Student testimonial
Testimonial Laura Zuidema
To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward that much to starting my Master thesis. You hear so many terrible stories from students about being stuck and still not being done after one or even two years. Luckily, my worries were very unnecessary, because I had a great time doing my thesis at nematology. Everything is very structured and well organised, and so I didn’t have any trouble with finishing in time. Everyone at this chair group is super nice and very helpful and so I am really happy that I chose to do my thesis at nematology.
I was free to do the experiments that I wanted
What I really liked about doing my thesis at this chair group is that I was free to do the experiments that I wanted. My interests are very broad and so it was really nice that my supervisor allowed me to do all kinds of different experiments. I ended up doing biological assays, I did some modelling work and I could also do “wet lab work” such as RNA isolation. Because of Corona I hadn’t been in the lab for about 2 years and so I didn’t really know how to do the basic things anymore. Everyone was super helpful and patient, which really helped me to get back my confidence in doing lab work.
During my thesis I looked at the resistance in potato plants against the potato cyst nematode Globodera pallida. I spent most of my time looking through a binocular and searching the roots for infections. Of course, this experiment wasn’t always super exciting, but the very fun coffee and lunch breaks always got me through the day. What also really helped was the interest other people showed in my work. People often asked about my results and their excitement was very motivating. The people from this chair group got me very excited about doing research and made me realise that I want to find a job that includes doing research. I can definitely recommend doing a thesis at nematology, because I had a really good time here!