Jonna Kulmuni
Human Frontier Science Program Fellow - Department of Animal and Plant Sciences
Profile
Jonna Kulmuni’s love of nature began at an early age but biology wasn’t her strongest subject. The challenge was what drove her to pursue a biological career and she fell in love with ants during her masters degree, where she worked with a very supportive group and continued on to a PhD.
At the same time, she completed a masters in science communication - an invaluable experience, which has supported her career ever since and seen her become increasingly engaged in public outreach. She came to Sheffield in 2014 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and is always thinking ahead about the next opportunity to apply for funding.
Jonna is now a Principal Investigator at the University of Helsinki.
“I want to recreate the atmosphere that nurtured me at the beginning of my scientific career and I want to give that back to the scientific community.”
Career timeline
2006
MSc, Biology, University of Oulu, Finland.
2007
Visits to primary school and teaching first and second graders about ants.
Vice President of Science communication Student Organization, Uni of Oulu.
Talk on Evolutionary Biology of Communication - workshop, Copenhagen, Denmark.
2008
Talk at IUSSI meeting (International Union for Study of Social Insects), Belgia.
2009
Talk at Nordic Network in Social Evolution, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Interviewed by local news about ants.
Invited expert in a public discussion about evolution and religion one of the five panelists at an open debate organised by church.
Presentation at Kaamos Symposium, Oulu, Finland (best presentation award).
2010
Researcher (three months), Science communication, working with Professor Erkki Karvonen.
MSc, Science communication, University of Oulu, Finland.
Talk at Conference of Media Studies, Tampere, Finland.
Second author paper
Seifert, B., Kulmuni, J. and Pamilo, P. (2010) Independent hybrid populations of Formica polyctena X rufa wood ants (Hymenoptera:Formicidae) abound under conditions of forest fragmentation. Evolutionary Ecology. 24(5):1219-1237.First author paper
Kulmuni, J., Seifert, B. and Pamilo, P. (2010) Segregation distortion causes large-scale differences between male and female genomes in hybrid ants. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 107(16): 7371-7376.
2011
On maternity leave for 10 months (first child).
Presentation at Genetics seminar, Oulu, Finland.
2012
Teaching on a course ‘Principles of Evolutionary Biology’, University of Helsinki, Finland (8h, Topic: Population genetics).
Presentation at IUSSI meeting (International Union for Study of Social Insects) Montecatini Terme, Italy.
2013
On maternity leave for 10 months (second child).
Foundations postdoc pool (grant for postdoctoral research, €30,000).
PhD, Biology, University of Oulu, Finland.
First author paper
Kulmuni, J., Wurm, Y. and Pamilo, P. (2013) Comparative genomics of chemosensory protein genes reveals rapid evolution and positive selection in ant-specific duplicates. Heredity. 110(6):538-47.First author paper
Kulmuni, J. and Havukainen, H. (2013) Insights into the Evolution of the CSP Gene Family through the Integration of Evolutionary Analysis and Comparative Protein Modeling. PLoS ONE. 8(5):e63688.Interviewed by Heredity podcast on gene duplications.
Main result of my doctoral thesis was reported in local media.
Postdoctoral researcher (one year), Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions.
2014
Lecturer on a course ‘Evolutionary Biology’, University of Helsinki, Finland (6h, Topic: Molecular Evolution and phylogenetics).
Talk at IUSSI meeting (International Union for Study of Social Insects) Montecatini Terme, Italy.
Primary supervisor of a masters thesis, University of Helsinki, Finland (Topic: Molecular evolution of chemosensory genes in ants).
Human Frontiers Science Program long-term fellowship (three years, €155,000).
Second year ‘Topics in Evolutionary Genetics’ course (guest lecturer).
Talk at Departmental EEE Seminar, Sheffield, UK.
Other author paper
Morandin, C., Havukainen, H., Kulmuni, J., Dhaygude, K., Trontti, K. and Helanterä, H. (2014) Not only for egg yolk - functional and evolutionary insights from expression, selection and structural analyses of Formica ant vitellogenins. Mol Biol Evol. 2014 Aug;31(8):2181-93.First author paper
Kulmuni, J. and Pamilo, P. (2014) Introgression in hybrid ants is favored in females but selected against in males. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1323045111.Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Human Frontier Science Program Long-term Fellow, working with Professor Roger Butlin, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield, UK.
Invited speaker for ‘The evolution of Chemosensory proteins in ants’, International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Cairns, Australia, 2014.
Speaker at PopUp Science, Cairns, Australia Talking about science on the streets of Cairns. popupscience.co.uk
2015
Finnish Cultural Foundation (€22,000 for laboratory and traveling expenses).
Presentation at PopGroup meeting, Sheffield, UK.
Talk at ESEB meeting, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Supervisor for a SURE project (summer project for second year student).
Supervisor for OnCampus Placement project (100 hours lab-based project for third year students, UK).
Primary supervisor of a masters in research project, the University of Sheffield, UK.
Speaker at Virtual LifeScience: Over the course of six months pupils from year 9 will research, design and develop a series of artworks based on the work of eight life science researchers.
2015-2016
Organising the weekly Evolution, Ecology and Environment seminar series at the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, the University of Sheffield, UK.
2016
Organiser for a symposium titled ‘Insights from social insects into open questions in adaptation and speciation’ at the International Union for the Study of Social Insects meeting, Helsinki, Finland, August 2016.
Second year ‘Topics in Evolutionary Genetics’ course.
School visit at the Lydgate infant school: Made an interactive demo on ant language and research.