Celebrating Marina de la Cámara

Today´s spotlight we want to shine on Marina de la Cámara as she is defending her PhD this coming Friday (17.01.2025). A big congratulatory hug from us, you are going to do wonderful!

Growing up Marina had a bit of an identity crisis as a kid. She wanted to be a musician, a writer a teacher and a scientist all at once. Eventually science won (but art is still a big part of her life) and after doing her Masters in Norway she ended up in Iceland to do her PhD. In January 2020 she started her research at the University of Iceland, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences. Marina has always been fascinated by the incredible diversity of life and is interested in the evolutionary processes behind it, no matter the study species. But during her PhD where she studied the genetic basis of why the Arctic charr look so different from each other, she fell in love with the Arctic charr.

The highs and lows of a PhD

Just like life, a PhD has its ups and downs. And while it gives a lot of freedom to do the research you want, a lot of students deal with loneliness. She recalls times when deep in research that it was tough to deal with loneliness and isolation. PhD research is oftentimes done alone as it is such a specific topic you are studying and there are few people you can turn to. Furthermore, finding funding opportunities and the challenges that come with publishing in peer-reviewed journals can also be stressful and frustrating. And as many scientists know, reviewer #2 is a bitch and will make you believe that your whole study is crap even if it isn´t so!

But we wouldn’t do a PhD if we didn’t love science and Marina sure does. She loves diving into her results and summarising tables and complicated plots, and giving them biological meaning. Like a puzzle, she connected ideas from very specific questions and came up with answers (and even more questions) to put it in a bigger picture and tell a story.

If you are a prospective graduate student we hope you do not feel too discouraged as research is wonderful but it is good to know the challenges we deal with. Marina wants to give as advice to do what excites you the most. Do not be afraid to try new things or to go off the established academic pathway to see what you are comfortable doing. She knows it is easy to feel overwhelmed and question your place in academia (hello imposter syndrome!). So prioritising your mental health is super important. Make sure to build a strong support network, especially when your family and childhood friends are far away. Surrounding yourself with people who remind you that you matter and that you belong will make all the difference.

Also, find out what you like doing besides research. While being a graduate student and doing research is a big part of you, it is important to be able to unwind afterwards and empty your head of all those research questions! Marina loves to have her feet off the ground, whether it is practising aerial arts or rock climbing. She also enjoys listening to music and spending quality time with friends and family.

Future plans set in motion

While wrapping up the last pieces of her PhD Marina did already start a new chapter. Currently, she is working at The Institute for Experimental Pathology at Keldur where she is studying viruses and parasites in salmonids. But after an intense period in her life doing her PhD she also wants to make sure to take more time for herself and her loved ones and start travelling more. We wish her all the best with these plans!

Find more information on Marina´s PhD defence here.