"My teaching philosophy is to make students feel seen, heard, and respected [...]"

 

I am a guest professor at the University of Innsbruck because...

This position provides me with the time and resources I need to collaborate with amazing scientists and be part of an outstanding research group at the Research Department for Limnology in Mondsee. At the Research Department for Limnology, I will work with Dr. Dunja Lamatsch to continue and extend our efforts to use cytogenetic techniques to illuminate genomic consequences of asexual reproduction and to decipher sex determination in our unique snail model system. We will also start new projects focused on measuring cell size and developing cell culture for our snails; the former a critical piece of understanding whether and how ploidy differences between sexual and asexual snails might contribute to the maintenance of sex and the latter a critical step towards enabling a suite of powerful genetic, genomic, and cytogenetic techniques. I will also be working with Prof. Otto Seppälä on a project asking how heat waves might influence snail immune function, with broader implications for host-parasite interactions and predicting ecosystem responses to climate change.

 

The University of Innsbruck differs from my home university in...

The Research Department for Limnology differs from my home university in the presence of a group of scientists who study phenomena related to lakes, freshwater biology, and aquatic ecology. And, the incredible view of lakes and mountains out of the windows at the institute of Mondsee and the Alps is very different than the prairies and cornfields of Iowa!

 

From my research stay in Innsbruck, I expect…

I expect that I will make important scientific advances of relevance to the broader set of questions surrounding the genomic and genetic causes and consequences of sexual and asexual reproduction and build and grow relationships with my scientific colleagues at the institute.

 

My life motto is...

…to make the most of the opportunities that I have - including the unique opportunity to live for a summer in Europe and do science with wonderful people.

 

My teaching philosophy is...

…to make students feel seen, heard, and respected, and to use engaging and responsive teaching approaches to ensure that they understand why what they’re learning is important. 

What still surprises me about academic research is…

…how challenging it is to do rigorous science, especially in the field! And what particularly inspires me about my current research are the early-career scientists I work with every day - their passion, their idealism, and their commitment to leave the world a better place than they found it.

 

At this point in my life, I realised that I wanted to pursue an academic career... 

I realized it when I was a university student, and I saw that the professors who were my research mentors were my role models for a career as well as a life style. I wanted to grow up to be them! Concerning my research field, my interest in it stemmed from a deep appreciation for being out in nature, observing natural variation, and then wondering about how and why that variation came to be.

 

The most formative experience in my academic career was...

They were biology-focused study-abroad experiences in Australia, New Zealand, and Costa Rica.

 

The role of interdisciplinary collaboration in academic research is important to me because...

Because we learn so much from interactions with people with different perspectives and expertise. As an evolutionary biologist, I am perhaps biased, but I think that experts from other biological subdisciplines can especially benefit from collaboration with evolutionary biologists because evolution from a common ancestor unites all life on earth.

 

Current scientific trends I find particularly exciting are…

The growing efforts to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science as a means to make the science we do more rigorous and more relevant and the energy and creativity early-career scientists bring to their research programs.

 

I see the role of universities in promoting societal change as...

Protecting academic freedom alongside honoring human diversity and dignity and establishing policies aimed at countering systemic inequities and bias. In this setting, people can start to realize their true potential, learn from those with different backgrounds and perspectives, and develop the relationships with people from diverse cultures that are critical towards bridging cultural, ethnic, and religious divides. We also know from studies of the relationship of diversity to scientific quality that more diverse groups do better science, so by promoting diversity, universities are also increasing the quality of the science that they do.

 

For a successful academic career, I consider the following skills to be indispensable…

The ability to constructively manage criticism, work in teams, build and maintain relationships, delegate research components and trust colleagues, build relationships, and clearly communicate about complex topics in an engaging and accessible way.