Stina Börchers, M.Sc., is a German neuroscience PhD Student, science communicator, freelance docent in science communication, and #sciencefluencer living in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Stina is a #firstgen student and started her journey in science in 2013 with a biology bachelor’s program at the University of Bremen (see CV for more details of her journey!). Out of her initial curiosities about life and the human nature, she had taken advanced classes in biology, chemistry, and physics in school – but had yet to discover what studying and being a scientist really means.

Science is constantly evolving and all about theories that are the status quo until a better theory is proposed. But what do scientists do? How long does it take to publish a new discovery? Can scientists find a cure against a virus within a few hours of work like in the movies? What is writing a thesis like? How much time do students spend in the lab? Does every experiment of a good scientist work at the first try? Or are they just vibing in trendy labcoats the whole day?

To answer these questions for herself and others (including her family and friends), Stina started sharing her journey through the university and scientific topics with pictures from the lab, studysheets, stories, illustrations, and selfies on instagram in october 2016. Her goal was it to make science accessible to everyone and be an orientation for other students that are considering to study a science. She was since then able to build a strong community of students, scientists, and non-scientists who could follow her through the ups and downs of writing a bachelor’s thesis, applying for a master’s, graduating from the master’s, and finding a PhD position. Besides fitness and beauty, instagram has a big, growing community of science-lovers that motivate, admire, and inspire eachother.

Owing to her great interest in the underlying neurocircuits of affective disorders such as depression and anxiety, and to unravel the secrets of our most complex organ, the brain, Stina joined a neurosciences master’s program at the University of Bremen in 2017. As a part of her master’s program, she selected and applied to a lab at Gothenburg University, Sweden, for an internship and ended up staying there for her master’s thesis as well, which she successfully defended in january 2020. She continues in the same lab with her PhD studies now, aiming to understand gut-brain communication and it’s effects on emotional and feeding behavior.

If you have any questions, feedback, or are interested to collaborate, you can reach out to Stina via ‘ contact’ or her social media: instagram, twitter. If you would like to contribute to covering the hosting costs of this blog, you can buy her a coffee or buy some of her art on redbubble. 

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