Biotechnology
A Masters degree in Biotechnology will give you a solid basis for further careers, both nationally and internationally.
A Masters degree in Biotechnology will give you a solid basis for further careers, both nationally and internationally. University-trained personnel at the MSc level are needed and being employed by hospitals and other health services, environmental agencies, consultancy companies and industry, both as researchers or advisors. Graduates of the Masters programme will be also be qualified for practical clinical work and technical executive positions in hospital laboratories as well as different positions in public and government institutions.
Completion of the MSc degree is a qualification for study at PhD level.
Do you have passion for research?
If you want profound knowledge within one field of interest, maybe a PhD is something for you?
Paid education: With a MSc degree you can choose among the different PhD programmes offered by the Faculty of natural sciences and technology.
The PhD programmes educate independent scientists on an international level in cooperation with both national and international research environments.
Monica Juarez Ceballos
Graduated from the 2-year master's programme in biotechnology in June 2011, and is now working as a purchasing agent at BioMar Group in Trondheim.
She started her education with a 5-years long engineering degree within food science, from her home country Mexico. Her initial idea was to start as a PhD, and she contacted Professor Turid Rustad at the Department of Biotechnology regarding this. Unfortunately her degree was not valid as a master's degree in Norway, and therefore she was not qualified for a PhD position. She then applied for the 2-year master's programme instead, after having spent a year learning Norwegian.
Monica's master thesis was titled "Effect of protein and lipid oxidation in the changes of color in salted and dried herring and klippfish".
Monica Juarez Ceballos
Graduated from the 2-year master's programme in biotechnology in June 2011, and is now working as a purchasing agent at BioMar Group in Trondheim.
She started her education with a 5-years long engineering degree within food science, from her home country Mexico. Her initial idea was to start as a PhD, and she contacted Professor Turid Rustad at the Department of Biotechnology regarding this. Unfortunately her degree was not valid as a master's degree in Norway, and therefore she was not qualified for a PhD position. She then applied for the 2-year master's programme instead, after having spent a year learning Norwegian.
Monica's master thesis was titled "Effect of protein and lipid oxidation in the changes of color in salted and dried herring and klippfish".
Before choosing this master thesis, Monica had not been working with fish, but nevertheless her background within food science was a big advantage. As part of the two years long study programme, she took several courses concerning fish, and she fell more and more in love with the topic.
– One of the courses I took was called "Fish Behaviour". Professor Gunilla Rosenquist, who taught this course, was really enthusiastic and inspiring, and I really recommend this course to anyone who is interested!
Monica started searching for jobs before she finished her master thesis, and she was lucky: she got the only job she applied for and was able to start working before she handed in her thesis.
– I really wanted to work in Trondheim, and I had my eyes set on BioMar from the start. Their offices was located in Nordre Gate which was a great benefit, and after seeing their advertisement on Youtube (Krillsommer), I just knew that I had to work for them!
She now works as a purchasing agent, and functions as the connection between BioMar and their suppliers. Her job is to control the recipe of the feed they produce, and to make sure that the quality of the raw materials is high enough. The fact that she now has knowledge about lipid oxidation has been a great advantage – she is able to communicate to the suppliers what BioMar is looking for in the raw material with regards to developing and optimizing the product. It is also important to be able to understand what the results of various analyses actually mean.
As BioMar cooperates with companies from many different countries, i.e. Spain, Chile, Costa Rica and France, she gets to use both her scientific knowledge and the fact that she speaks several languages fluently.
The master's programme was very small when she started, and all the students chose projects in different research groups, so they didn't really feel like a "class". She felt more connected to the students she worked with in the lab, and at SINTEF. Still she is very satisfied, but thinks that it is difficult to stay in touch with people she got to know during her studies. She also thinks that there should have been more contact between the university and the industry. In Mexico it is mandatory to spend some time in one or several companies during your studies.
Audun Trygge Haugen Bersaas
Graduated from the 2-year master's programme in biotechnology in May 2011, and is now working as a principal engineer at the National Institute of Occupational Health (Statens Arbeidsmiljøinstitutt, www.stami.no) in Oslo.
He started his education by taking a bachelor's degree in chemistry, specializing in biochemistry, at NTNU, and then he applied and got accepted to the master's programme in biotechnology. He chose this master's programme because he thought that biotechnology sounded exciting, and because the programme contained a lot of interesting courses. He also did some research, and read some of the master thesis from previous students, and he liked what he read. In addition to this, he had friends who were already studying biotechnology, and that also had an effect on his choice.
Audun Trygge Haugen Bersaas
Graduated from the 2-year master's programme in biotechnology in May 2011, and is now working as a principal engineer at the National Institute of Occupational Health (Statens Arbeidsmiljøinstitutt, www.stami.no) in Oslo.
He started his education by taking a bachelor's degree in chemistry, specializing in biochemistry, at NTNU, and then he applied and got accepted to the master's programme in biotechnology. He chose this master's programme because he thought that biotechnology sounded exciting, and because the programme contained a lot of interesting courses. He also did some research, and read some of the master thesis from previous students, and he liked what he read. In addition to this, he had friends who were already studying biotechnology, and that also had an effect on his choice.
Audun's master thesis was taken outside of NTNU, at STAMI, and was titled «MicroRNA, environmental carcinogens and risk of lung cancer».
The main objective of his master thesis, was to identify microRNA associated with lung cancer. After he graduated he was offered a temporary position at STAMI, before he ended up in his present position.
– I knew that they were going to announce a position at STAMI, and because of this I did not apply for any other jobs.
Audun is now working with the same project as he did during his master thesis. Several of the courses he took during his time as a student, are highly relevant for what he is working with now. He can also see the importance of the many laboratory courses he has taken, as they have given him some experience in working in a laboratory.
– Even though I have a good and very relevant background with regards to what I work with, there are still a lot of new things to learn. You don't "see" everything when you are a student.
He was very satisfied with his master's programme, both professionally and socially. Among other things, he spent one semester abroad, and he was a member of the student association for biotechnology, biology and chemistry, Volvox & Alkymisten – he recommends this for everyone, especially if you are new in town.