This week's PhDetails is #98 with Rebecca Clement who does her PhD at George Washington University. Rebecca did her undergraduate at Brigham Young University in Utah. Rebecca got into insects doing BioBlitzes in National Parks with flies, and ended up in a research lab doing dragonfly phylogenetics. She started her PhD 3 years ago with a bioinformatics advisor Dr. Crandall, thinking she would go into something with fly phylogenetics, but a really cool opportunity opened up with a professor studying decomposition in Northern Australia who needed a graduate student to look at the termites. She went along with that group and in the process discovered how wacky and neat termites are and developed a PhD project that combines bioinformatics with termite ecology. You can find Rebecca on twitter @BeccasBugs!
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Either Vampire Weekend or Regina Spectre
Favourite movie?
Harold and Maude. It’s a bit strange, but this is where I really discovered Cat Stevens, and I love it.
Do you listen to podcasts?
Lately I’ve been listening quite a bit to Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction--Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s latest news and insights about coronavirus. He talks about it in a very matter-of-fact and non-panicked way. I appreciate that. Besides that I like Hidden Brain or this American Brain. And lately I’ve also been listening to “The Journal”. My husband is an accountant and he’s got me suddenly interested in money things.
Where do you study and who are your supervisors?
I study at George Washington University. I’m co-supervised by Dr. Keith Crandall in the Computational Biology Institute and Dr. Amy Zanne in the biology department.
What year of your PhD are you in?
3rd year
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
I’ve been on different money every year of my PhD. I started out funded by working in and then running our genomics core-doing sequencing projects for other people at the university. Then I taught an intro bio lab for a bit. And last year I received the GRFP! So that’s been funding me for this year and the next two years.
Do you have any publications?
Fly family diversity shows evidence of livestock grazing pressure in Mongolia (Insecta: Diptera)
RA Clement, PB Frandsen, T McKnight, CR Nelson.Journal of Insect Conservation 22 (2), 231-243
It’s from work I did during my undergrad but has 2 citations and I’m so proud!
Also a few publications about cow mastitis from some of the work I did while I was running the core that are also exciting, but I didn’t do as much work on them as I did with my fly paper
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
Fieldwork was what ultimately turned me into an insect person. Before I went to Brazil for an undergrad project with my best friend, I was embarrassed to think of myself as a “bug girl”. But after seeing the damselflies in the Atlantic Rainforest, I was hooked on bugs. That was probably my favorite field experience, being in the field with one of my favorite people in the world. It also helped that I wasn’t in charge. When it’s your project and you’re in charge it adds a little bit of stress to the situation. Now I do fieldwork in Northern Queensland, which is usually quite fun. We’ve got a great group of people we are working with and some gorgeous sites. After one particularly rough field season (think heat wave, fires, landslide, zombie cyclone, tremendous downpour, floods, and too much time with no field companions), I realized that the best part of fieldwork is the friends you share it with! Great field companions make the worst of experiences better. Even if your friends are the insects. Even better if your field companions are experts. There’s nothing like being in the rainforest with someone who knows all about rainforests and is just a fountain of knowledge about all the animals that live there.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I applied to 6 or 7 programs. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted—a mix of insects and evolution and something bioinformatics-y. I found most of the people I applied to (and all of the places I got accepted to) through asking professors who they knew.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
We wanted to find a way to collect an equal volume of termite mound to measure its density and various other things, so we used a hole saw. It felt pretty weird to be using a hole saw to drill into termite mounds in the middle of the savanna.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Ask people who they know. And don’t be so stressed out if you don’t know what you are going to do. Every project starts out a little different than it ends.
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
One of my advisors wants to have a 30 minute meeting every week, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. The other one of my advisors, we meet whenever I say I want a meeting. Usually an email to ask a question works fine
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I think one of the best traits an advisor can have is caring about students as a person. We started going around the room and saying our stress levels at the beginning of lab meetings and I think it’s been a cool reminder that we’re all humans, and it’s been nice feeling that someone cares how your life is going as well as your research.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Talking too fast. Or forgetting about you.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I’m looking into how termites in Australia assembled, how many times termites have made it to Australia, which species live in which habitats and also which microorganisms live in their guts. Also the mounds they build.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Some of the students in my lab have started a writing group where we edit each other’s grant proposals and PostDoc applications, and each time one of the grants gets accepted it’s like a win for everyone! It feels really good to be successful as a team.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
Probably just the stress of figuring out how to keep going when the world seems to be shut down with Coronavirus. I was planning on doing fieldwork and research in Australia in June and had everything set to go, but now that has been put on hold, and trying to figure out what can still happen, feeling like I’m stuck in limbo. Figuring out how to be productive stuck at home all day.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
I don’t feel like I have a great answer for this.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
E. O. Wilson. Or Neil Shubin. Reading their books was what got me excited about biology.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
Probably one of my undergraduate professors, Dr. Riley Nelson. He always encouraged his students to have a “sense of wonder” and sometimes when I get discouraged, I remember his words and the reason behind all of this—that the earth is amazing and we get to learn about it!
Do you have a favourite paper?
This was mentioned on the blog a few weeks ago, but “Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest”. I like it because it takes a tiny organism that not too many people think about and shows that the little guys matter in a big way!
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
I liked ESA in Kentucky this year. I was a student volunteer and got stuck in a room that was talking about urban ecology, a subject I hadn’t thought about too much, but after hearing about it for 6 hours, I thought it was the coolest! I got really excited about urban ecology and saw it everywhere I looked and even gave a guest lecture about it in an undergrad ecology class.
What hours do you typically work?
I aim for 9-5:30, but usually end up a little later. We’ve been focusing on work/life balance and mental health in our department. Sometimes I work weekends but I try to take them off usually.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I usually procrastinate quite a bit. But it helps if I’m accountable to someone else for the deadlines I put on myself.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
Besides thinking that insects are the coolest thing ever, I think outreach and mentoring are what remind me that having a PhD is fun. That and emergency chocolate Cadbury eggs.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
Well, I just got married, so planning that and doing it took a little bit. Besides that, I try to go hiking and camping as much as I can. I also like basketball. And play the violin sometimes.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
Write all the papers for me…
What would be your dream job?
One of the main reasons I decided to do a PhD was the scarcity of female research professors at my undergrad university. I decided then that someday I would come back and be the woman professor I wished I could talk to when I was deciding if I should do a PhD. I really like teaching, so I hope I could do something that incorporates research and teaching and field work. But some days I also just want to leave academia and get a job in biotech and make money and not have to think up all my own ideas.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
With a PhD! Hopefully at the end of my first Postdoc and interviewing for teaching jobs.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
fun. I hope.
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I guess I want to learn how to cook.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
DNA sequencing, R.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
Mars. For NASA. Actually I’d really like to do policy. Maybe be a science advisor to a lawmaker or something.
Do you have a favourite organism?
I like dragonflies a lot. They are ferocious and beautiful. I also like termites. They are interesting and fascinating for so many reasons. But neither ferocious nor beautiful (they can be beautiful if you look at them the way I do).
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
We started doing “Dumbo talks” among the grad students in our department, where students present their thoughts and preliminary work to other students in an informal setting to get feedback and ideas. It has been cool to present and hear others’ research in a low-stress environment.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
We have graduate students in our department in 3 different floors of 2 different buildings. It would be nice to have a shared space for the graduate students in our department.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
I guess people really don’t know how much methane termites are contributing to the atmosphere. It’s hard to tell exactly how many termites are in a termite mound, and it’s hard to tell how much methane one termite releases let alone quintillions. Estimates go from about 2-10% globally.
Well let’s start off talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Either Vampire Weekend or Regina Spectre
Favourite movie?
Harold and Maude. It’s a bit strange, but this is where I really discovered Cat Stevens, and I love it.
Do you listen to podcasts?
Lately I’ve been listening quite a bit to Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction--Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s latest news and insights about coronavirus. He talks about it in a very matter-of-fact and non-panicked way. I appreciate that. Besides that I like Hidden Brain or this American Brain. And lately I’ve also been listening to “The Journal”. My husband is an accountant and he’s got me suddenly interested in money things.
Where do you study and who are your supervisors?
I study at George Washington University. I’m co-supervised by Dr. Keith Crandall in the Computational Biology Institute and Dr. Amy Zanne in the biology department.
What year of your PhD are you in?
3rd year
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
I’ve been on different money every year of my PhD. I started out funded by working in and then running our genomics core-doing sequencing projects for other people at the university. Then I taught an intro bio lab for a bit. And last year I received the GRFP! So that’s been funding me for this year and the next two years.
Do you have any publications?
Fly family diversity shows evidence of livestock grazing pressure in Mongolia (Insecta: Diptera)
RA Clement, PB Frandsen, T McKnight, CR Nelson.Journal of Insect Conservation 22 (2), 231-243
It’s from work I did during my undergrad but has 2 citations and I’m so proud!
Also a few publications about cow mastitis from some of the work I did while I was running the core that are also exciting, but I didn’t do as much work on them as I did with my fly paper
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
Fieldwork was what ultimately turned me into an insect person. Before I went to Brazil for an undergrad project with my best friend, I was embarrassed to think of myself as a “bug girl”. But after seeing the damselflies in the Atlantic Rainforest, I was hooked on bugs. That was probably my favorite field experience, being in the field with one of my favorite people in the world. It also helped that I wasn’t in charge. When it’s your project and you’re in charge it adds a little bit of stress to the situation. Now I do fieldwork in Northern Queensland, which is usually quite fun. We’ve got a great group of people we are working with and some gorgeous sites. After one particularly rough field season (think heat wave, fires, landslide, zombie cyclone, tremendous downpour, floods, and too much time with no field companions), I realized that the best part of fieldwork is the friends you share it with! Great field companions make the worst of experiences better. Even if your friends are the insects. Even better if your field companions are experts. There’s nothing like being in the rainforest with someone who knows all about rainforests and is just a fountain of knowledge about all the animals that live there.
