Søren Dollerup Nielsen is a global quality specialist at Arla Foods Ingredients. He specialises in microbiology at Arla's headquarters in Viby. His job is to identify and solve microbiological problems with food ingredients produced at Arla's creameries and dairies.
“For example, if I can see from our data that the whey produced at one of our dairies is of poorer quality than usual, I’ll visit the dairy to review their production flow. My job is then to identify any problems in the production flow, have samples taken and suggest changes to the process. It’s actually really fun detective work!" he says.
He has a PhD and has worked as a postdoc at the Department of Biology at Natural Sciences. But he always knew he eventually wanted to work in industry.
"I never wanted to make a career as a researcher and publish my writings in scientific journals like Nature, for example. But during my Master's degree, I became interested in basic research, so when I was asked if I wanted to do a PhD, I said yes. I wanted to know more about microbiology, because I was fascinated by the field," says Søren Dollerup Nielsen.
He completed his PhD in collaboration with Maersk. The project was about finding bacteria to mend cracks in concrete in oil fields deep underground. He really enjoyed his PhD and was successful with his research.
However, he kept to his plan for a career in industry and ended his career in academia during his postdoc in Denmark, when he turned down an offer for a five-year postdoc position with the possibility of tenure-track employment in the Netherlands.
He looks back at his faculty days as both rewarding and fun. He had freedom, responsibility as well as the means to immerse himself in his project, and he made good friends with some of the other postdocs and PhD students. They shared their frustrations but also just had fun and partied.
Today, he uses what he learned as a PhD and a postdoc in his job at Arla. This includes skills in project management, data collection and communication. And, not least, microbiology.
"It’s a complex and difficult field for many people. But I’ve gained a deep basic understanding from my time at AU. For example, if I talk with someone with many years of experience in the dairy industry, I’m not afraid to challenge them, because I know the basics very well. I'm confident about what I know, and that’s a great advantage," says Søren Dollerup Nielsen.
Although he initially missed the freedom of research and work in the laboratory, he now appreciates having skilled laboratory technicians to help him with the analyses. This means he gets to nerd around with data and production flow instead, as he says.
He highly recommends other PhDs or postdocs to change track to a career in industry.
“Just do it! Believe in the skills you take with you from AU. So what if you end up working with something completely different from your research field? You know how to run a project and you have strong basic knowledge," he says.
