Feedback by Maxi Müssig

By: Maxi Müssig

I have recently had the pleasure and honor of receiving a travel grant to attend the Joint EVOLTREE-FORGENIUS Conference in Madrid. Meeting people that I had previously talked with at the second EVOLTREE conference in Brasov was a very nice experience. I had brought a poster to Madrid with preliminary results from a project investigating population structure in the northern range of Quercus robur, and was able to have some productive discussions about methodology and analyses with collaborators during the poster session and in the breaks between talks. Additionally, I presented my poster in a flash talk.

Conference attendance, especially as an early career researcher, is such a valuable experience. Listening to the wide variety of talks on anything from physiology to pangenomics to research-informed policy decisions raised a lot of interesting questions for me. Learning about other oak species on the excursion to the dehesa was also a great thing to participate in. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn about the exciting work that is ongoing in the EVOLTREE and FORGENIUS networks, as well as for the opportunity to start up new collaborations and to hopefully continue to contribute to that research in the future.