This week’s PhDetails is with Avril Harder! Avril did her undergraduate in Biological Sciences at Eastern Illinois University, where she conducted research in a cellular physiology lab and later worked as a field and lab assistant in a fisheries ecology lab. Field experiences in the fisheries lab prompted Avril to pursue graduate programs in ecology and evolution, rather than in molecular biology. For her masters, she moved to Central Michigan University where she studied genetic relationships among species within a genus of Antarctic sea spiders. Avril’s next move was to Purdue to begin her PhD, and she has now been there for almost 4 years. Avril’s research focuses on identifying the genetic bases for adaptation to decreasing availability of vitamin B1 in the diets of Atlantic salmon. She is also interested in evolutionary patterns in vitamin B1-associated pathways across fishes, as well as the fate of these genes after whole genome duplication events. You can also find Avril on twitter @avrilmharder.
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Right now, it’s Overcoats (but this changes frequently).
Favourite movie?
This also changes frequently, but the best movie I’ve seen recently is BlacKkKlansman. Definitely a movie that sticks in your brain long after it’s over.
Do you listen to podcasts? What are some of your favourites?
I’ve been listening to Ologies a lot lately. I also listen to a few politics podcasts, but those feel a little too heavy sometimes.
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
I’m a PhD candidate at Purdue University in the Department of Biological Sciences. My PI is Mark Christie.
What year of your PhD are you in?
4
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
I have 5 years of funding through my department. Two additional years are often available, but 7 is the maximum.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
I have 1 first-authored publication from my MS, 1 from my PhD, and a few other co-authored papers in Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, Molecular Ecology, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Polar Biology, and Royal Society Open Science. I’ve also been involved in development of 1 first-author and 1 co-authored case study, and those have been published in the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. You can check them out HERE.
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
I did! I did my MS at Central Michigan University with Andrew Mahon, studying genetic relationships among species within a genus of Antarctic sea spiders. I would recommend a masters degree to almost anyone thinking about doing a PhD. The process only made me more sure of what I wanted out of grad school, and I needed those two years to grow before starting a PhD.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
For my PhD research, I’ve made a few trips to hatcheries in Vermont, but I don’t think I’d call that “fieldwork.” I did a lot of fisheries fieldwork during undergrad, which is what got me interested in fishes, but the coolest fieldwork by far was sampling marine invertebrates for about a month in Antarctica.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I officially applied to two programs (two specific labs), but I initially contacted ~5 PIs before narrowing it down to which labs I was most interested in. I was looking for a lab where I could grow my bioinformatics skill set and, ideally, work with fishes along the way. Probably most importantly, I felt that I could work well with my current PI, and that’s held true.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
I’m not sure about bodged, but at one point, I needed to secure automatic fish feeders to the edges of some large tanks. There were already screws around the perimeters of the tanks for attaching netting over the tops of the tanks, and it turned out that rubber castration rings were the perfect diameter for attaching the feeders to those screws and would still allow for easy removal and replacement of the feeders. Castration bands are also perfect for sealing oxygenated bags of juvenile sea lamprey, which is what my labmate originally purchased them for.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
If you have a PI in mind who you would like to work with, ask their graduate students and post-docs about what working with them is like. If you get a weird vibe, trust your gut. If the lab seems to be telling you that they’re all miserable, run. (This hasn’t applied to me, but I know plenty of people who have run into this.) Your happiness in graduate school will depend a lot on your relationship with your advisor.
How often do you meet with your supervisor?
We meet once every two weeks for about an hour, but I can schedule additional meetings if I’m stuck or if something comes up that we need to discuss.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I like to be able to work independently, so I really appreciate when supervisors allow space for that. Promotion of a collaborative environment is also really important, but I think the most important trait is the ability to facilitate open communication, particularly about difficult topics.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Micromanaging.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I am studying the genetic basis for vitamin B1 requirement in Atlantic salmon and I’m interested in whether certain populations of salmon can genetically adapt to decreasing vitamin B1 availability.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
That’s a great question. Getting my first RNA dataset back from the sequencing core was really exciting, and the results make sense, so that’s a bonus!
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
I’m sure I’ve had a few! Most recently, I was notified that I had won a 1-year fellowship, which would have meant no teaching requirements for a full year… and then I was told it was a mistake and I had not won the fellowship. That was a pretty dark day.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
Our lab hosted Fred Allendorf for a seminar last year, and that was awesome. Our lab has also hosted a ton of badass women doing badass science in my field and I idolize all of them!
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Hopi Hoekstra
Do you have a favourite paper?
