This week’s PhDetails is with Libby Megna, who does her PhD at the University of Wyoming. Libby is originally from Coloma, Michigan and did her BSc and MSc in Biology at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, near to her home. Libby now does her PhD in Ecology with Matt Carling at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. She told me that she has now run away for a bird banding gig and currently works in Virginia where she is writing her dissertation remotely! You can find Libby on Twitter @LibbyMegna
To kick things off, what is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
David Bowie
What about your favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Sufjan Stevens
Favourite movie?
People make fun of me for this, but unapologetically The Fifth Element
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
University of Wyoming, Matthew D. Carling
What year of your PhD are you in?
Sixth…
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
The fabulous Program in Ecology at UW guaranteed me at least four years of stipend support via teaching assistantships. Thus far I have been either a teaching assistant or curatorial assistant every semester. In terms of research money, my advisor and the University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates got me started and then I cobbled together a lot of (relatively) small grants. I am also very fortunate to have had funding for undergraduate research assistants from the Wyoming Research Scholars Program and the Colorado-Wyoming Alliance for Minority Participation.
Do you have any publications?
I don’t have any from my PhD work (yet!) but I have a few from my undergrad and master’s days; see https://libbymegna.com/publications/
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
I did, at Andrews University with Jim Hayward & Shandelle Henson. I studied reproductive success of gulls in a hybrid zone; this involved nest monitoring and scoring the plumage of gull pairs to figure out where on the hybrid spectrum they fell. I found that the plumage of the parents had no relationship to hatching success—another piece of the puzzle that is the Glaucous-winged x Western Gull hybrid zone in the Pacific Northwest.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
I absolutely love fieldwork and associate it with the best parts of my life. I absolutely loved working on Protection Island NWR in Washington during my BS and MS. We had a great crew of people out there, no internet so time to read and think, and a gull colony is always hilarious. My favorite from my PhD was a collecting trip for the museum to the southwest US. My advisor joined me for a part of it and I was able to find him his lifer Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor) in a huge tract of state land called Black Gap Wildlife Management Area. I had no idea that the Big Bend area of Texas was so gorgeous.
Do you ever do lab work?
I did my own DNA extractions, which took only two weeks, but that was more than enough for me. I’m definitely a field/dry lab person!
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I sent inquiry emails to 12 profs, formally applied to 5, got interviews at 3 of those, and had 2 offers. I knew I wanted to work on bird hybridization, although I cast my search a bit wider than that. I also knew that I wanted to expand my skills into genetics and spatial analyses, and wanted to work with a younger prof that knew more recent techniques (my MS advisor was near retirement).
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during fieldwork – did it work?
Luckily I have had a lot of really high quality and new equipment thanks to my advisor’s startup, so no major problems. I did use my personal vehicle for a bunch of fieldwork but it saved its problems for after field season!
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
The most important determinant of how much you enjoy grad school is how well you work with your advisor. Pick a good advisor that has a style you like. The school, location, program, funding, pay, etc. are all important too—but your relationship with your advisor is critical.
How often do you meet with your supervisor?
Once a week.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
Caring, good communication, willing to take feedback.
What do you think would be the worst supervisor traits?
Micromanagement and passive aggression.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
Why do some songbirds hybridize and others don’t—even though they could?
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Getting an Own It! award. It was really overwhelming to learn that four people wrote me nomination letters, and the bits that were read out at the award ceremony were really sweet. I feel like I’m sucking at everything a lot of the time, so it really meant a lot to me that people took time out of their busy lives to tell me I’m doing a good job.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
I spent a lot of time reimagining/revamping the discussion portion of our Genetics course, talked to people about my ideas, got advice, and based it off previous successes in my classes. But it didn’t go over particularly well and despite my best efforts a major portion of the students were not happy with the course and some of my teaching evals were brutal.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
I presented my MS work on hybrid gulls at the AOU conference in Chicago, 2013. Afterward, Bill Moore—the guy who came up with the idea of bounded hybrid superiority—came up to me and said, “Great work, keep it up.”
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Bernd Heinrich—I read his books high school and they were what led me into a career in research!
Do you have a favourite paper?
I do not. However, the best title and abstract I have seen in the last year are from Barton et al. 2018 Ecology & Evolution 8(15):7649-7656. Found it when I was teaching my ecology class about noise pollution. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.4273
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
I go to the American Ornithological Society meeting every year and it’s a ton of fun. Bird Jam and the Quiz Bowl are highlights. I have a lot of “conference friends” that I get to see every year and catch up with. My favorite one so far was at Mich State in 2017. My advisors/supervisors from every degree and field job I did were there!
What hours do you typically work?
I’m not great about having set work hours, and it really depends on the type of work. I’m generally on campus from 8 am – 4 pm or so, but I’m running around a lot for meetings, seminars, etc. Writing must happen in the morning and I save easier tasks, such as coding or grading, for later in the day.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I often don’t, but it helps to make lists of tasks and plan out which are most important and when they need to get done during the day. Putting on my big headphones and rocking out to some jams.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
Curiosity, fear of letting people down, coffee, fantasizing about being “Dr. Megna”.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
Birding, citizen science/outreach projects, skiing. I make sure I get outside for a bigger adventure at least once over the weekend, and scatter other stuff through the week so I have some fun productivity mixed in with PhD productivity.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
Please write my genomics chapter, thanks!
What would be your dream job?
Something like a tenure-track mixed teaching and research job, where I am rewarded for spending time on both. With field work every summer.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I would love to have an academic position that is approximately half teaching and half research. Ideally in a smaller city where I can have some property on the outskirts!
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Hopeful?
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
Visit friends, keep practicing work/life balance.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
Software: R, bash
Hardware: network drive and Logitech G700s mouse
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
Shandelle Henson, MS advisor and mathematical ecologist, encouraged me to develop quantitative and programming skills that have changed my academic career. Jim Hayward, MS advisor, gave me a chance when I showed up at his office as a nervous freshman and said I wanted to study animal behavior. Matt Carling, my PhD advisor, admitted me to his lab, has given me lots of chances to come back from failure and bad life events, and has been a model of work/life balance.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
University of Kansas—they have a vertebrate museum and the town of Lawrence isn’t too sprawly: I could have land on the outside of town! I did field work in that region of Kansas and thought it was beautiful.
Do you have a favourite organism ?
Pileated Woodpeckers are my favorite bird of all time! Unfortunately, I don’t study them, but I have been lucky enough to have them in the hand thanks to banding projects.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
UWYO has a bunch of great seminars each week and I’ve really enjoyed taking speakers out to lunch for informal conversations. Joint meetings between the Carling Lab and Wagner Lab have been super useful and fun. I have been fortunate to find a really lovely community of people via the Laramie Audubon Society. I really appreciate having friends of all ages and backgrounds that I can look at bird with. They have fleshed out my experience and helped me escape from the academic bubble.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I’d pay the office associates way more money.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
I’m excited about the genomic data that are coming out of several systems of hybridizing bird species and subspecies. It will be awesome to compare these systems to figure out how genomic patterns of divergence develop in birds. This hasn’t been done yet because the whole-genome sequencing data for specific systems are just coming out, but I think it will be an active area in the next few years. Interpreting genomic divergence patterns are tricky—but hopefully we can leverage comparative analyses to figure them out.
Comments
Post a Comment