|
Experiencing Wageningen by Qumruzzaman Chowdhury
I am Qumruzzaman Chowdhury from a very green flat land, Bangladesh. I can presume you are wondering to see my very complicated name and already raised some questions about this in your mind. However, you can make a nice hypothesis like that small man has a bigger name. Be sure that you already had a look on my picture. Haaaaaa!! I am working as a faculty member in the Department of Forestry at a university in my country.
Before coming in Wageningen I was looking for an opportunity to go abroad for my MSc study. I was interested to focus more on nature oriented forestry rather than traditional forest management. From some of my colleagues I came to know that Wageningen University focuses more on integrated nature oriented forest management. That’s why I was motivated to come here. As a citizen of a developing country it was hard to go abroad without a scholarship. Because the Dutch government is a developing partner of my country, I applied for a scholarship, through my employer, at the Dutch embassy. Finally I succeed to get admission and funding.
Now I am doing my thesis at the chairgroup Forest Ecology and Forest Management. Previously I worked on quantitative wood properties. I was interested in how I could combine my previous background in ecosystem analysis. Afterwards, I have discussed with faculties of this group and got more insights about my ideas. Finally, I made an interdisciplinary research proposal for my thesis which is titled “effects of drought on growth and hydraulic conductivity of pubescent oak and Scots pine in Wallis Valais, Switzerland”. In this research I have combined classical dendrochronology and quantitative wood anatomy. I tried to analyze how long term drought affects radial growth and hydraulic functioning of trees. I was a bit nervous in the beginning of the work but at the end I came up with some nice results. One thing I like to mention is that it was a very nice opportunity for me to go abroad for research which added a very interesting and helpful experience to my career. From my experience I would say “research is not a funny thing but should be done with fun”.
|
 Due to having previous professional experience I got exemption from internship. Then I decided to do another thesis which is titled; “Nature and periodicity of growth rings of two major mangrove species (Sonneratia apetala and Heritiera fomes) from Bangladesh”. In this research I have investigated dendrochronological potentiality of these spp for future dendrochronological applications. I have almost finished both my research projects and I’m now working on articles for publications. I have already presented some of my results of both projects in an international conference (TRACE; Tree rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology 2006) in Tervuren, Belgium. This was also a very nice opportunity to get experience and to meet many researchers across the globe.
After graduation I will go back to work in my old job in Bangladesh and engage myself again in research and teaching. Finally you can see how Wageningen switched me from hardcore wood technologist to dendroecologist. Now I like this subject very much. Honestly speaking Wageningen has enhanced my professional career.
Because Wageningen is an international university, I found a very nice international atmosphere for my study as well as living. Staying away from your home country for such a long time can be quite boring sometimes. But at least I could avoid that talking with other people. In other non English speaking countries it is hard to communicate with people if you do not know their language, here I never faced this problem. Moreover, knowing fellow students and researchers from all over the globe certainly broadened my horizon.
Outside of my research interests, I have a passion for traveling to, listening music, exploring new countries and cultures. I love being outdoors hiking, running, swimming or walking.
|