Minor Lab at UIC
This is my first year working in Dr. Emily Minor's lab and my first summer field season is coming up. Soon I'll be accumulating five years of experience working with Emily. For now I'm practicing putting myself forward to get my own projects started and learning the delicate balance between long-term project needs and acute class priorities. Watch this space, because this is the current big adventure.
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Hunt Lab at IUS
My first basic research experience was with Dr. Randy Hunt at Indiana University Southeast. At the Hunt Lab I worked on leafhopper courtship, communication, male-male competition, and identifying cryptic species. I gained field experience assisting in collecting new populations for breeding in the lab, recording and playing back courtship signals in controlled settings, and quantifying data for later analysis.
Dr. Hunt taught me a lot about looking for alternative hypotheses and considering the ecological role of a behavior. He also focused on the need to let an animal show you what's important by taking the time to really watch a whole behavior from beginning to end. |
Mood Disorders Lab at UofL
My first opportunity to participate in research was in Dr. El-Mallakh's Mood Disorders Lab at the University of Louisville. The lab focused on the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. I was involved in testing a potential mouse model for mania using heterozygous genetic knockouts for the alpha-2 subunit of the sodium pump. The work involved working with the mice as well as genotyping via PCR and running tests after final samples were collected.
Dr. El-Mallakh taught me about the importance of disseminating your work, not just for your benefit, but because someone paid for that research and also to show respect to experimental animals. His lab has a wonderful back-and-forth, testing ideas with colleagues and welcoming criticism. He encourages all of his students, even undergraduate volunteers, to voice their opinion and (if they think they're right) disagree firmly with researchers who have twice their years and ten times their experience. |
Past mentors outside of the lab
Dr. Elizabeth Rueschhoff
I've been lucky to have so many wonderful lab mentors but I would be remiss in not calling attention to Dr. Elizabeth Rueschhoff. Dr. Rueschhoff started teaching at my undergraduate institution the same semester I started taking classes there and taught my first undergraduate class as a biology major. She is an extraordinary teacher of research ethics and methodical lab work practices. I never worked in Beth's molecular biology lab but she has been an important influence on me in how to think about research practices and provided a friendly office to bounce ideas around as an undergraduate. I'll try to get a picture of her in her tie-dyed lab coat. |