“It was never like a big romantic idea”

"I’m from Luxembourg and I did my bachelor’s in London. It's a lovely city, but it's also a very exhausting city. And after three years I thought, I'll try to get something new and maybe also a bit more quiet. I mean, Stockholm obviously is a capital, so it's not at all quiet, but I mean, compared to London, it is a lot quieter.

So, once I was here, I was very happy with the studies I was offered. But of course, as with many things in life, the social aspect is also important. And I was kind of afraid at first because of the sort of things they say about how hard it is to make friends in Scandinavia. I have been here for a year now, and in my experience, I hadn't had too much trouble actually making Swedish friends. I found that the Swedes, once you get topics to talk to them about or find a common interest, it's very easy to get to know them and engage with their friend groups and be included.

When I was a kid, I was very interested in nature. I went into the woods a lot where I grew up with my mum, and I got to appreciate all animals. And she kind of instilled an interest in nature in me. And by college, that kind of faded away. I was going to music and creative type stuff. But then I didn’t want to become a professional musician. I looked back and realized that I liked my biology classes and did well in them. In fact, all of my interests outside of film and music, centre on biology and ecology. And now I look back and think: of course I was meant to study biology. And now that I’m in ecology: yes, this is it. It was never like a big romantic idea that I was born a little ecologist, it was that I was always interested in animals and nature."

Tim Chambers

To learn more about the master's programme, see Master's Programme in Ecology and Biodiversity

Visit su.se/study for more information about studying at Stockholm University.