My interests are the nature and culture of the Nordic countries and since a few years I hold a M.Sc. degree in biology and have worked in the field of mycology in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden.

My PhD project is about the population biology of the rust fungus Puccinia striiformis which causes the disease yellow rust in wheat, triticale and other crops. Puccinia striiformis leads to many yellow rust epidemics worldwide, and since 2008 yellow rust has become a problem in the wheat-growing areas of Sweden. In my project I try to find an answer for how yellow rust could become such a problem in Sweden. I sampled yellow rust isolates in the mayor wheat-growing areas of Sweden and adjacent countries and investigate the population biology of the fungus with the help of microsatellites. This gives us a hint if the main reproduction mode of the fungus is clonal or sexual. The study is completed by the race analysis of Swedish yellow rust isolates at the Department of Integrated Pest Management in Flakkebjerg, Denmark.

Since 2010, it is known that Berberis spp. serves as an alternate host for Puccinia striiformis. In order to find out if Swedish Berberis spp. can be infected by P. striiformis I investigate aecia sampled from Swedish Berberis plants and also contribute to the knowledge of rust fungi which are found on the Swedish Berberis plants.