Professors

Well, it's tough to figure out which professor I would want to study with and work for while doing my graduate work. I  would absolutely like to study whales. That's what I've always wanted to study, but lately, my interests are broadening to conservation models in general.

Regardless, this is the tentative list of who I'm going to try and contact to study with. **I've put in links to all the professors, so if you are interested in their research, click on a link!**

1) Dr. Samuel Wasser at University of Washington. According to his web page, he has been using hormone and DNA extraction techniques from large mammal scat. He had been using these techniques to help investigate illegal ivory trade. I've also seen him in the news for using this technique with the killer whale population in the San Juan Islands.

2) Dr. C. Scott Baker at Oregon State University. His Cetacean Conservation and Genetic Lab has been using mapping of the whale genome to improve our understanding of the impact of whaling. I would LOVE to work in this lab!

3) Dr. Daniel Roby at Oregon State University. He has many research interests in his lab, but the focus I'd be most interested in is wildlife restoration after oil spills. Brief insight into my psyche, oil spills have been troubling to me since watching Sampson and Sally when I was younger. At some point in my life, I would be interested in volunteering with veteranarians to help save animals affected by oil spills.

4) Dr. Dee Boersma at University of Washington. Now she has nothing to do with whales, but she has been doing studies on penguins for 25 years. The Penguin Project has been gathering data to contribute to the Wildlife Conservation Society, plus she has a research station in Argentina, so that's a bonus!

5) Dr. Julia Parrish at University of Washington. Her biography really intrigued me, especially that first sentence about not being able to decide what to study. I think that I'd really like her and her attitude towards science. Her lab is currently focused on seabird biology and conservation. Given my interest in teaching Concordia's tropical biology class, birds would be a great model organism to study.

So now that I've identified professors of interest, the next step is to track down recent research articles from each professor (or recent grad student of theirs) to familiarize myself with their work. My goal is to spend 1 day on each professor and give a more in-depth look at them on the blog. I'm using this blog as a tool to keep me on top of my stuff, so even if no one is reading this, I find it helpful. :)

Thanks guys!

Potential Job!

I was browsing around on my computer today after a very early Starbucks shift, and I happened upon a posted job at the Seattle Aquarium for a marine science educator. Now, if any of you know me, this is exactly the kind of job I want some day as a full-time career. Seriously. This is a dream job.

I just applied for it. I'm super nervous because I really want it! I am certainly qualified, but I know there are a lot of well-qualified, passionate people out there. I don't know what my chances are, but if you're the praying-type, I would definitely appreciate some prayers for an interview!

I know that was a lot of "I's" in the last few sentences... so perhaps we need some balance. Here is something humorous for you Harry Potter fans and Conan O'Brian fans! Silly Conan....

Back to Blogging

Well, after my hiatus from blogging (and actually a hiatus from the grad school search), I've made my triumphant return! Small update: I moved back up to the Seattle area, and I now am working at Starbucks. I like the job enough, but it has definitely become a motivation to go back to school. It's just validated that I'm not interesting in working for a big company, even at the entry level position. I loved working at Concordia University, which could definitely have been one reason I was complacent about going to grad school. I was quite comfortable. So quitting and moving was a good choice because it's giving me the motivation to actually pursue a career I really want. To quote Joey from Friends, I needed the fear! This is what he tells Rachel to get her to quit the coffeehouse. Essentially, my mom told me the same thing. I really really really really miss Portland and my friends and my job, but I know that this was the direction I needed to go.

I took the GRE (again...) on July 20 and just got my scores back today.
Verbal: score 570, percentile 80
Quantitative: score 650, percentile 59
Writing: score 5.5 (out of 6), percentile 94
I'm happy with my verbal and writing scores. I wish quantitative could have been higher, but it was definitely an improvement from the last time, so I guess I'll take it.

This week's goal: Identify 7 professors of interest at different schools and track down recent research papers for them. By next Monday, I want to trim this list down to 5 that I will contact. I need to be prepared when I contact them, so I need to be up-to-date on their current research projects.

Here it goes!