International Women’s Day: A day in the life of…Trine Grønhaug Halvorsen
Trine Grønhaug Halvorsen
Associated professor in pharmaceutical analysis at the School of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Norway. My background is within the bioanalysis of drugs and protein biomarkers using LC–MS/MS. I focus on novel sampling materials for dried blood spot analysis of proteins and affinity based sample preparation of proteins and peptides from biological matrices. Lately I’ve also started to look into direct ionization techniques for MS.
1My alarm goes off…
At 06:15. I take a shower, eat breakfast and help to get the kids (aged 8, 11 and 14) ready for school. Around 07:30 I take my bike to work. I bike all year, despite the rain or snow. In the winter I have to use studded tires.
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2I’m responsible for…
As an associate professor at the School of Pharmacy my work constitutes of equal parts of teaching pharmacy students and doing research. I supervise both master and PhD students. Our research group consists of a professor, four PhD-students, two master students, an engineer and me.
3My typical day…
At work I start by checking e-mails and planning the rest of the day. At 08:45 we have a coffee break, this is a really nice start to the day. The rest of the day I spend partly in my office planning things, reading papers, preparing talks and lectures and discussing projects, and partly in meetings, or if I manage in the lab. During teaching periods I typically have about two lectures and two seminars a week. Every Friday morning we have a group meeting with a journal club. We also discuss one of the projects in detail and general stuff that is going on in the lab. Last year I had a three weeks stay in Professor Sarah Trimpin’s lab at Wayne State University (MI, USA) learning about the new and exciting direct MS ionization techniques they are working on in her group. The plan is try to combine this with the research we already are doing on proteins in biological matrices.
4The strangest thing that has happened…
At work was when a fly got stuck at the inlet of our triple quadrupole MS with open nano ESI source. The pressure difference practically sucked the fly towards the inlet and there it was stuck one morning when we arrived at work. It was a spectacular view through the magnification of the nanospray camera.
5The best part of my job…
Is to be able to go in depth in a subject and to work with young brilliant people at the beginning of their career.
6The worst part of my job…
There is always lots of stuff that needs to be done so that in some way is not a job but more a way of living, but this is also part of what makes it the best job…
7After work…
I pick up my youngest son at school. Then we have dinner and the kids are off to different activities. Sometimes it feels like we’re running a taxi service. I also try to get time to go running in the forest close to our home in Oslo.
8I always wanted to be…
I never had a clear plan of what I wanted to be, but as a child I always loved to read about the strong women in history. I was also fond of the natural sciences, and in particular biology and chemistry. When growing older I understood that I could combine that into a profession by studying pharmacy. And in the end that was what I did.
Who is your inspirational hero?
If I should mention one woman it would be the Director-general of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, Kristin Skogen Lund. She is a powerful leader who has engaged in getting more women into male dominated businesses. In addition she has been successful in combining a demanding career with having a family.
