In our series “Future is…” everything revolves around the future.
“Future is” is the stage for our young talents who are completing their vocational training at Qualitas AG, expanding their practical know-how during or after their studies with an internship, writing their bachelor’s or master’s thesis with us or starting their professional careers.
Tell us a little bit more about your study in ETHZ. What fascinate you the most?
As a person with very international background: grew up in China, finished my bachelor’s degree in Canada, and pursuing master’s degree in Switzerland, I think I am truly fortunate to experience different lifestyles around the world and grateful to be able to study at ETHZ. As a well-known university world widely, it offers great learning opportunities with various course options for animal science students in the field of physiology and genetics. Moreover, it is a wonderful platform to communicate, cooperate and make friends with people from diverse backgrounds which to me is the most fascinating part of my studies.
How did you get the idea to do an internship by Qualitas AG?
During my bachelor studies, I was already fascinated with the genetic part of biology and I already know that I want to continue pursuing this passion at the beginning of my master’s degree. ETHZ offers multiple courses in livestock genomics and Peter is the instructor for one of the courses and that is the starting point where I get to know Qualitas. After a summer project with the animal genomic group in ETHZ, I am more familiar with bioinformatics and data analysis tools in this field and that is why I want to gain more practical experience with Qualitas. Peter is a very considerate and nice instructor who is also passionate about bringing young generations to this field and thus I am very lucky to have met him and able to work in Qualitas as an intern later on.
On what are you working in Qualitas AG?
I am working on the topic of two-step genomic selection of Angus breed. This project will allow the estimation of genomic breeding values for the Swiss Angus population. This is so far not possible. The pipeline is originally based on the breed of Limousine, and I will make modifications based on the Angus data and conduct different reference population selection criteria to see if the reliability could be increased that could be adapted to the structure of the Swiss Angus population specifically. In general, it is a wonderful project that consists of many crucial skills: coding, data analysis, literature review, academic writing, and project management.
What are you learning through your internship by Qualitas AG?
I think my internship in Qualitas is informative and achieving. Being able to perform some basic data analysis using bioinformatics tools is just one aspect but it does shape my professional skills in the field of animal genetics greatly. More importantly, I gained a lot of experience in project management as Peter gives me a lot of freedom to explore the topic while also shows full support if I get stuck in the way. This trains my ability to think and solve issues independently as well as my persistency to success even though there will be frustrating moments on the way. Achieving these personal goals will benefit me for a lifetime for my future career. Moreover, I feel more confident to communicate with people and I also made a lot of friends during my stay which also trained me to make bonds with teammates in the working environment.
What are your hobbies?
When the weather is nice, especially in the summertime, I really enjoy outdoor activities such as a cooling swim in Limmat or sometimes hiking to explore the beauty of Switzerland. I also learned how to ski when I was in Vancouver and now I am more excited to practice my skiing skills as well. When it comes to the mood of staying indoors, I would like to watch movies or TV series, reading a book, or play some video games with my friends. I also love to sing Karaoke and painting ;-)
