Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Hope College

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research has been on taxonomy and systematics of plant groups between the New and Old Worlds, and the questions I am trying to answer relate to how many species there are in a specific group of plants in the Old and New Worlds respectively, how these species are related, why there are more species in one or the other region, and how these species formed their distribution between the two continents. These work involves using both morphological and molecular data. Morphological data can be qualitative (e.g., leaf shape, flower color) or quantitative (e.g., leaf size, number of flowers per inflorescence, number of seeds in a fruit). Molecular data can be a small piece of DNA or the entire genome.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  It provides an opportunity to work on a question no one has ever touched, or test hypotheses people have proposed from different lines of evidence. This increases our knowledge about the natural world we rely on for our well-being and economy.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is tough about being a scientist?

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

  It is fun to think about how to resolve problems for a research project, but at the same time you feel that you need to get away from the problem and do something else. Life is a multifaceted process, and multitasking can be a challenge. However, that may also a benefit for people to gain perspectives of life in the process of trying to finish multiple tasks.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is a typical day like for you?

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

  I get up early in the morning (not very early) and think about what things I needed to do for the preparation of teaching, research project, and meetings to go to. Then, when I get to my office, I check my calendar to make sure these things to do are there. Sometimes I set up the alarm to get reminder from my smart phone to make sure I do not miss any planned activities. At the end of the day, I check the list to see whether things are all done and think briefly about how well things are done, and what to do the first thing on the next day.

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

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

  2