Rebecka Andersson

Even though Rebecka is born and raised in beautiful Östersund, she fell in love with Umeå while studying at Umeå University for her degree of Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management, with a specialization of Industrial Statistics. Upon her graduation in June 2017, Rebecka has worked with database development and maintenance, first at Försäkringskassan and then at Swedbank.

Missing the academic environment and wanting to apply her mathematical and statistical knowledge in other fields, Rebecka has now started a PhD with Eric Libby where she is to do mathematical modeling on the origin of eukaryote endosymbiosis. Although she has always been interested in biology she is a novice in the field and has an exciting challenge ahead. So far she has realized that the endosymbiotic events that gave rise to organelles in the eukaryote cell are not only pivotal events in the evolution of life on earth, but also a highly debated subject. New discoveries are continuously made about potential ancestors for host and endosymbionts and insights are reached about the conditions that need to hold up for acquiring a beneficial endosymbiont.

When Rebecka isn’t catching up on her biology she has a number of other interests to keep her occupied. Dancing Lindy hop, Balboa and Blues socially is one of her favorite hobbies but she also likes to take long walks paired with a good audiobook, sing or write short rhymes.