This will be my first ever BioQUEST/QUBES experience and I am very excited to meet everyone and learn from the workshop! I am a PhD candidate at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY with a degree in Environmental Science & Engineering, although I am a teaching assistant in the Biology department since my undergraduate degree was in biology and much of my research is still very biology-based. Speaking of my research, I am studying mercury cycling in St. Lawrence River wetlands! With my PhD, I hope to become a professor at an institution where I can further my research on freshwater wetland systems, teach and inspire future scientists, and also participate in environmental management by involving myself in organizations that function at the interface between science and policy. At the workshop, I hope to further my own data science skills, teaching skills, and more specifically, bring back to Clarkson methods of incorporating data science and/or data science learning into our General Biology lab curriculum. Ultimately, I seek to improve the critical thinking skills of students as I find many struggle to collect, visualize and communicate data and their associated findings, particularly in larger contexts.
Outside of courses, teaching and research, I enjoy running, baking, reading and being outside, particularly on the water! I am from Vermont originally and I travel home frequently on weekends to enjoy the outdoors and family. I function best on coffee and chocolate.
So nice to meet you Evie! I actually did my master's work on mercury loading in Brown Pelicans at their breeding colonies in NC. I investigated 1) if there was a difference in the amount of mercury between the 7 breeding colonies and 2) possible sources of mercury variation. Quite interestingly, 3 of the breeding colonies, all within 5km of each other, had significantly different levels of mercury in their feathers. I hypothesized that perhaps some colonies are feeding more in wetlands while others may be feeding more in the open ocean (95% of their diet is made of one species of fish, and stable isotope analysis also revealed similar diets, so variation wasn't due to feeding at different levels in the food chain). My advisor encouraged me to do my PhD to find out but I was so ready to get to teaching! So if you want to do a postdoc in North Carolina... haha.
That's really interesting! I wouldn't be surprised if wetlands were a major source. This summer I am doing a study to compare Hg burdens in ground-dwelling insects from wetland areas with those in terrestrial regions nearby, with the idea that wetlands will increase Hg burdens. I am also looking into benthic macroinvertebrate loadings and fish (permits pending) to assess Hg transfer from wetlands into aquatic food webs vs into terrestrial. Good to know what's going on North Carolina...(thanks for the tip!) I can understand wanting to get into teaching! I'm anxious to get into a teaching position (other than a TAship) already too!
Evie Brahmstedt @ on
Hi everyone,
This will be my first ever BioQUEST/QUBES experience and I am very excited to meet everyone and learn from the workshop! I am a PhD candidate at Clarkson University in Potsdam, NY with a degree in Environmental Science & Engineering, although I am a teaching assistant in the Biology department since my undergraduate degree was in biology and much of my research is still very biology-based. Speaking of my research, I am studying mercury cycling in St. Lawrence River wetlands! With my PhD, I hope to become a professor at an institution where I can further my research on freshwater wetland systems, teach and inspire future scientists, and also participate in environmental management by involving myself in organizations that function at the interface between science and policy. At the workshop, I hope to further my own data science skills, teaching skills, and more specifically, bring back to Clarkson methods of incorporating data science and/or data science learning into our General Biology lab curriculum. Ultimately, I seek to improve the critical thinking skills of students as I find many struggle to collect, visualize and communicate data and their associated findings, particularly in larger contexts.
Outside of courses, teaching and research, I enjoy running, baking, reading and being outside, particularly on the water! I am from Vermont originally and I travel home frequently on weekends to enjoy the outdoors and family. I function best on coffee and chocolate.
Looking forward to the workshop!
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Kiersten Newtoff @ on
So nice to meet you Evie! I actually did my master's work on mercury loading in Brown Pelicans at their breeding colonies in NC. I investigated 1) if there was a difference in the amount of mercury between the 7 breeding colonies and 2) possible sources of mercury variation. Quite interestingly, 3 of the breeding colonies, all within 5km of each other, had significantly different levels of mercury in their feathers. I hypothesized that perhaps some colonies are feeding more in wetlands while others may be feeding more in the open ocean (95% of their diet is made of one species of fish, and stable isotope analysis also revealed similar diets, so variation wasn't due to feeding at different levels in the food chain). My advisor encouraged me to do my PhD to find out but I was so ready to get to teaching! So if you want to do a postdoc in North Carolina... haha.
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Evie Brahmstedt @ on
That's really interesting! I wouldn't be surprised if wetlands were a major source. This summer I am doing a study to compare Hg burdens in ground-dwelling insects from wetland areas with those in terrestrial regions nearby, with the idea that wetlands will increase Hg burdens. I am also looking into benthic macroinvertebrate loadings and fish (permits pending) to assess Hg transfer from wetlands into aquatic food webs vs into terrestrial. Good to know what's going on North Carolina...(thanks for the tip!) I can understand wanting to get into teaching! I'm anxious to get into a teaching position (other than a TAship) already too!
Report abuse