Who am I?

I'm a microbial ecologist, which means that I look at the microbiology of environmental systems. As a microbial ecologist, I examine how the microbes work together and how they affect the environment in which they live. I mainly work with CELSS, which is the Controlled Ecological Life Support System project. I work in controlled environments, which are systems that are environmentally oriented, but are controlled by humans. We look at the root system of wheat and potato plants that are grown in hydroponics systems, and the nutrient solution which is used to nourish the plants. We also work with all the other systems involved with growing plants in a hydroponics system.

My Career Journey

I decided to be a microbiologist when I first started college. But I had wanted to be a biologist since I was in seventh or eighth grade. That was when I took my first biology class. I had been pretty sure of what I wanted to do. I had focused on biology because I knew from the time I was very young that it was a lot of fun and was what I wanted to do. I didn't have a lot of questions by the time I got to college.

But it wasn't until graduate school that I actually went into microbial ecology, studying environmental aspects. A lot of microbiologists focus on health-related issues, but I was much more interested in how microbes interacted with the environment.

Influences

Throughout high school and college, I had really good teachers who were interesting and who really sparked my interest. I also had excellent biology teachers from the time I was 13 years old until I entered college. It was different from other things. Although I had to do a lot of memorizing, I was also learning about the world. So I found it really fun and interesting. My teachers were really involved and really excited about what they were doing, and that made me very excited.

I liked that it was hands-on, and that I worked with something different all the time. It was a mystery and I had the opportunity to solve it.

Likes/Dislikes About Career

A positive aspect of my career is that it is exciting. I get to see something new all the time, and I'm always trying to answer a new question --discovering something that people do not already know. One of the exciting things I've done, which is another positive aspect, is work with the Mir project and with the Russians (who were friendly and a lot of fun). It's exciting to know that something I have been working on has gone into space. The things that we do will potentially go to a Mars or lunar base, so we know that we're doing something that's going to affect the future.

On the negative side, I had to go to school for a long time. You need a very thorough education for the work, and there are not that many jobs available.

Advice

I earned my master's degree, which was hard and took up a lot of my time, but also a lot of fun. You really start doing lab work at that level, more than just classwork. That's when I was able to begin doing the real science. So it was very time intensive, but it was exciting.

Microbial ecology is a really exciting field to go into because you're always learning something new. You're always delving into something that no one else has ever seen or done before, and it's really important to Earth, the environment, and humanity.

As a woman, I haven't had any problems working in my field. I don't see many differences. As long as you do your job, and do a good job, people don't look at those kinds of differences as meaning very much, especially in science, because you've gone through a lot to get to where you are.