Summer student contributes to bringing historical plants to new life

Nathalie Frosthammer is studying at the Department for Biosciences, this summer she is one of 40 students participating in a research project with a scholarship from UiO:Life Science.

Student Nathalie Frosthammer has her summer research project at the Museum of Cultural History.

Photo:

Jarli&Jordan

Nathalie has already started systematizing data on historical plants and will spend a total of six weeks this summer at the Museum of Cultural History, where she is currently reviewing excavation reports from all over Norway and registering archaeological, ethnobotanical and philological data in a database.

Interdisciplinary research project gives interdisciplinary insight

The project leader is Karoline Kjesrud, associate professor at the Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History and one of the principal investigators in the research project Nordic People and Plants, which will investigate the influence of humans on plant diversity in the Nordic countries from before the Viking Age to the present day. One goal of the project is to find out if the plants that were used for a specific purpose, such as medicine, can be retrieved and used again. The project is interdisciplinary and is a collaboration between the humanities and natural sciences. In this way, Nathalie, who studies biosciences, gets to know humanities research methods through her summer project.

From left: Karoline Kjesrud is the project leader of Nathalie Frosthammer's summer research project. Photo: Jarli&Jordan 

Useful practical research experience

Nathalie applied for a summer project at UiO:Life Science in January and was awarded the project after a matchmaking seminar in March. Nathalie, who is pursuing her bachelor's degree, has just completed the second year of the study programme and envisions a career as a researcher in the future. - Getting to know the whole process in a research project and learning to read documents are important and useful experiences for me to have in the future, says Nathalie.

About the life science summer projects 

This is the fifth year UiO:Life Science offers summer projects to students. One of the tasks of UiO:Life Science is to recruit, educate and develop talented students. The summer research project for students is part of this work.

The aim of the summer research projects is to provide the students with practical experience of real research that addresses a social challenge within health or environment. It is also desirable that the projects provide the students with insight into interdisciplinary research.

Read about the application process