In this episode we talk with Aino Korrensalo, a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Enivronmental and Biological sciences at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu campus. She is researching the carbon cycling in boreal peatland ecosystems. She talks about the interesting aspects of her work as well as the challenges of writing the research proposals. In the end she gives advice to PhD students who are unsure if they would like to continue the academic career that they should not stress about that decision because most paths in life can be walked in both directions.

In this episode of the iLEAPS podcast we have the opportunity to chat with Flobert Ndah who is doing a PhD in the Environmental Ecology research group at the Universty of Easter Finland in Kuopio. Flobert is originally from Cameroon in Central Africa, but moved to Finland for his Master's studies and stayed there until today. He talks about his experiences of moving to a far-away country. He states his passion for nature that inspired him to conduct research in environmental science and talks about the details of his Master's and PhD work. He discussess the challenges of establishing a network of colleagues and aquiring new skills, but says that the learning process is rewarding and fun. Finally, he gives some very good advice for current and future PhD students, such as establishing the healthy work-life balance, staying positive and enjoying the opportunities that PhD studies provide.

Dr Cleo Davie-Martin is a laboratory manager in the Ecosystem- Atmosphere Interactions research group at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and comes from New Zealand. In this episode, she talks about what inspired her to study chemistry and the ins and outs of working in a position of a lab manager and particularly about the opportunities for travel. She also gives advice about structuring the working time to avoid stress over the various different tasks such a specific scientific position often implies.

During this episode of the iLEAPS podcast we chat with Brenda D'Acunha who is currently a PhD student at the The University of British Columbia, Canada. Brenda is originally from Peru and currently studies the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of water and carbon over different types of ecosystems and land-use regions within Brazil utilizing a network of eddy covariance towers to collect data. Brenda talks about the challenges of carrying out fieldwork and collecting data during the global corona virus pandemic and also those challenges associated with fieldwork. Brenda also talks about her role as co-director of the REPU program, Research Experience for Peruvian Undergraduates, an organisation that arranges internships for Peruvian students to enable the development of technological and scientific capacity in Peru. 

For this episode of the iLEAPS podcast we talk to Manuel Flores who is a Masters research student in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Manuel had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in the forest of Costa Rica during his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M University. Manuel explains more about his experiences as a visiting researcher to Costa Rica and more about the scientific findings behind his recently published article "Assessing Forest Level Response to the Death of a Dominant Tree within a Premontane Tropical Rainforest" published in the journal Forests. During the podcast Manuel also talks about the challenges he has encountered and good experiences that he has had during his academic journey so far.