#37 Mary Westwood

This week’s PhDetails is with Mary Westwood who does her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Mary is originally from Farmersville, Ohio  in the U.S.A. Her scientific career started with a BSc in Biology (with a minor in Spanish), and MSc in Biology - both at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Following her masters, Mary then moved to Edinburgh to start her PhD on how daily rhythms affect interactions between hosts and parasites and to explore her broader interests in evolutionary ecology, host-parasite interactions and sexual selection. 

Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?

Anyone who knows anything about my taste in music knows that I’m a huge 80s music nerd so this is tough. Let’s go with Bob Marley. 

Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?

Now we’re talking. Talking HEADS that is.
(was that too cheesy?)

Favourite movie - multiple choices are kind of okay?

Ah, well since multiple choices are kind of okay… I’ll say Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Dirty Dancing. 

Where do you study and who is your supervisor?

I’m supervised by Sarah Reece at the University of Edinburgh.

What year of your PhD are you in?

I’ve just started my second year.

Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?

I was really lucky to receive a studentship from the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh. They’ll support me for four years, which is pretty nice because a lot of the funding bodies in the UK only provide studentships for 3-3.5 years. I’ve got a lot of friends who are scrambling to find funding for their last 6 months. 

Do you have any publications – if so where?

I don’t have any publications just yet, but I will have one from my masters research (read more on that below!) and I’m in the midst of submitting a review paper I wrote in the first year of my PhD.

Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?

I did! I worked with Drs. Tom Rooney and Jeff Peters at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio (I also did my BSc there as well). Have you heard of Lyme disease? It’s really prevalent in the U.S. and its North American vector is the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). A few years back, Tom discovered a novel population of these ticks in Northern Wisconsin. My research involved looking at the individual and co- infection prevalences for a few common tick-borne diseases (Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis). I was also interested in the ecology of the ticks in that area. If the population is so recently established – are the ticks colonising a novel environment or simply moving into an area that was already primed for their survival? 

Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?

I don’t for my current research, but I have actually done a lot of fieldwork in the past. I collected ticks during my masters, which was great - but once the tick nightmares began it became less so. My favourite fieldwork was when I aided in some ongoing marine research in Akumal, Mexico while in undergrad. Imagine scuba diving twice a day, six days a week. Heaven. 

Collecting ticks from a tick drag in northern Wisconsin during my masters.

What are the best and worst bits about your labwork?

I only do labwork now, and I’ve got to admit it makes me a lot more nervous than fieldwork! Assays in the lab can be so sensitive and I have to admit I’m nearly always nervous about messing up. The best thing about lab work is how you’re much better able to manipulate a system and therefore ask very specific questions. The downside of that is you have to constantly question whether your results are realistic for what could be found in the real world. 

How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?

Seven! Three in the U.S., and four in Europe. Since I had honed some vector-borne disease and ecology skills during my masters, I wanted to continue on with that with the addition of an evolutionary component in my PhD. Basically, I sought out a lab that focuses on evolutionary ecology, specifically in the realm of parasite-host-vector interactions.

What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?

You know what – I can’t really think of anything off the top of my head. I’ve been pretty lucky to be well-equipped through all of my research. Our PCR machine seems to have issues quite frequently but we have a superb post-doc in our lab who can fix just about anything. 

What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?

Don’t do a PhD just to do a PhD. Pick something that you are passionate about. You should be answering questions that excite you.

How often do you meet with your supervisor?

Sarah and I meet about once every week or two, and we have lab meetings every week. 

  

What supervisor traits are important to you?

A supervisor should provide a good balance between giving you autonomy and mentorship. I know that’s quite broad, but I mean it in nearly every sense of doing a PhD. When it comes to research ideas, or even how you conduct your work day-to-day, I think it’s really important for an advisor to guide you but also give you freedom to make your own decisions (& potentially mistakes!). 

What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?

I think sometimes supervisors lose sight of how hard doing a PhD is, and that PhD students are still students. I totally sympathise with this – when I was a master’s student I taught freshman biology labs and I’d often find myself frustrated with students who in my mind weren’t putting the effort in. I’d have to remind myself that they’re in this class because they’re just learning. I think especially at the PhD level, it can be easy for supervisors to do something similar. 

