Knud Jønsson

Ever since I stopped wanting to be a cowboy or a pirate, I wanted to become a biologist.

Knud Jønsson uses birds to answer fundamental biological questions pertaining to the evolution and distribution of life on Earth.
-As a child, Sir David Attenborough, was on television every Sunday evening presenting the wonders of the natural world. I wanted to do the same thing, but I had no idea how, says Knud Jønsson.

The bird Professor gave him wings
-I thought getting a biology degree would get me closer. In my final year at university, I met the bird professor Jon Fjeldså who had done a lot of fieldwork in Africa and South America. I did my master’s thesis with him and in the process heard all his wild stories from the field.

That is when Knud Jønsson realized that he wanted to become a scientist and that fieldwork should be an important component of his academic work.

Today he is an evolutionary ecologist and biogeographer with more than 15 years of experience working in the lab and in the field. He uses birds to answer fundamental biological questions pertaining to the evolution and distribution of life on Earth and draw on an array of data spanning genomic sequence data, morphological trait data, species distributions, pathogens, gut microbes, satellite tracking data and theoretical modelling.

-I spend a month in the field every year to collect new data and have a particular fondness for the Indo-Pacific archipelagos.

How was it all formed?
-Even today I am driven by a fascination of Nature and its diversity both on a personal level and on a research level. Questions such as: How does it all work? And how was it all formed? I also very much enjoy the collaborative aspect of my profession. A mix of researchers at all levels get together and provide a diverse set of ideas and ways to think.

A path to the Swedish Museum of Natural History
Knud Jønsson did his PhD at the Natural History Museum of Denmark with a 6 months exchange at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at University California in Berkeley. Over the years he has worked in several countries and collaborated extensively with researchers at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. So when the job as head of Bioinformatics and genetics (BIO) at the Swedish Museum was advertised, he applied.

The biggest surprise at work
A really big surprise for Knud Jønsson has been to realise that so many funding bodies around the world are preoccupied with applied research, and relatively unwilling to fund curiosity-driven fundamental research within the natural sciences.

-Everybody knows that the biggest break-throughs come through fundamental research.

-I hope to get a better understanding of how all the animals, plants, fungi and microbes evolved and came to be distributed the way they are today. Any additional piece to that puzzle pleases me immensely!

Fully “booked” spare time
Besides spending time with his family in the summerhouse in Sweden, Knud Jønsson runs, hikes and skiis - and he is also a dedicated birder... He has a passion for Bruce Springsteen’s music.