Roguish Prof. Gilderoy
Lockhart was an exception for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry. Other teachers at Hogwarts clearly saw his lack of skills
and, at the end, forced him to perform his duties. If the SLU would
discover Prof. Lockhart among its teachers, how would the SLU treat
him? Most likely in the same way it treated my former supervisor:
protect him from any questioning and promote him up to the Deputy
Dean.
When my supervisor
ignored his duties for years, and when it became the main obstacle
for me to obtain a PhD, I informed the Head of the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology about the problem. Three months
passed after this, but nothing was done. There were no meetings, no
investigation.
Since Department was covering unprofessional behavior
of my supervisor, I appealed to the Faculty of Natural Resources and
Agricultural Sciences, SLU:
From: Elena K
Sent: 17 April 2012 15:09
To: dekanus.nl; Stig L;
Göran H; Håkan M; Monica Th
Subject: termination of
PhD education
Dear Dean and the Members
of the Faculty Board,
Recently I faced a
problem that severe impair my career and I would appreciate if my
case can be inspected by the Faculty.
I was a PhD student at
the Department of Forest Mycology and Pathology. My supervisor was
Prof. Finlay. In January 2012 my PhD education has been terminated
without any notification. Although I have been asking several times
after, my supervisor did not explain me the reasons of ending my
education. There was no evaluation of my research project. There was
no any meeting of the Departmental Board where the progress of my PhD
project has been examined. My supervisor also did not explain me why
the 75% revision of my study plan did not take place. So, it was an
unexpected shock for me to find out that my education was ended when
I lack just few months before complete my research project.
I feel very upset and
find such treatment unfair, especially because I got very little help
from Prof. F during my PhD research. There were many moments when I
was left alone with the problems and it took me up to several months
to solve them. However the most serious problem I encountered when
the time came to wrap up results into manuscripts. The complete
manuscript of my first article has been sent for revision to Prof. F
on July 2010. During the next 1.5 years he did not find time even to
read it. In December 2011 I included new material into manuscript
and sent it again for revision. After being forced by the Head of the
Department, my supervisor read the manuscript and sent back with
minor changes of English and without even looking at the tables and
figures. I was trying to explain Prof. F that this is my first
experience of writing scientific paper in English and I am not able
to do it on my own. I am also not familiar with publishing process.
Several times Prof. F promised me to give his comments and help me
with writing, but he have not done so. In the end I have been forced
to beg the external experts for the scientific feedback and to send
my manuscript for proofreading to the professional company.
Since I still have to
complete the experiment that appears in my study plan (which is
approved by Prof. F and the Faculty) I decided to stay in Sweden on
my own expenses. However, my financial recourses are very scarce. I
spent several years to do my PhD project and it is very shocking to
lose all result now. In spite that I am alone mother and lived here
with my son I worked at laboratory six days a week 9-10 hours every
day and after all these efforts I was not given opportunity to
complete my PhD education.
I shall appreciate if my
case would be investigated by the Faculty. Thank you for the time and
consideration!
Sinceraly,
Elena K
Former PhD student
Dept. Forest Mycology and
Pathology
Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences
The mail exchange below
gives an idea of what happened after:
From: Jan
S
Sent: 17 April 2012 17:05
To: Elena K; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär
Subject: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Hi all,
We have now reached a
situation for the PhD studies of Elena where the normal time has run
out. We should sit down to discuss and agree on a realistic updated
plan for how Elena can finish her studies. The faculty and department
directors of study should take part in this. It can build on the
previous discussions and plans.
There is a a possible
time Friday the 27th of April at 9.00 at the department of Forest
Mycology and Pathology that could work for several of the group.
Please respond me to tell
if you can attend then.
Best regards,
Jan S
Prefect
From: Jan
S
Sent: 29 April 2012 15:35
To: Jan S; Elena K; Roger
F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F; Shahid M
Subject: SV: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Hi again,
Thank you all for the
discusssions last Friday. Although we did not reach a final plan
then, it is still very important that we base the plan on realistic
expectations. So Elena, we relly need your view on what is left to
be done.
