Dr. Arvind Varsani is a molecular virologist and a Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. For his PhD, Arvind focused on designing vaccines for human papillomavirus. Currently, his work focuses on the evolution of viruses across ecosystems. In this video, Arvind recounts the challenges he experienced while running experiments in the lab during graduate school, and how he was able to change his outlook on failure.
Dr. Simona Kraberger is currently an assistant research scientist at Arizona State University. Her dissertation research focused on the global dynamics of mastreviruses which are a group of agriculturally important plant infecting viruses. Now, her work focuses on evolution and ecology of viruses in animals, plants and environmental samples. In this video, Simona talks about a time in her PhD where she struggled with a presentation and public speaking, and the lessons she learned from these struggles that she has since applied to future scenarios.
Dr. Kate Weiss is currently an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Marist University. Her PhD research focused on understanding how wild carnivores make decisions about what they eat in urban environments. Now, her work focuses on understanding how to promote more sustainable futures for people and wildlife species by incorporating social, ecological, and evolutionary approaches.
Dr. Adam Reitzel is a Professor and the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Adam’s PhD research focused on the ecology and evolution of sea anemones, and his work now focuses on the comparative genomics of marine invertebrates (particularly cnidarians) and mechanisms of animal-environment interactions. In this video, Adam discusses navigating fieldwork in graduate school, and the imposter syndromes and challenges that came with his first field season.
Dr. Sarah Habibi is the founder of Mito &Co, a children’s STEM education company based out of Toronto, Canada. Her dissertation research focused on characterizing novel drug targets in parasitic worms, and specifically looked at the parasite Haemonchus contortus, which infects livestock across North America. Now, her work focuses on science communication and STEM education, where she provides kid-friendly science experiments and activities for parents to do at home with their children.