This is the second part in a series from the Mordecai lab where lab members highlight the diverse paths that led them toward careers in ecology. Check out our other posts in this series: How to Apply for Grad School in Ecology and Evolution, Demystifying the Qualifying Exams, Paths to Ecology - Part I, The Grad Student Life, and How to Submit a Paper.
Devin is a second-year postdoc who studies how environmental stressors, especially those related to anthropogenic change, impact infectious disease. Outside of work he can be found playing soccer or golf, watching any sport that’s on TV, or trying to pester his family and friends with meaningless movie trivia.
Mallory is a second-year PhD student interested in modeling infectious diseases to develop effective public health interventions, focusing on multi-pathogen systems. In addition to science, she teaches group fitness, listens to audiobooks, and participates in advocacy and community organizing.
Q: How important was ecology and nature in your early life?
Devin: I grew up close to a forest and spent a lot of my childhood exploring under rocks and trees, looking for worms and insects and anything else I could find. I was also lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of time boating with my grandparents, fishing and exploring marine coastlines in British Columbia as well as freshwater lakes in the interior. Together this exposure helped prime my curiosity for nature, though a career in science wasn’t on my radar whatsoever.
Mallory: One of my most vivid memories from childhood was being taken to the local nature center by my mom and leaving within fifteen minutes because my sister and I were so distraught about the wasp we saw. I only started to venture more into the outdoors during college, when I started participating in camping trips organized by the campus rec center. I like shorter hikes and have enjoyed exploring natural parks in the past few years, but I was never someone who naturally felt comfortable outside or around animals, which is part of the reason that it took me a while to figure out that my interests in mathematical modelling and biological systems were well-suited to an ecology department. That being said, I’ve always loved guided hikes and the natural intricacies and idiosyncrasies they can reveal. Being part of an ecology department means that I have excellent access to de facto guides who also probably know what to do if a wasp shows up.
Q: What did you major in in undergrad, and how did it lay the foundation for grad school in ecology? Did you consider other paths?
Devin: I majored in Biological Sciences in undergrad, under the “Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation” concentration. I think I chose this concentration rather than the “Cells, Molecules, and Physiology” concentration at least in part because of my exposure to plants and animals growing up. This major and the concentration naturally helped set up going to grad school in an Ecology and Evolution department, though I still appreciate having taken several courses on cellular biology and physiology as that knowledge often comes in handy when studying ecology and evolution. I strongly considered majoring in physics or chemistry during the first couple years of my undergrad, but in the end I found biology much more interesting, mostly because of the tangible complexity of biology you can observe all around you.
Mallory: I entered undergrad wanting to double major in math and biology and focus on the intersection between the two, which I thought was limited to bioinformatics. As I progressed through these majors, I felt that my math classes were too abstract for my preferences and my biology classes would skip through any equations as annoying afterthoughts. Luckily, University of Georgia allowed me to build my own major in Computational Biology and select coursework that was interesting to me. During my sophomore year, I stumbled across Dr. John Drake’s lab and the field of disease ecology. I loved the way that they used quantitative methods to answer their questions, including questions around epidemic forecasting and population health. I then did research for course credit in the Drake lab, which helped me understand what graduate school would entail and also helped me pick up specific programming skills beyond what I learned in class. One of my favorite classes as an undergraduate was Population Biology of Infectious Diseases, taught by Drs. Andrew Park and Sonia Altizer, which introduced me to the diverse range of questions encompassed by disease ecology through a series of really engaging case studies. I also took a course with Dr. Leanne Howe on writing fiction about infectious diseases grounded in scientific research and historical precedent. Imagining the worst-case scenario for how a zombie plague would arise and how we would respond gave me a really different perspective on how the diseases I study affect individuals and society. I think effective modeling requires a lot of the same skills as storytelling: creativity, attention to detail, and empathy.
Q: What or who convinced you to go to grad school to pursue a career in Ecology?
Devin: During the last two years of my undergrad I had the chance to take several courses that really gave me an idea about what a career in research could entail, including Insect Biology with Prof. Gerhard Gries, Parasitology with Prof. Carl Lowenberger, and Stream Ecology with Prof. Jonathan Moore. I was then able to carry out undergrad research in Prof. Gries’ lab on black widow spider behaviour and found this work incredibly interesting (even after learning that black widows aren’t as scary as they’re often made out to be). During this research, I received great mentorship from both Dr. Gries and his graduate student at the time, Dr. Catherine Scott. Before this point I had no knowledge whatsoever about what going to graduate school would be like, or how to find the right supervisor and the right department. I’m not sure if I really had any other specific career plans at that point besides wanting to work on something to do with biology, but advice from these and other mentors became a driving force towards me eventually applying to and attending graduate school in ecology and evolution.
Mallory: Prior to my junior year, I spent a summer working with Dr. Mordecai for an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates). I loved my lifestyle in Palo Alto, my experience with Stanford’s Biology Department, and the environment in the Mordecai lab. I felt pretty confident after that summer that I wanted to go to grad school, but I still felt like I hadn’t fully explored my other interests in politics and activism. After graduating, I spent a year working for a congressional campaign and then a nonprofit. Taking time to focus on my other interests and experience working on them full time helped me make sure that I wanted to pursue research and go to graduate school.