To me it seems as some of
the problems you talked about in terms of low specificity in the PCR
best are handled with sequencing.
Also, we need to find a
supervision situation that is constructive.
Looking forward to get
the contribution.
Best regards,
Jan
From: Elena K
Sent: 30 April 2012 03:15
To: Jan S; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear all,
Please, find enclosed a
file with the description of the current status of my PhD projects.
The technical problems
that I was mentioned are not connected with low specificity of
primers. As I told before there is a single band on the agarose gel
with a specific size. Since I run nested PCR the specificity is high.
The problems are common for the amplification of a mixed template
(mixture of homologous genes) and it does not matter what kind of
methods are applied later on to visualize the PCR products of these
reactions. For the basic information on this problem you can read
Kanagawa 2003 Bias and Artifacts in Multitemplate Polymerase Chain
Reaction. J Bioscience and Bioengeeniring 96: 317-323 and as an
example of practical study Hongoh et al. 2003 Evaluation of primers
and PCR conditions for the analysis of 16S rRNA genes from natural
environment. FEMS Microbiol Letters 221:299-304.
In a previous study I
have develop a method to monitor the quality of PCR reaction in a
mixed template. It allows estimating whether particular PCR is
reliable enough to apply the subsequent analysis to the obtained PCR
products. The problem was that I am not satisfied with the quality of
first PCR.
I am open to the
suggestions on a new supervisor.
Best regards,
Elena K
From: Jan
S
Sent: 04 May 2012 14:17
To: Elena K; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Thank you Elena for the
information.
In order to proceed, Do
you have any suggestion for a suitable supervisor?
Best regards,
Jan
From: Elena K
Sent: 04 May 2012 17:04
To: Jan S; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear all,
Unfortunately, I am not
very well acquainted with SLU personnel and I have never personally
met the candidates I listed below. My judgments relay on the
information I could get from their homepages. On the current stage it
is important for me to get advices on my third project, which is
related both to the microbial ecology and to the plant genetics and
breeding. I shall highly appreciate if the scientist that will be
appointed as my new supervisor has a deep knowledge and practical
experience in population ecology and/or quantitative genetics and is
publishing actively.
So far I find four
candidates that, to my point of view, could meet these expectations:
(In alphabetical order)
Prof. C,
Dept. Soil and Environment
Prof. R, Dept.
Plant Breeding and Biotechnology
Prof. P, Dept.
Ecology
Prof. W, Dept.
Crop Production Ecology
Nevertheless, I am open
to any suggestions.
Best regards,
Elena K
From: Elena K
Sent: 14 May 2012 06:22
To: Jan S; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear All,
Two weeks have passed
since our meeting on 27th of April. I shall appreciate if you can
provide any information regarding current status of my case.
Thank you for your time
and consideration.
Best regards,
Elena K
From: Elena K
Sent: 21 May 2012 04:57
To: Jan S; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear All,
Three weeks have passed
since our meeting on 27th of April. I shall appreciate if you can
provide any information regarding current status of my case.
Best regards,
Elena
From: Jan
S
Sent: 21 May 2012 09:38
To: Elena K; Roger F
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear Elena,
We have not been able to
finalise this yet. You will have to carry on as before for the time
being. I am on travelling until the 7th of June and have limited
possibilities to contact new people during the trip.
Best regards,
Jan
From: Elena K
Sent: 22 May 2012 23:28
To: Jan S
Cc: Marianne C; Christer
B; Pär F; Monica Th
Subject: RE: Meeting
invitation. 27th of April. Agreeing on a plan for the final period
for Elenas PhD
Dear Prof. S,
I am very upset by your
answer. I have been “carry on as before” since February. This
reply indicates an absence of concern for my case.
Regards,
Elena K
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