charismaticmicrofauna

I have been living in Tampa for exactly one year and 3 days. On July 31, 2014 I drove from Philadelphia to Florida with my 3 cats to start a new chapter in my life.

As a new year of graduate school begins, I am tentatively outlining my agenda for the coming semester. My current to do list includes:

finish testing my experiment

start writing my research article to be published

come up with a research project

prepare to teach 2 sections of a biology 2 lab course

mentor

Train for my Level 2 Muay Thai test

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to update my blog, but it’s been on my mind to write a new entry and I can’t put it off any longer.

Since it’s been a few months, here’s a recap:

In the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year I started my first semester at the University of South Florida as a Master’s Degree student in Integrative Biology with a concentration in Ecological and Environmental Microbiology. The chief scientist, professor, and all around decent human being who had the grace and belief  in my abilities to take me under her wing is a microbial physiologist who studies deep sea bacteria.

Deep sea bacteria are single celled life forms that are not only the first forms of life that existed on our planet, but also models for alien life! Their environment is hostile to say the least. It is in a constant state of flux, the atmospheric temperature at the bottom of the ocean is 4 degrees Celsius and there is not a single photon of sunlight. I have always been fascinated by bacteria that live in the environment. Especially, by bacteria that are able to survive on metals or toxic substances like sulfide which I study.

During my first semester of grad school, I went on a research cruise to the East Pacific, 500 miles off of the coast of Costa Rica which you can read about here,  

                                        here,                               or here, 

and here,                                     also here,                                             and….here.

My experiment is specific to my organism (bacteria), and has not been used before. SO, I want to make sure that I have tested every aspect of it before I use it on the samples that I collected from sea because I don’t have an unlimited supply of specimens to use once I start collecting real data so that it can be published in an academic journal. I’m currently finishing the last of my experiments to test my assay which measures a diagnostic protein for a metabolic pathway. Once I finish measuring the enzyme from the samples collected at sea,  I will be able to write my first academic paper.

I spent this past spring semester teaching a microbial physiology laboratory class and testing my experiment in my free time. In the beginning of the summer, I applied for the doctoral program at the University of South Florida and I was accepted, so now I am a PhD student. As a master’s degree candidate I worked on a project that my mentor has ongoing in her laboratory. As a PhD student, I will create my own research project, present it to a committee of scientists, and defend my hypothesis to earn my title as a doctor of philosophy. The experiments that I am about to complete will be the first chapter of three in my final thesis for my PhD.

In addition to teaching, researching, and writing, I am a youth mentor. In the past I have tutored chemistry and biology to community college students and for high school students in the Upward Bound Program. This year I will be a mentor for high school students in a program through the Hillsborough Education Foundation’s Take Stock in Children program which is a scholarship program for students from at risk and underprivileged populations to keep them on a track to finish college. I’m looking forward to meeting my mentee this weekend at a mentor event and guide him or her toward success. I was a late bloomer and did not go to college right after high school. The road to get to where I am today was not easy, but I made it and I hope that I can encourage someone else to be steadfast as I was because it is worth the effort.

What do I do in my spare time besides sciencing? I am a Muay Thai fighter. I have not fought an official fight yet, but I have been doing a lot of sparring lately and hope to have my first amateur fight by next spring. In April I passed my level 1 test. I am a Neung Khan Nak Muay (level one boxer). It is a great outlet for me because it gives me something to focus on besides deep sea bacteria and the rigors of academia. When I’m sparring, there is nothing to think about except for technique, timing, and defense.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. I’ve had a busy year on hindsight and it has been nice to be able to finally sit down and reflect on everything that I have accomplished so far.

Finally, here are a few new additions to the home that I have taken in. I love them!