- Question Daniel David:
Please provide a brief introduction of the featured leading BBU scientist?
Answer:
I’m Orsolya Vincze, researcher biologist, PhD candidate – about to defend my thesis. During my B.Sc. and M.Sc. I studied biology at the Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babes-Bolyai University (UBB), Cluj-Napoca. Later I switched countries and I started my Ph.D. studies at the University of Debrecen (UoD), Hungary. My work and studies were guided by two supervisors, dr. Péter László Pap, associate professor at the Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology, UBB and prof. Zoltán Barta, head of the Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, UoD. I’m passionate about nature, and I have always been, but my scientific interests only started when I first joined Péter’s research group at the beginning of my 2nd year of B.Sc. – a group that I continue being active in ever since. Our research has been cantered around birds, while our questions concerned their physiology, morphology, behaviour and ecology. I was a lucky student, who received exceptional training and education, both at the level of the faculties I was part of, as member of two productive research groups, and as member of two supportive and cooperative student communities. I was given numerous opportunities to travel, I conducted fieldwork on the islands of Cape Verde and Madagascar, joined the work of foreign research teams for extended periods in England, Austria and Germany and visited many other countries for shorter periods of time. I worked with exceptional scientists, tutors and teams, experienced fascinating parts of this world, and enjoyed contributing to our knowledge about the natural world, all these experiences paving my road to my achievements.
- Question Daniel David:
A brief presentation of the academic achievement.
Answer:
During my PhD we mainly worked on questions regarding the physiology and morphology of birds, studied within a phylogenetic comparative research framework. This means that we compare a given character across numerous species and we aim to unravel patters of linked evolution between these and other ecological, developmental or life-history characters. Using these patterns we aim to infer the adaptive value, physiological cost or evolutionary significance of the studied characters. We answered questions like, why do migrant birds have smaller brains the residents? How does feather structure change with their habitat type? How wing morphology adopts to migration strategy? How does embryonic development influence immunity during adulthood? Our findings were described in a number of important scientific papers, which were published in prestigious international journals, such as Functional Ecology, Evolution, Biology Letters or Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Besides these, I worked on a different line of topics, trying to understand questions related to bi-parental care, a social behaviour that is exceptionally widespread in birds when compared to other animal groups. We studied shorebirds both on the field and using already existing data from various places around the world, and we reached important results here as well. One of our most important finding was that environmental harshness, such as extremely hot temperatures or high inter-annual stochasticity in temperatures results in tighter cooperation between the two parents, aiming to protect the offspring under harsh conditions. The publication describing these results was recently published in Global Ecology and Biogeography. Within the framework on another, even larger scale study we studied the synchrony and biological rhythm of the two parents in 91 shorebird populations. Our results indicate extreme diversity in the biological rhythm of the parents, some parents incubating uninterruptedly for over 50 hours, while in other species the male and the female switch incubation duties frequently. This rhythm is often independent of the 24 hours rhythm of the day, and various environmental factors appear to influence the activity difference of species and populations. The latter study was published at the end of 2016 in Nature, a scientific journal that is recognised as one of the most influential journals in world, publishing interdisciplinary research.
- Question Daniel David:
Future academic plans?
Answer:
At the moment I’m focusing on organising my PhD defence, meanwhile trying to search and apply for postdoc positions. I definitely want to stay in the scientific community and I want to continue doing research. Following my defence, I wish to build a bit more independent career, to gain more international experiences and to pursue a research path that has the ultimate goal of building my own research group. I worked on various and diverse topics so far, which I wish to give up and focus my research on a narrower range of topics. In case I’ll have the opportunity to choose, I will study the sex-specificity of cognitive and physiological traits, and the adaptive value of these sex differences.
- Question Daniel David:
Why BBU?
Answer:
It was basically lucky in the first place, as I started my studies in biology here in 2007, without knowing much about the institute. Nonetheless, from that moment joined Péter’s group I became almost inseparable from Cluj-Napoca and the UBB. We studied birds, completed experiments and correlative studies, both within species and on wider scales using phylogenetic comparative methods. First I was only an assistant, later on I was given tasks that I was fully responsible for, and tasks that represented key parts of the research we conducted. It all was a fascinating learning process, where success was celebrated by the whole group and mistakes were corrected by helping each other. The group had a very good morale, it was a true team, and this is probably the key to my attachment to this institute. We spent a lot of time together, both during work and during our free time activities, we completed field and laboratory work in good spirit, we were motivated and efficient together. I believe that the success of researchers or even entire research teams is contingent upon the personal relationship between members of the group. In this respect Péter’s research group and the Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology in general was exceptional, and I believe it can stand as role model for the world’s highest ranking universities. This is why this institute will always be a true favourite to me. The UBB gave the education and momentum that helped me reach my current successes and I hope I can compensate this with being active in the research community here.
- Question Daniel David:
A short message to the BBU academic community?
Answer:
Although we often face infrastructural, funding or political barriers here, the UBB still has a fantastic research and educational community, representing a value that is becoming less and less common in most performance-oriented, competitive research communities. We should use this community power to gain momentum in continuing quality education and maintaining good spirit in our research communities, as these are the keys to the growing recognition of UBB both nationally and internationally. Let’s hope that the result these efforts will bring, will also help to overcome the difficulties we currently face.
Nature’s article link:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7631/full/nature20563.html
Webpages and further information:
http://zoology.unideb.hu/?m=Orsolya_Vincze