In one sentence what is your PhD about?

How do daily rhythms affect interactions between hosts and parasites? 

What has been your academic highlight of the last year?

Working on the review paper with my advisor has definitely been my highlight. I love writing and I’ve learned so much about a topic I love through writing this paper. Also, I can actually see an improvement in my writing over the past year - a lot of that is due to working on this paper (and my supervisors’ fantastic guidance in helping me to write it). 

Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?

I’ve been trying to tackle a model that I’m somewhat clueless about and it’s caused me quite a lot of stress. I know I’ll get figure it out eventually, but in the meantime it’s a bit of a headache.

Which academic idol/scientist have you met?

Marlene Zuk – I met her at the Jacques Monod conference on open questions in disease ecology and evolution last fall. She articulates science to the public so well, and she’s such a fantastic researcher. If you haven’t seen her TED Talk, go check it out!   

Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?

If it’s alright to name someone who is deceased, then I’d go with Rachel Carson. 

Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?

I could probably name a lot of PIs or big-name scientists here, but I think on a personal level my peers have been the biggest inspiration to me. Watching friends who are years further along than me informs how I need to act if I want to make it through my PhD, and sharing the academic experience with friends who are in my cohort gives me a good avenue for commiserating. 

What has been your favourite conference so far – why?

Definitely the Jacques Monod conference. I met so many cool scientists working on interesting things. The food there was also amazing (plus, wine with lunch: score).

Jacques Monod Conference, 2017. Presenting what I had planned to do for the first year of my PhD during only the second week of my PhD. I had no idea what I was talking about during the poster session, woo science!

What hours do you typically work?

I work really sporadically, so it depends. I don’t come into the office unless I need to be here so that means I end up working from a coffee shop or home a couple days a week, then I work bit by bit throughout the day. I like having my mornings free as well, so I usually make up for that by working some in the evenings or weekends. 

How do you avoid procrastinating?

Poorly.

What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?

The questions I research are my motivation. Also, the desire to remain in academia keeps me going. I really love what I do.  

What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?

Unfortunately, I don’t really have any hobbies (I should change that!), so in my free time I hang out with friends and enjoy a few pints. 

If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?

More hours in the day, and considering I study circadian rhythms, that would really mess things up for me. 

What would be your dream job?

My dream, dream job? Maybe selling coconuts on a beach in Mexico. Realistically I’d love to be a professor – maybe I can settle for living somewhere near the ocean. 

Taking a break from collecting ticks during my masters, and probably thinking about food. 

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Doing a postdoc somewhere warm and sunny. I’d like to stay in the field of disease ecology and evolution, with an emphasis on behaviour and sexual selection. 

One word to sum up your future in academia:

Purposeful.

What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?

I’d like to write for pleasure. I haven’t decided if that’ll be in the form of a daily journal or what, but I think I want it to be something more substantial. 

What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?

My laptop – hands down. 

Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?

I don’t have anywhere too specific in mind, where I’d like to work will really depend on where my specific research interests lie at the start of my final year. If I can find a lab that does work I enjoy somewhere warm and sunny, that’d be ideal. 

Do you have a favourite organism – what is it and why – is it different from your study organisms?

Ah, not really to be honest. However, some of my favourite organisms are ones that have incredibly interesting sex lives. Take the cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) for example: males produce a spermatophore weighing approximately 13% of their body weight and females have a shredding organ called a signum that essentially acts as vagina dentata. I first read about it in this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/butterfly-cabbage-white-vagina-dentata/530889/

Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience e.g. social seminars/group meetings?

Friday happy hour has greatly enhanced my PhD experience. Booze and science is the ultimate winning combo. 

If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?

I’d allow students more say in which speakers we invite. 

What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?

Something really cool that is just starting to be explored is how biological clocks may be manipulated by parasites. Molecular chronobiology has laid a lot of the groundwork that can now be harnessed by parasitologists and evolutionary ecologists to better understand temporal manipulation.