When I was three years old, I performed my first experiment, testing the response of a common feline to topical application of blueberry yogurt. Unfortunately at that point my funding was revoked, but I retained an avid curiosity about the natural world and the origin and experiences of the organisms living in it.
I gave my first talk at the age of seven, when, complete with stuffed animal props, I presented to my elementary class my literature research into the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and the hypothesis that they would provide an ecological benefit by influencing the behavior of large herbivores.
My lovely parents supported my interest in animals of all types, helping me to raise and release local tadpoles, tolerating my re-purposing of various tupperwares as temporary creature habitats (for example during one summer when the 17-year cicadas came out), and signing off on various family pets over the years. The first pets who were my own responsibility, a pair of female Madagascar hissing cockroaches, kindled a lifelong amateur fascination with insects. In spring of 2018, I sort of accidentally caught a queen ant (likely Lasius niger) who found her way into my apartment, and I nurtured her through founding a thriving colony. I named her Achilles, for obvious classical mythology and gender de-normalizing reasons.
As a senior in high school, I took half of my classes online so that on alternating days I could go to an internship at the US Geological Survey, where I worked on a project using bacteria to test the bio-availability of phosphorus in smectite clay from a lake of interest. The following year, I read this profile in the New York Times of Professor Sinéad Collins, and I was completely taken by the idea of experimental evolution.
During my undergraduate studies, I followed up on this interest in experimental evolution, as well as digging into my longstanding attraction to the practice of European historical swordsmanship (the first grant I received was actually for this). I also nurtured my abilities as a creative writer under the tutelage of the wonderful writing professors at Sweet Briar College. I had enjoyed creative writing projects in elementary school and attended an annual summer writing workshop seven years running. Through the SBC English department and honors program, I was introduced to the uncanny in literature and film and became fascinated with surrealism and its contrasts with Latin American magical realist fiction. (You can check out what I’ve published/produced on my Creative Works page.)
In 2014 I moved to Zurich, Switzerland in order to work with Professor Greg Velicer and gain experience with experimental evolution. I love living abroad – experiencing the Swiss landscape and culture as well as learning some German. It’s a great place in which to grow as a scientist and a writer and to pursue the outdoor activities I most enjoy – hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding, and ice skating.
