Ant researcher from AU in the final of this year's PhD Cup
PhD in Biology, Ida Cecilie Jensen is in the final at this year's PhD Cup, which celebrates the best communicated PhD dissertations from the country's universities. She researches how bacteria from ants' feet can fight plant diseases.
Ida Cecilie Jensen is a PhD from the Department of Ecoscience and is among the finalists at this year's PhD Cup, which is a collaboration between the Danish newspaper Information, DR and the Lundbeck Foundation. Here, the best communicated PhD dissertations from the country's universities in 2025 are celebrated.
Ida Cecilie Jensen researches how bacteria from ants' feet can be used to combat plant diseases, for example, in orchards. She made this discovery as part of her PhD project, which was a further development of her thesis. The discovery has also meant that she can now call herself an entrepreneur and the CEO of Agro Ant, a company which provides customised solutions for tackling plant diseases in agriculture.
Following the ants (in Danish)
The PhD Cup is about communicating one's research – and this discipline is not unfamiliar to Ida Marie Jensen. In 2023, she won the PhD competition Three Minute Thesis at Aarhus University and went on to the international final in Cologne, Germany, which she also won.
PhD student from AU wins international final of Three Minute Thesis
The PhD Cup 2026 will take place on 22 April and can be watched on DR1. In addition to the honour, the winner receives DKK 100,000.
This text is machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen.