Professor Kerstin Johannesson–winner of the 2022 Molecular Ecology Prize

Abstract

Park on the Swedish west coast. Her work, using marine periwinkles (especially Littorina saxatilis and L. fabalis) as main model systems, has made a remarkable contribution to marine evolutionary biology and our understanding of local adaptation and its genetic underpinnings.Kerstin was predestined to study marine gastropods: Her childhood address was Snäckskalsvägen ("Snail shell road") and her parents bought a summer house almost next door to the Tjärnö Laboratory in 1970, when Kerstin was 15 years old. Nevertheless, Kerstin faced serious challenges when her interests in marine biology began to emerge. For example, in high school, when Kerstin explained her marine interest to the student counsellor for guidance about future education, the counsellor strongly recommended Kerstin a career as a hairdresser instead. And the barriers did not stop at university. Kerstin managed to secure a Master's project about Littorina -but when she decided that she wanted to pursue a PhD project about this system, the professor advising her at the Department of Zoology in Gothenburg was completely negative and explained that "everything was already known about Littorina" and that it was a trivial research question. This almost killed Kerstin's "snail career" but, fortunately for us, she persevered. This must have been difficult for a young student, but Kerstin can be very determined and convincing! Kerstin now sometimes jokes that she is still working on her Master's project on Littorina, but she actually obtained her PhD Austria