Jurģis Jansons, director of the Latvian State Forest Research Institute (LVMI) "Silava", has just received the Latvian Academy of Sciences Kaspars Bušs Award in forest ecology and silviculture. J. Jansons entered the field of science in the nineties, while studying in his third year at the Faculty of Forestry.
“In the early nineties, there was a choice: either come and work at the institute for three months, because there wasn't a longer period for which they could pay, or go somewhere else to earn money – to fell trees or cruise forests, or do something similar,” recalled J. Jansons. At that time, he decided to commit to working at the institute, which was not the best-paid profession back then: “For about four years, I waded through the forest. I measured trees. The topic was to understand the forest regeneration process.” (...)