He and two other Scientia Fellows are employed in Kjetil Tasken’s research group, which is based at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital (Radium Hospital Campus) and Institute of Clinical Medicine, UiO in Oslo. They come from three different continents and have different academic backgrounds.
The last call in the Scientia Fellows is now open for applications.
Scientific exchange
Santana has an academic background in physics, first from Brazil, where he grew up, and then from the USA, before he arrived at the University of Oslo in November 2020. It was while working with cancer modelling as part of his PhD that his interest in biostatistics began to grow.
“I am the only member of the group who was hired to work on statistical models, and it is great learning about biology and experimental methods from the other group members, while also contributing with my knowledge of biostatistics and computational approaches. When working in a group where the other members have different expertise and represent different fields, you also need to learn how to translate and explain your own work.”
Career development programmes
Nuria Garcia Diaz comes from Spain where she did her Bachelor’s in biomedical sciences and her Master’s and PhD in molecular biology.
“This is my first postdoc position, and I want to use it to learn as much as possible from different backgrounds, experiences and fields. I focus more on cancer immunology in this project than I had done in any previous work,” says Garcia Diaz.
She is also participating in the postdoctoral programme that is available at the Faculty of Medicine this year.
“I also want to use this time to find out more about which career paths are available. The tutors at the postdoctoral programme are great at making you reflect on yourself and on a range of different questions and themes regarding your professional development.”
Scientia Fellows is an important resource for research and Faculty
Kjetil Tasken, who is Head and Director of the Institute of Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital and a Professor at the University of Oslo, is the man holding it all together, focusing on excellent research and developing talents.
“The Scientia Fellows are a great resource for the University’s research groups, and if you have other funding for two postdocs, this allows you to employ three,” says Tasken, who continues:
“It is also a great asset for the Faculty of Medicine with the number of positions and as the requirements of EU-COFUND and the ambitions of the first Scientia Fellows programme allowed the coordinator, Hilde Nebb (the then Dean of Research), to start both the postdoctoral training programme and the School of Health Innovation.”
Tasken has had three Scientia Fellows in the group before, and they have gone on to enjoy great careers. One is working at Nykode Therapeutics (formerly Vaccibody), which is one of the biggest success stories in health innovation and entrepreneurship in Norway.
Benefits of working in Norway
Youxian Li is the latest arrival to the group, and he joined in February 2022. He grew up in China and studied life science at Peking University, and then did his Master’s in Japan. When he was back in China and working for AstraZeneca, he decided to apply for a PhD. The PhD brought him to Trondheim, so he is the only one of the three that had been to Norway before entering the Scientia Fellows programme.
“I moved to Trondheim with my wife, and we had our first child there, so Norway will always be a very special place for us. We wanted to stay, but we ended up in Japan for a few years and are now happy to be back,” says Li.
“It was actually my wife who found the position. The work-life balance is good here, and the system is great when you have children. Even though the position is in a different field and there will be a steep learning curve, it will be worth it.”
All three come from places that are a long way further south than Oslo, and even though the weather can sometimes be cold and harsh, they all agree that they had thought it would be worse.
When they arrived, the trickiest thing was to get a Norwegian ID number, especially getting an appointment at the police station. Once they had got their ID numbers, however, and were able to open bank accounts and get mobile phones, everything else they needed went smoothly.