Copenhagen Plant Science Center – Current Advances in Plant Biology
PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE at University of Copenhagen
This is a specialised course where 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students enrolled at the Faculty of SCIENCE at UCPH and 50% of the seats are reserved for PhD students at other faculties and universities. Seats will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Aim and Content
The purpose of the course is to raise awareness and increase the understanding of the plant science activities that are taking place in the Copenhagen Plant Science Center (CPSC) and with their partners, among the PhD-students working in the departments affiliated with the CPSC or in other Danish universities. Many PhD-students in CPSC have a background in e.g.biotechnology, biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology etc. An additional aim is therefore to provide students with a broad network in Danish plant science to support their future careers
and train confidence in discussing plant science orally and in writing, interacting with plant scientists from other disciplines etc.
The main part of the course is a lecture series, where scientists from departments across the CPSC give lectures on their topic in plant science. There will be at least one speaker from each CPSC department that currently counts PLEN (Dept. of Plant and Environmental Science), BIO (Dept. of Biology), IGN (Dept. of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management), FOOD (Dept. of Food Science) and also GLOBE (The Globe Institute). In addition, the invited speakers are international leading plant scientists that will feature in the ‘CPSC talk’ series that is open to all CPSC scientists and will be an integrated part of this PhD course. In these talks, the
speakers present their science and also share experiences from their careers and advice for the younger generation scientists.
For the general lectures, the speakers are asked to provide a review paper to support their talk,and in separate teaching sessions, we discuss the principles of a review, how to structure such a text etc. At an agreed deadline after the course, the students deliver a final ‘report’ in the form of a short review on their own topic or a review-like draft of the introduction to their PhD-theses, applying the principles discussed in class, and written with advice from their main supervisor. In class, students work in groups to discuss individual ideas for their own report and structure and prepare a brief presentation for the whole class to discuss the ideas. Some of the speaker
sessions go into the use of AI and LLM in literature search and/or scientific writing.
Finally, for the CPSC talks, there will be social events where the group of PhD-students will have lunch with the speaker, and in the hours between the talk and the lunch, work together to come up with 4-5 questions to ask the speaker at this event.
Learning outcomes
Intended learning outcome for the students who complete the course:
Knowledge:
• Overview and understanding of the plant science that is taking place in the CPSC
• Knowledge of leading international plant scientists and plant science research environments
• Insights into the typical structure and formulation of review papers within their field
Skills:
• Be able to read and understand review papers within a broader area of plant science
• Be able to engage in lectures and put the information into context with other lectures
Competences:
• Be able to structure and write a scientific review within disciplines in plant science
• Be able to engage in lectures and formulate questions to the speakers
Target Group
This course targets PhD-students within plant science, in particular those working in the fundamental/molecular plant science to translational space, but also others that have an interest
in gaining broad knowledge within the field.
Recommended Academic Qualifications
It is relevant for all PhD-students within plant science that have an interest in fundamental/molecular/translational plant science. However, for students that do not have a plant science-or molecular biology-related MSc or other similar experiences, it is recommended to follow the course in the second half of their PhDs when they are more acquainted with a relevant field.
Research Area
Plant science, plant molecular biology, translational agriculture
Teaching and Learning Methods
The course consists of lectures, reading, group discussions, presentations in class and interactions with speakers. All teachers (lecturers) will support the scientific discussions, and the main teacher (course responsible) will support the group work and discussions and presentations in class.
Student preparation involves reading the provided literature, as well as focused literature searches within own field to identify topics for review paper. Also preparation of short presentations to enable discussions of proposed outlines for their review papers with their peers and the main teacher.
Type of Assessment
The course requires attendance at 75 % of the in-person teaching (lectures, group work, discussions and speaker lunches), and hand-in of a scientific review of approximately 4,000 words. In addition to the word requirement/limit, to be approved the review must meet the best practice standards we agree in class.
Literature
Relevant review articles to be provided by the teacher
Course coordinator
Nanna Bjarnholt, Associate Professor
Guest Lecturers
Professor Anne Osbourn is a Group Leader at the world renowned plant and microbial research center, the John Innes Centre in York, UK, and Fellow of the Royal Society, UK. Prof. Osburn investigates plant natural product biosynthesis and discovered that the genes for many of these pathways are organised in clusters in plant genomes like ‘beads on a string’. This discovery has greatly accelerated the ability to find new pathways and chemistries of potential
importance for the development of drugs and other useful compounds. Prof. Osbourn specializes in triterpenes, their biosynthesis, enzyme and pathway discovery, genome mining for natural product pathways, and the production of natural products and analogs for drug and chemical discovery programmes, using synthetic biology approaches.
Nadia Kamal is Assistant Professor in Computational Plant Biology at the Technical University of Munich. Assist. Prof. Kamal focuses on plant genomics, particularly in comparative genomics and transcriptomics of crops, seeking to enhance our knowledge of plant genetic diversity using computational tools and high-throughput methods. Dr. Kamal’s work aims to pinpoint genetic factors behind key traits like drought resistance and resource efficiency, shedding light on the
evolution of these traits, and supporting future agricultural advancements for enhanced crop climate resilience. Dr. Kamal was instrumental in the analysis of the complex hexaploidy genome and received an ERC starting grant in 2023 to found her research group.
Both speakers will give lectures and interact with PhD-students at a lunch event. They will share views on career progression from different ends of the scale, one late stage and one early stage scientist.
Dates
Between April 1 and May 31, in total 24-26 lectures and teaching sessions, mostly on Monday and Tuesday mornings, but also two half Fridays where the days with external speakers start in the morning. Full schedule to be announced two months before the course starts.
Expected frequency
It is expected that the course will be held at the same time the following year.
Course location
Frederiksberg Campus
Course fee and participant fee
PhD courses offered at the Faculty of SCIENCE have course fees corresponding to different participant types.
In addition to the course fee, there might also be a participant fee.
If the course has a participant fee, this will apply to all participants regardless of participant
type - and in addition to the course fee.
Course fee
• Participant fee: DKK 0
• PhD student enrolled at SCIENCE: DKK 0
• PhD student from Danish PhD school Open market: DKK 0
• PhD student from Danish PhD school not Open market: DKK 7.200
• PhD student from foreign university: DKK 7.200
• Master's student from Danish university: DKK 0
• Master's student from foreign university: DKK 7.200
• Non-PhD student employed at a university (e.g., postdocs): DKK 7.200
• Non-PhD student not employed at a university (e.g., from a private company): DKK 20.160
You will receive an email with a link and instructions for payment after completing the course
Cancellation policy
•Cancellations made up to two weeks before the course starts are free of charge.
•Cancellations made less than two weeks before the course starts will be charged a fee of DKK 3.000
•Participants with less than 80% attendance cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000
•No-show will result in a fee of DKK 5.000
•Participants who fail to hand in any mandatory exams or assignments cannot pass the course and will be charged a fee of DKK 5.000