves conducting experiments. In environmental sciences, sampling sizes are seldom small and the practical work to be done in the field, greenhouses or laboratory is usually time consuming and demanding. As research assistant, I support PhD students and postdocs setting up and carrying out scientific experiments and arrange (part of the) logistics behind fieldwork. In practice this means I place (pyramid) insect traps, do vegetation surveys, take soil samples, assist in nutrient analysis in the lab, walk transects catching bees and bumble bees, plant tiny plants in trays, interview people about agricultural practices, place orderings for consumables and many more things...

Currently, I am involved in, among others, the following research projects (click on below projects to read more about them!):

• Showcase
• RestPoll
• Delta-Enigma

Besides, I assist in practicals of various courses where I teach BSc- and MSc-students how to collect, process and analyse data.

Background
Before I started working at Wageningen University, I worked as research assistant at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). During the five+ years I worked there, I had various tasks over time. I helped maintaining a collection of methane-oxidizing bacteria, explored the microbiome of zoo- and phytoplankton and helped setting up and carrying out laboratory and field experiments in The Netherlands, Denmark and Poland (as part of the MicroZoo-project). Moreover, I specialized on the chemical analysis of soil, sediment and plant material using the auto-analyser, element analyser, ICP-OES and TOC-analyser. Nowadays, on ocassion I help colleagues from the NIOO-Animal Ecology department with their fieldwork on the long term population study on Great tits (Parus major). 

Fieldwork is fun! :)

• NIOO-KNAW, Department of Animal Ecology (1-1-2019/31-12-2099)