Samantha López Clinton

What is your role at the museum (a brief about you, unit, title, responsibilities)?
I am a PhD student at the Bioinformatics and Genetics Department at NRM, in the group led by Tom van der Valk. I am also associated to the Centre for Palaeogenetics, and to the Zoology Department at Stockholm University. My position as a PhD student is 4 years long in total, during which I must complete four research chapters, or manuscripts, as well as obtain credits through a series of courses, seminars and readings.

What is your research/service generally about?
In my research, I explore the possibilities of population genomics on a metagenomic scale. In other words, I use computer programmes to disentangle DNA data from mixed samples for which the exact species content is unknown. This could be, for example, a jar of several arthropods collected in the wild, a water sample from the ocean, or even a sediment sample from the bottom of a lake. It is my job to use bioinformatics (computer programmes applied to biological problems) to identify the species present in the sample and place them in the context of existing populations. I ask questions such as: are the insects in the north of Sweden genetically distinct from the ones in the south? Why could this be?

Tell us about your current research, or other relevant tasks at the museum.
At the moment, in 2024, I am working on a collaborative project with the Insect Biome Atlas project (IBA). We compare metagenomic and metabarcoding approaches on mixed insect samples collected across Sweden by IBA, one of the largest citizen science initiatives in Scandinavia. Metagenomics refers to the use of all the genomic data in a sample (a genome is the entire DNA information in an organism), while metabarcoding uses only a fraction (or a barcode) of the genome that can indicate what species the data came from.

If you were to describe yourself with a maximum of three words – what characterizes you as a person?
Intercultural, creative, curious!

What made you become a researcher? Did you have any role models?
I’ve always admired Jane Goodall – famous for her work in studying wild chimpanzees. I was also very inspired by Dr. Mrinalini Watsa, an amazing researcher who does so much for research, but also for conservation, science inclusivity, and social justice.

What do you find most interesting about your profession?
The most interesting part about my job is being able to contribute to real life problems like conservation and to be at the forefront of computational methods applied to biodiversity studies. I also have a lot of special opportunities as a PhD student, such as attending and presenting at international conferences, and taking courses in teaching, science design, and new techniques.

How did you come to work at the Natural History National Museum?
I was offered a PhD position by Tom van der Valk, a Data Driven Life Science Fellow in 2022. I was immediately drawn to the project and the group, and I knew that it was where I wanted to develop my researcher skills.

Mention a project or a specific work moment that you fondly remember.
As a PhD student associate to the Zoology department of Stockholm University, I was able to spend 10 days in the Swedish tundra with the Swedish Arctic Fox Project. There, with another good friend PhD student, I hiked and camped around remote areas of Jämtland and helped collect data for a country-wide monitoring of the endangered Arctic Fox. It was a rough fieldwork, but worth it. We saw countless breathtaking landscapes, were overtaken by herds of reindeer in the hundreds, and – of course – saw wild arctic foxes!

What do you aim to achieve with your research, individually or with others?
I aim to help make conservation genomics more accessible, in particular to underfunded regions or demographics, by making significant strides in the realm of bioinformatic genomic analyses.

What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy hiking, mushroom picking, and learning languages. I am also very passionate about outreach, I have given several talks and science workshops at schools, universities, and cultural centres. I am currently co-chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access (IDEA) task force for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE).