This week’s PhDetails is with Samantha Levell, a third year PhD Candidate at the University of California, Riverside. Samantha is originally from Florida and did her undergraduate at Florida State University before moving to the University of California where she studies placental fish and the evolutionary consequences of having a placenta. You can also find Samantha on Twitter @PlacentalFish.
What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Definitely Queen.
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Panic! At the Disco.
Favourite movie?
Favorite movie is hard to say. I like a lot of genres. It Follows stands out as my favorite horror/suspense movie.
Do you listen to podcasts? What are some of your favourites?
I love podcasts and I wish I listened to them as much as I used to. I love Freakonomics, and S-town was another really good one. Now, when I'm in the car I tend to just listen to NPR.
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
I am a third year PhD Candidate at the University of California Riverside. My advisor is Dr. David Reznick.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
My first two years were funded with Fellowship and my final 3 years are funded through TAship. I am fortunate to have RAships this summer and next summer.
Do you have any publications?
I have one publication, currently. I am working on expanding that!
Did you do a masters?
I do not have a masters. I will say, however, that I did a rigorous honors in the major at my undergraduate institution and that really helped me during my PhD.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
Fieldwork is, and always has been part of my research. I mostly venture in the field to collect fish for research and have worked in Florida, Washington, Trinidad, and Mexico. I think my favorite field work was in the Pacific Northwest while I was an undergraduate. I was a NOAA Holling's Scholar, and through this program I got to work at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. The fieldwork that I did as a part of this internship involved doing bi-weekly fish census trips with NOAA or the local Skagit Tribe. We would use a variety of nets in shallow and deep water. Being from Florida, everything was exciting and I learned so many new species. I am happiest when I am catching fish.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I formally applied to four programs, but I talked to approximately 15 professors before applying. All of the labs that was interested in worked on fish, so I was most interested in whether the questions the lab is asking where interesting to me and if the work seemed feasible. Location was also very important; I cannot handle cooler climates.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
Our microscopes are ancient, but they do the trick.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Make sure the program seems like s good fit and the graduate students (particularly the ones in your potential lab or labs) are happy (or at least content) to be there.
How often do you meet with your supervisor?
I meet with my supervisor very rarely one-on-one. We usually only meet when I am planning or wrapping up a project. We meet with him as a lab group during weekly meetings, usually to discuss a manuscript or upcoming presentation.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I prefer to be independent, so a hands-off advisor is preferable. However, communication is an essential trait and a willingness to resolve conflicts is important as well.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
The worst supervisor trait to me (aside from obvious ones like being inappropriate with students or peers) is disrespect. Condescending PIs make their students doubt themselves and impede their success.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I study the consequences of placenta evolution in livebearing fishes.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
My academic highlight this year was definitely advancing. It is a very stressful process and I am very happy that I can focus on my work more now.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
I would not say there was a low point.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
Sehoya Cotner recently came to our university as our student-invited seminar speaker. I had not known of her before but she is a fantastic instructor and has become a teaching idol to me!
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
I would like to meet David and Jeanne Zeh. They co-authored one of the foundation papers in my field about viviparity (livebearing reproductive mode) driven parent-parent/parent-offspring conflict.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
My undergraduate advisor, Joe Travis, has always inspired me. He approaches science in a thoughtful, yet cheerful way that I have always wanted to emulate. This is not to the discredit my current mentors, of course!
Do you have a favourite paper?
A paper that sparked my most successful project to-date is by Matthew Schrader and Joseph Travis titled "Testing the Viviparity-Driven-Conflict Hypothesis: parent-offspring conflict in the evolution of reproductive isolation in a poeciliid fish", The American Naturalist, 2008.
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
During my first year I went to the 2017 Meeting of Poeciliid Biologists in Norman, Oklahoma. This meeting had a very small group of biologists studying livebearing fish in the family Poeciliidae (my study organisms). It was so fantastic to get to know members of such a small community relative to other fields in biology (like Drosophila or mice).
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I embrace procrastination rather than avoiding it. If I do not want to work on something, I try to work on something else. The idea is that I will eventually work back to the thing I am avoiding. The only way I'm able to get away with this strategy is to start working on things very far in advance so that I have plenty of time to work on other things meantime.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
A strong motivator is knowing how competitive getting a job in academia is. I know that I have to be a great scientist even have a shot at getting a position, so I really try to be the best graduate student I can possibly be. Being aware of, and trying to remedy my weaknesses is also a motivator of mine.
What hours do you typically work?
My approach used to be "work all the time, but not very hard at any given time". I prefer to work from home when can and go into the lab as needed. I write emails or read at any hours of the day or night, work all weekend and maybe take a weekday off. Now that I am teaching, I work a more typical schedule, though I still "work" almost every day of the week.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
At home, I share a large yard, three cats and well over kind hundred fish with my husband (who is also a PhD student) A lot of our time is spent working on the house, which we enjoy. When I am not at home, I try to make it to the beach or somewhere to play volleyball, soccer, or racquetball. I find that I'm always able to make time for my hobbies. Sometimes the fish do go a day or two without getting fed (the cats would never skip a meal of course), but they are fine and I make sure there is plenty of live food available for them to forage when I cannot attend to them directly. As for the plants, automatic watering is key.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
My wish would be for my teaching load to be cut in half. I know this is entirely unrealistic, but imagine what I could do with those extra 10 hours every week? I do enjoy teaching so I would not want it to be cut out completely.
What would be your dream job?
I would really like to be professor at an R1 University.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
With my hands in a fish tank, of course. A stream or lake would also do.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Hopeful
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
That is a good question. I would like to make our porch look nice, I suppose. Right now it has a lot of junk on it.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
My work is fairly basic in terms of equipment - I artificially inseminate fish for research, and the most essential tool there are micropipette tips.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
I would love to work with poeciliids in Panama, and hopefully I will soon!
Do you have a favourite organism?
My favorite organism is the least killifish, Heterandria formosa. They are a small, placental fish that looks plain at first glance but has pretty orange fins and a very mild temperment. I caught them as a child in the lake behind my house, and later they became the first fish I would do research on. I still use them today, along with other poeciliids.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience ?
For this question, I have two answers:
Our department is very social. I enjoy it because I have had an opportunity to get to know people from a variety of backgrounds and scientific perspectives. We have events like seminars, coffee hours, happy hours, and department socials on a regular basis.
The Evolution 2017 meeting was the most influential meeting I have attended for networking purposes. I gave my first talk at a large conference and I had the opportunity to talk with scientists that had different perspectives on my work than I did. It was very valuable and I look forward to going to the Evolution meeting this year in Providence, Rhode Island.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I would like for our department to have a student seminar series, where students could talk in front of the department students and faculty to get feedback, and so that we could all have a better understanding of what our peers are doing. We have this opportunity available during our recruitment weekend, but it would be nice to have more opportunities.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
An area that is wide open in my field is how exactly parents and offspring communicate during development, particularly through the lens of how some offspring are able to get more resources from their mother than others. This would bring us towards gene expression, and there is too little known about which genes to look for to be able to do anything substantial at this time.
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