Sonja Gilbert

My main focus is on research conducted in a global network of mental health professionals on four continents. The network conducts a school survey on adolescent mental health in 32 countries. My role is to coordinate, steer and develop the network and the research project. Together with research nurse, I collected the Finnish survey data in 2023 and contribute to publishing national and international papers as lead- or co-author.

Additionally, I am involved in several other research projects, including both epidemiological and intervention studies. For example, I co-steer a project, whereby we provide a mental health literacy program for medical students in Finnish and cross-national context. This program involves teaching and I am acting as one of the lecturers.

Besides my research duties, I frequently contribute to funding applications for the research centre and to the administrative tasks , especially with regard to international collaboration.

I started my significant career change from ecological research to working with children at daycare by joining and completing a two-year apprenticeship contract at a private kindergarden. Due to a serious illness of my child, I broke off this education for the duration of her treatment (09/2015 to 03/2017). After that, I continued working in the preschool group and completed my apprenticeship and received Vocational Qualification in Education and Guidance.

My duty in the kindergarden was to ensure children's psychosocial and physical wellbeing on a daily basis.

After defending my PhD thesis in ecology, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Ecology. My main duty was to conduct analyses on community ecological data. I also published the last manuscript of my thesis during postdoctoral period.

I conducted field experiments involving both invertebrate and vertebrate model animals to test ecological theories at both population and community levels. The analyses of the yielded data required various advanced statistical approaches. I conducted all data management and analyses myself. During my PhD, I produced four scientific articles.

My duty was to conduct a population survey of water voles in the Scottish highlands. The survey was carried out using a capture-recapture method.