This weeks PhDetails is with Yuki Haba who currently studies at Princeton in the US. I was kindly put in touch with Yuki by my friend Jarome who also studies at Princeton (and whose PhDetails you can find HERE). Yuki is originally from Japan and studied at the University of Tokyo before moving to the US for graduate school, doing an MA at Columbia. He then stayed in the US but moved to Princeton to start his PhD. Yuki is now coming to the end of the first year of his PhD and studies the interplay of genetics, neuroscience and behaviour in mosquitos. He has a broad interest in the basis of behaviour and enjoys testing behavioural hypotheses using a variety of approaches including lab and field experiments. You can find Yuki on twitter @shevayuki2778 and follow his research HERE, I hope you enjoy his PhDetails as much as I did!
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
What hours do you typically work?
Well let’s start of talking completely unscientific stuff. Favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Well I don’t know a lot of bands pre 1980 but Queen is definitely one of my all-time favourites!
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
This is also a hard question because there are too many favourites post 1980. I’d say Oasis and The Strokes. I started listening to Jazz these days and Robert Glasper and his band are insanely cool. Finally, I’m from Japan and I’ve listened to a lot of J-Rock. Asian Kang-Fu Generation is one of my youth-favourite and would recommend you if you have never heard of them!
Favourite movie?
The Shawshank Redemption (1994). I have watched it at least 10 times!
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
I’m at Princeton University, working in a group of the genetics and neurobiology of mosquito evolution headed by Dr. Lindy McBride.
What year of your PhD are you in?
Now I’m at the end of my 1st year.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
The Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton guarantees every PhD student a 5-years of funding – tuition and stipend. I’m also getting a fellowship from Princeton, and another from a Japanese foundation called Masason Fundation both for 5 years.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
One paper in Elife, and one chapter in a book in Japanese.
Did you do a masters - was it about?
Yes. I did a MA at Columbia University after I finished my undergrad in Japan. I investigated the genomics of local behavioral adaptation of an Asian burying beetle, Nicrophorus nepalensis. We studied four natural populations that differ in reproductive behavior, or burying behavior, to understand (1) how the variation in burying behavior between populations has evolved and (2) the genetic underpinnings of burying behavior.
What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
That was the fieldwork for my MA in Taiwan! I stayed there for 3+ months and conducted all my field and lab work for my Master’s. To me it was a whole new experience – extensive fieldwork in a deep forest, behavioural and molecular work in the lab, and genomic/bioinformatic analyses. Moreover, I couldn’t speak Chinese at all and everyone else at the lab which hosted me was Taiwanese, so culturally it was a struggle too. It turned out, though, that people there were extremely helpful and smart. At the end of the day I learned and enjoyed a lot and there, and that’s why I think that was the best fieldwork ever.
How many PhDs did you apply for?
I applied to many – 8 schools - including both US and UK ones, mainly because I wanted to take advantage of interviews to talk to great scientists across the country (and to travel across the country for free!). Interviews were so much fan and I gained so much from the application process overall. I was looking for schools/programs where (1) I could develop my own ideas and work independently, (2) I could work with a PI(s) with innovative ideas, and (3) people work on interdisciplinary topics (in my case, integration of genomics + neuroscience + behaviour). Plus, Princeton has some extras like people are extremely nice, and a lot of nature!
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Enjoy what you are working on! Think about what excites you most. Contact potential PIs early.
How often do you meet with your supervisor(s)?
Formal meeting is maybe every 2-4 weeks, but we Slack/email almost everyday
What supervisor traits are important to you?
Trusting and treating mentees as a colleague and researcher – not as an ‘immature’ student who works for them.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
If a supervisor sees students merely as workers that just work on the supervisor’s ideas, that would be the worst supervisor in my opinion.
Investigating which evolved genes and neurons enable mosquitos to find and bite you.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
That’s been definitely the acceptances from Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia with fellowships! Having come to the US as an international student 3 years ago, getting into PhD program had been one of my dreams – so it was unforgettable and emotional time!
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
My mom is a professor of social science in a Japanese University, and she has been my role model of how to think, work, and live. Also I have met a few very inspiring mentors (both PIs and postdocs) since I came to the states.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
Hopi Hoekstra at Harvard
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
George Church / Elon Mask (well he may not be a conventional scientist)
Do you have a favourite paper?
I have many favourite papers. They are integrating insights and methods of natural history, genomics, and behavioural ecology. There are two papers I want to mention here: Discrete genetic modules are responsible for complex burrow evolution in Peromyscusmice. Weber et al Nature 2013, which is from Hopi Hoekstra’s group I mentioned earlier. And Evolution of mosquito preference for humans linked to an odorant receptor. McBride et al Nature 2014, which is my current advisor’s landmark paper!
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
Evolution 2017 at Portland, Oregon was awesome! At the conference I met a lot of students of my age who are doing cool work. It was great to see ‘my cohorts’ in a broad sense, and to imagine how our generation opens up another era of evolutionary biology. Moreover, Portland was an amazing place to hang out with friends – I was a bit surprised to see many people biking naked, but it turned out it was ‘a naked bike week.’ Cool stuff!
Ideally 8am to 6pm, but quite flexible. Basically as long as I am satisfied with what I’ve done on that day. I often go out of my office and work or read papers outside or at a café, too.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
Simple and basic curiosity that everyone shares – like ‘why stars are so beautiful?’ or ‘how animals life works?’.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
Adobe Illustrator – inspired by my current boss. Being perfectionist about every single detail of figures for publication is both satisfying and extremely time consuming!
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your phd?
I love food, music, and sports. Especially Ramen, Jazz/Rock, and soccer, but I think I’m an omnivore in some sense. Princeton is a bit devoid of things compared to NYC where I did my MA, but still there are a lot of Princeton-funded events going on. I love science too, so I don’t think I’m balancing science (work) vs everything else. Science is just one of my favourite things that I cannot help doing. I am trying not to do science so much that I hate it though!
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your phd what would you wish for?
I’ll have to extract DNA from ~4,000 mosquitoes later this year, so I’d ask him to do that haha. OR I NEED MORE GOOD RAMEN PLACES IN PRINCETON.
Do you have a favourite organism – what is it and why – is it different from your study organism(s)?
I don't care about which organisms I study. I rather care about what kind of questions I want to ask and pick a right organism to tackle the question.
What would be your dream job?
To be a scientist who inspires kids and adults, who is based both in the US and Japan.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Wherever I can do cool stuff, most likely based at a scientific institution (not necessarily academia). It doesn’t really matter where and in which country I’ll be – would love to try European institutions.
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
Start something new – most likely Jazz piano.
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