Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  University of St. Thomas - Minnesota

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  In my graduate studies, I study how light affects pathogenicity and virulence of the wheat fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. I use molecular techniques to cause mutations in the genome to see how it changes the fungus, as well as use high-throughput sequencing to study gene expression on a molecular level.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  Can you describe your attitude toward science when you were in high school?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  In my freshman and sophomore years, indifferent. It was a class, it wasn't super interesting. I liked rocks, but the way science was taught earlier was not very enticing. Then in junior year I was in honors chemistry, and everything changed. I enjoyed my chemistry class, and it opened up the world of biochemistry and molecular biology class for me.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What lessons have you learned in your career about how science works?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  Experiments don't always work first try. And sometimes you don't get the results you expected, and that's all just fine! It's perfectly fine to try again, or retool your hypotheses.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  (not set)

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  (not set)

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  1