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I applied to 6 or 7 programs. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted—a mix of insects and evolution and something bioinformatics-y. I found most of the people I applied to (and all of the places I got accepted to) through asking professors who they knew.
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during field/labwork – did it work?
We wanted to find a way to collect an equal volume of termite mound to measure its density and various other things, so we used a hole saw. It felt pretty weird to be using a hole saw to drill into termite mounds in the middle of the savanna.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
Ask people who they know. And don’t be so stressed out if you don’t know what you are going to do. Every project starts out a little different than it ends.
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
One of my advisors wants to have a 30 minute meeting every week, which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. The other one of my advisors, we meet whenever I say I want a meeting. Usually an email to ask a question works fine
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I think one of the best traits an advisor can have is caring about students as a person. We started going around the room and saying our stress levels at the beginning of lab meetings and I think it’s been a cool reminder that we’re all humans, and it’s been nice feeling that someone cares how your life is going as well as your research.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Talking too fast. Or forgetting about you.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
I’m looking into how termites in Australia assembled, how many times termites have made it to Australia, which species live in which habitats and also which microorganisms live in their guts. Also the mounds they build.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year? Some of the students in my lab have started a writing group where we edit each other’s grant proposals and PostDoc applications, and each time one of the grants gets accepted it’s like a win for everyone! It feels really good to be successful as a team.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
Probably just the stress of figuring out how to keep going when the world seems to be shut down with Coronavirus. I was planning on doing fieldwork and research in Australia in June and had everything set to go, but now that has been put on hold, and trying to figure out what can still happen, feeling like I’m stuck in limbo. Figuring out how to be productive stuck at home all day.
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
I don’t feel like I have a great answer for this.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
E. O. Wilson. Or Neil Shubin. Reading their books was what got me excited about biology.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
Probably one of my undergraduate professors, Dr. Riley Nelson. He always encouraged his students to have a “sense of wonder” and sometimes when I get discouraged, I remember his words and the reason behind all of this—that the earth is amazing and we get to learn about it!
Do you have a favourite paper?
This was mentioned on the blog a few weeks ago, but “Termites mitigate the effects of drought in tropical rainforest”. I like it because it takes a tiny organism that not too many people think about and shows that the little guys matter in a big way!
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
I liked ESA in Kentucky this year. I was a student volunteer and got stuck in a room that was talking about urban ecology, a subject I hadn’t thought about too much, but after hearing about it for 6 hours, I thought it was the coolest! I got really excited about urban ecology and saw it everywhere I looked and even gave a guest lecture about it in an undergrad ecology class.
What hours do you typically work?
I aim for 9-5:30, but usually end up a little later. We’ve been focusing on work/life balance and mental health in our department. Sometimes I work weekends but I try to take them off usually.
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I usually procrastinate quite a bit. But it helps if I’m accountable to someone else for the deadlines I put on myself.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
Besides thinking that insects are the coolest thing ever, I think outreach and mentoring are what remind me that having a PhD is fun. That and emergency chocolate Cadbury eggs.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
Well, I just got married, so planning that and doing it took a little bit. Besides that, I try to go hiking and camping as much as I can. I also like basketball. And play the violin sometimes.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
Write all the papers for me…
What would be your dream job?
One of the main reasons I decided to do a PhD was the scarcity of female research professors at my undergrad university. I decided then that someday I would come back and be the woman professor I wished I could talk to when I was deciding if I should do a PhD. I really like teaching, so I hope I could do something that incorporates research and teaching and field work. But some days I also just want to leave academia and get a job in biotech and make money and not have to think up all my own ideas.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
With a PhD! Hopefully at the end of my first Postdoc and interviewing for teaching jobs.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
fun. I hope.
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I guess I want to learn how to cook.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
DNA sequencing, R.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
Mars. For NASA. Actually I’d really like to do policy. Maybe be a science advisor to a lawmaker or something.
Do you have a favourite organism?
I like dragonflies a lot. They are ferocious and beautiful. I also like termites. They are interesting and fascinating for so many reasons. But neither ferocious nor beautiful (they can be beautiful if you look at them the way I do).
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
We started doing “Dumbo talks” among the grad students in our department, where students present their thoughts and preliminary work to other students in an informal setting to get feedback and ideas. It has been cool to present and hear others’ research in a low-stress environment.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
We have graduate students in our department in 3 different floors of 2 different buildings. It would be nice to have a shared space for the graduate students in our department.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
I guess people really don’t know how much methane termites are contributing to the atmosphere. It’s hard to tell exactly how many termites are in a termite mound, and it’s hard to tell how much methane one termite releases let alone quintillions. Estimates go from about 2-10% globally.
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