This week’s PhDetails is with John Coffin who does his PhD at Kansas State University, USA. John did his undergrad at the University of Georgia, where he double majored in Ecology and Marine Sciences. While there, he was able to jump right in to research as a freshman in Dr. Jeb Byers's lab, where they studied the interactions between two estuarine ecosystem engineers, the smooth cordgrass and Eastern oyster. After John graduated, he went straight into a PhD program in Biology at Kansas State in the lab or Dr. Michi Tobler, where he studies how organisms adapt to life in extreme environments. So far, John has been working on understanding how populations of Western mosquitofish may have adapted to survive in toxic abandoned mines in Oklahoma. He is now beginning several projects to understand the evolution of reproductive barriers in populations of the Atlantic molly inhabiting toxic and nearby non-toxic streams in Southern Mexico. You can find John on twitter @johncoffin123 and if you want to hear from a past member of the Tobler lab then check out the interview I did with Ryan Greenway HERE!
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
I’m going to have to say Van Halen. Even though a lot of their career was in the 80s, I think their best stuff came out in the late 70s.
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Metallica
Favourite movie?
Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back (Episode 5)
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
I’m currently at Kansas State University, studying with Michi Tobler
What year of your PhD are you in?
I’m beginning my third year now.
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
My stipend is currently paid by the US Dept of Education through the GAANN program, which will fund me through the end of my third year. After that, my advisor will be paying me “for as long as it takes”, but we both think/hope I’ll be done after 5 years. But for most of my research expenditures, my advisor pays for that.
Do you have any publications?
Not yet, unfortunately.
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
Nope. Went straight in after my undergraduate degree.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
Yes. I do fieldwork in Oklahoma to catch fish (primarily Western mosquitofish) to do experiments on in the lab, such as life history work or transcriptomics. My favorite field work experience from my PhD so far was when I went into the field early in the morning, and I saw the sun rise over the creek I was working in. It was really beautiful!
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I applied to a bunch of PhD programs because I wasn’t very confident in my abilities or GRE scores when I was applying, so I ended up applying to 8 schools. But part of the reason I applied to so many places was because I had so many different ideas of what I wanted to do. The main things I was looking for were 1) that I would have my tuition paid for, 2) the lab did awesome research that I wanted to get involved in, and 3) an advisor that I could form a good relationship with.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
One time I was doing fieldwork to get tissue samples for a physiological experiment, so I would dissect fish and put individual tissues in tubes and freeze them in liquid nitrogen. Well, when packing for the trip I brought plenty of tubes, but not nearly enough tube caps. Of course I didn’t realize this until I was mid-dissection and had run out of caps. So I decided to cover the opening of the tubes with pieces of parafilm, and then duct taped it in place so it wouldn’t fall off in the liquid nitrogen. I really have no idea if it worked because I’m so back-logged with other projects that I haven’t even processed those tissues or analysed the data yet. But fingers crossed!!
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
I didn’t get a masters before my PhD, but I would make sure that you talk to your potential advisor as well as the students in their lab, and make sure that you will be able to learn and grow in that lab without compromising your health due to a bad advising relationship.
How often do you meet with your supervisor?
We have a weekly personal meeting and a lab meeting, plus I stop in about 1-2 times per week out of the blue. So maybe ~4 times per week?
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I need a supervisor who is clear about expectations, admits when they are wrong, and someone who lets me fail, but can help me figure things out too.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Someone who does not make time for their graduate students and blames them for any shortcomings with their research. I believe that supervisors should not hire people simply to complete lab tasks, but should be involved in helping them develop as scientists.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I am trying to understand how adaptation to extreme environments leads to the evolution of reproductive barriers between populations.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
I went to the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Tampa, FL last January, which was a lot of fun and also very intellectually stimulating.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – what happened?
Last spring I had a lot of issues with time management that caused me to forget several key responsibilities. Luckily, I have a great support system, so I had people to cover for me, but this led me to make improvements in managing my time.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
When I was completing my undergraduate degree, I met Robert Paine, the ecologist who coined the keystone species concept.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Joseph Felsenstein, or any of the female “hidden figures” who helped pioneer the field of phylogenetics, who remain mostly unnamed.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
Probably the graduate student who I first worked with in undergrad, Daniel Harris. He taught me so much about how to conduct experiments, how to code in R, how to do fieldwork, and also how to split up your time during research between being serious and having fun.
Do you have a favourite paper?
I have a weird fondness for Eierman and Hare, 2014, from BMC Genomics. It’s a paper about transcriptomics in oysters. It isn’t necessarily the best paper ever written, but I read this paper when I was completing my undergraduate degree, and it was the first time I really experienced the field of genomics, and it set me toward the work I am doing today.
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
The 2019 meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. There was a lot of great work in my field there, but it was also very broad, allowing me to branch out.
What hours do you typically work?
I usually am in the lab from 9AM to about 6PM, and I often am working some from home, but that is pretty variable.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I don’t always avoid it…But I have a thorough system of reminders in Google Calendar, so that any time I’m on a computer or my phone anywhere in the world, I can get notified of due dates. I also write down all of the things I need to get done each day in Google Calendar.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
I am a naturally inquisitive person, so despite all the research I’ve done, there are so many open questions that constantly get me excited.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
I like to go for bike rides or jogs to get exercise and clear my mind, and I also love reading fantasy novels and watching movies.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
A computer that could run calculations instantly. A lot of my work has to do with bioinformatics or image/video analysis, and these take a long time, even with the help of a computer.
What would be your dream job?
I would drop literally everything in my life to be an astronaut. But being more realistic, I would like to be a professor at a non-R1 university.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Probably in a postdoc somewhere. I should probably think more about that…
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Badass
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I would like to become better at communicating with my family and loved ones.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
RStudio
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
I think it would be really cool to work in the Smoky or Ozark mountains in the US because of the incredible fish diversity there, or somewhere in Australia or Ireland.
Do you have a favourite organism?
My favorite organism is the vampire squid. It unfortunately is not my study organism, but I love them because they are beautiful and can survive in low-oxygen areas of the deep sea.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
None that I can really think of.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
We have student representation in our department, but our representative is not always taken seriously or given a vote in all matters.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
What is the genetic basis of traits that cause reproductive isolation? This is important because reproductive isolation is important for the speciation process, and while it is relatively easy to document reproductive barriers, it is very difficult to link these barriers with a genetic mechanism.
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