Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  University of California - Berkeley

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My main research interest is to understand the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that lead to functional and phylogenetic diversity; specifically by studying the genetic basis of diverse and important adaptations in flowering plants in relation to the environments they inhabit. By better understanding the causes and consequences of these adaptations, my long-term research goal is to improve predictions of plant distributions in future climate scenarios.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

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

  I have always been amazed by the variation we see around us. During secondary school I decided I wanted to pursue a science career because all the science classes I took made me very curious and want to learn more. At high school, after I learned about Darwin's theories, I knew that I wanted to study biology. It was not before my university graduation that I knew I wanted to work on plants as they appeared mysterious and often ignored despite their importance.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

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

  I was sampling plants in South Africa at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. And I was planning on finishing my sampling in a total of 3 weeks. At the end of my first week, I saw a very large snake, staring at me. I am not particularly scared of snakes but I knew that there would be some venomous ones there, so I asked the rangers to be sure. They assured me that it was a harmless tree snake. "Ok." I said and continued my usual sampling. The next day I saw a more experienced ranger who approached me and asked if I was the one who saw the snake. I nodded and he said that it was a Cape cobra and if he ever bites me I should shout as load as possible so the rangers can hear and save me. I finished my sampling that very week, 1 week ahead of my plans thanks to that snake. I am grateful to him for giving me more time to hang around in Cape Town. I never reached that sampling speed again in any of my experiments.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  You get to see many amazing creatures, places and meet awesome people who do their jobs with great commitment and joy.

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

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

Sunny D Melis Akman Dec 11, 2018

Hi Mena,

That sounds all very exciting. You are building your own pallet garden, that sounds amazing! And I liked that you put a filter to keep the mud in, smart! I am curious about how your fair goes, please let me know. As for filtering sugar…

more

Hi Mena,

That sounds all very exciting. You are building your own pallet garden, that sounds amazing! And I liked that you put a filter to keep the mud in, smart! I am curious about how your fair goes, please let me know. As for filtering sugar and salt, they both dissolve water that is probably why you could not filter them through. I am sure Mr. Kessler told you about things that dissolve in water. For example if you had sand as fine as sugar or the salt, it would not dissolve in water (that is why we have those beautiful beaches!) and so you could have filtered it out with the coffee filter. Sugar and salt dissolves in water but they might not dissolve in other liquids such as oil. So both the substance and the liquid pair matters and defines if the substance will dissolve. Anyway, please tell me about your fair!

Melis

Sunny D Melis Akman Nov 30, 2018

Hi Mena,

Since I have not writtten for a while, this will be a long message. I loved your story about the zombie apocalypse. I even told it to my husband and he enjoyed it a lot. I also told it to my 2 year old son, I am not sure if he…

more

Hi Mena,

Since I have not writtten for a while, this will be a long message. I loved your story about the zombie apocalypse. I even told it to my husband and he enjoyed it a lot. I also told it to my 2 year old son, I am not sure if he understands what a zombie is but he surely liked it too! I hope we do not face an apocalypse because of some careless scientists. In fact, to be able to work in a lab we have to do a lot of trainings on safety. Hopefully a zombie apocalypse will not happen! 

Thanksgiving break was nice except that we were all sick at home. Anyways, I liked to hear about your research for the type of soil you tested. You did a great job! You know what we had to write a lot of lab reports during college to get a biology degree. I also hated it during then, but now looking back at it, I learned so much while writing those reports. Think of it this way, you put so much effort to your experiments, you built a hypothesis, did a lot of research to form that hypothesis, you thought a lot about your experiments and you spend a lot of time to execute them. Now by writing it up and sharing it with Mr. Kessler and me (please do share it with me too, I am so curious!), you have a chance to show all your hard work. We as scientists do write lab reports all the time. And we get to share them with the whole scientific community to share ideas, results and move research further. Because if you do not share, no one will know that you did it and maybe waste a lot of time and resources doing it again just to find the same results. That would be a pity! So I am glad you wrote a report, you should be proud of it and all the effort that goes into it! 

I am excited about your new topic too. And eww, I did not know that we are drinking toilet water! No one told me! So what is your new experiment about? Did you start working on it? Please tell me more!

Melis 

Sunny D Melis Akman Nov 16, 2018

Oh and please also tell me about your creative writing project! I am very curious about what you have written!