I think every time I read a cool paper, it becomes my new favorite. Most recently, that would be Barrett et al’s “Linking a mutation to survival in wild mice.” Probably the most personally important paper I’ve read has been Lien et al’s publication of the Atlantic salmon genome assembly in 2016. That paper sparked my interested in the effects of the salmonid whole genome duplication event on adaptive potential in salmon.
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
I love the variety of talks at Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology! It’s hard to take a break from talks because there’s always something interesting going on somewhere. I also lucked out and got the chance to go to a meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, which was held in Auckland, New Zealand.
What hours do you typically work?
Usually ~8 AM – 4 or 5 PM, but that’s flexible. Lately the weather has been getting nicer, so I’ll head home around 2 or 3 to enjoy the sunshine with my dogs and then work a couple more hours after it’s dark.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I recently deactivated my Facebook account, and that’s been pretty good for my productivity and overall happiness. I also use a browser plugin called “WasteNoTime” when I’m having a particularly hard time not compulsively opening Twitter tabs or checking the news. I also use the Do Not Disturb feature on my Mac to prevent distractions that can lead to procrastination. If I know I need to accomplish something that I’m really not interested in doing (i.e., writing), I’ll work from home where there are no temptations to socialize. I also plan out each day of the upcoming week on Sunday night/Monday morning with a (reasonable) list of tasks for each day.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
I’m genuinely interested in my research questions and really enjoy getting familiar with my data and exploring new analyses. That’s a boring answer, but it’s true. It probably helps that West Lafayette, IN, USA is not a particularly distracting place to live.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
I like to spend time with my spouse and my dogs. They’re largely responsible for my emotional stability (what there is of it). Exercising is pretty important, but I’ve been allowing work to push that out of my schedule lately, so I’m not balancing it well! In the summertime, it’s pretty easy for me to make room in my schedule for fishing and canoeing.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
An undergraduate who has better coding skills than I do. Preferably a sophomore so that I could have their help for a few years.
What would be your dream job?
I’d love a tenure-track position at an ~R2 university, but those jobs are so scarce that I try not to think about it much. I daydream about owning a farm/aquaculture business, so maybe that’s actually my dream job.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
As a postdoc who is anxious to not be a postdoc anymore and to stop relocating for new jobs.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Uncertain
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I’d like to work out on a more consistent basis, because I know it’s important for my mental health. I’d also like to spend more time training our second dog, who we rescued a couple months ago. If I can get her to listen to me reliably, I’ll feel pretty accomplished.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
I couldn’t function without Purdue’s computing cluster.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
I joined my lab around the same time as Janna Willoughby, who was starting as a postdoc. I really admire her work and her approach to collaboration, and she has given me so much advice in the last 4 years that I really don’t know what I would’ve done without her. Besides all that, she’s a great friend! I also feel a little bit of extra motivation when I see the amazing women PIs of my research area around the building (Catherine Searle, Ximena Bernal, and Giovanna Carpi). They all do such great work and seeing them succeed is an inspiration.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
Oh boy, anywhere I can find a job I love! I don’t think I can afford to be too picky about that. I guess I wouldn’t be terribly upset if my future involved working on adaptation in Antarctic icefish and having to do fieldwork associated with that.
Do you have a favourite organism?
I don’t think I have a favorite species, but fishes are definitely where it’s at. Just all of the fishes.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience e.g. social seminars/group meetings?
Participating in hosting seminar speakers has been really rewarding because I’ve been able to hear about so many different paths within academia (and paths that lead outside of academia). I’ve also attended another lab’s meetings in addition to my own lab’s since arriving at Purdue, and it’s been incredibly helpful to meet other grad students and postdocs doing work similar to my own.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I don’t think I have any serious complaints about my department. When I first arrived here, the diversity among invited seminar speakers in my research area was pretty low (nearly 100% of invited speakers were white men one semester), but the graduate students spoke up about it and things have changed for the better.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
There are so many interesting questions related to salmon genomics, but a really specific unanswered question relevant to my research involves an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1. This enzyme naturally occurs in lots of fish species, especially in herring and carp. When salmon consume prey items with high amounts of this enzyme, the salmon become vitamin B1 deficient and, if the deficiency is severe enough, lose the ability to reproduce. Some groups have hypothesized that fishes produce the enzyme themselves, but other evidence suggests that bacteria in fishes’ GI tracts are the sources. This question is interesting to me because it doesn’t make sense that a fish would produce an enzyme that breaks down vitamin B1—an essential vitamin that all animals need but cannot produce themselves. I’m anxiously waiting for the publication of results I’ve heard about that describe a gene responsible for producing such an enzyme in fishes.
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