Tag Archives: Women in Science

Dr. Rita Colwell Shares Her Journey to Inspire Women in Science

6320a — Rita Colwell answers questions during the 2018 Distinguished Lecture Series held at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. Photo by Laura Bracken, CARTHE Program & Outreach Manager.

“I was not going to be stopped,” said Dr. Rita Colwell describing how she faced hurdles, many related to being a woman during her 60+ year science career, and blazed paths, including her being the first female director of the National Science Foundation. She spoke earnestly and enthusiastically to faculty, staff, and students gathered for the two-day Career and Leadership event at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS).

“It is very important to fully engage women in science, energy, and technology because the country needs them, the world needs them,” said Colwell.

Professor Villy Kourafalou – Director of the UM “SEEDS (A Seed for Success)” program and Chair of the RSMAS “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee” – invited Dr. Colwell to be the Distinguished Lecturer at the 2018 lecture series that supports diversity and career development and success. Kourafalou knew that Colwell would inspire all scientists attending the event and leave a positive and lasting impression, but especially for the young women. And she did.

6320b — Graduate students take in every word from Rita Colwell (center) after the career and leadership lectures. Photo by Laura Bracken, CARTHE Program & Outreach Manager.

“It was incredibly inspiring to see a successful woman who has been in the field for so long speak about her research as well as the obstacles and successes she has experienced,” said UM graduate student Lela Schlenker. “I loved hearing her talk about meeting challenges and rising above sexist attitudes. She was such an inspiration.”

On day one, Colwell spoke about global infectious disease and its relationship with climate, oceans, and human health. She described her early work of computer coding with IBM punch cards and experiences in Bangladesh conducting cholera and genomics research, identifying specific bacterial strains in people’s gut. While Colwell spoke passionately about the science, she was equally as passionate about the people affected, evident when she described how the villagers learned to filter their drinking water that resulted in a 50% decrease in cholera cases.

6320c — Rita Colwell engages attendees in discussions during the Distinguished Lecture Series held at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. Photo by Laura Bracken, CARTHE Program & Outreach Manager.

On day two, Colwell took the attendees on a historical journey as she described women in science from Galileo’s daughter to recent Nobel Prize winners. She discussed societal pressures that are not supportive of women entering science and engineering fields; however, she made a point to emphasize – particularly to the women in attendance – her persistence throughout her career, “If somebody tried to block my way, I went over, under, through the left or through the right.”

Afterwards, the audience asked questions about how male scientists can support female students and scientists (treat women equally, give women opportunities, students will be more productive and you will be rewarded), the role of good mentors (male or female), and work/life balance (go sailing to clear your mind, enlist the support of your partner/family). Other questions covered topics from ways to encourage more funding of interdisciplinary science programs to new skills students should acquire (genomics, IT, working with large data sets).

6320d — Rita Colwell speaks about global infectious diseases at the Distinguished Lecture Series held at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. Photo by Laura Bracken, CARTHE Program & Outreach Manager.

Colwell also encouraged attendees to participate in outreach and improve communicating their science effectively. She mentioned giving public presentations and participating in videos like the two Screenscope films Dispatches from the Gulf that documented the science and people involved with the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI).

Professor Tamay Ozgokmen described the rapt attention displayed on everyone’s face as similar to watching a Hitchcock suspense movie and how Colwell captured their fascination with clarity and energy. “The way she expressed her memoirs revealed a lot of resilience, creativity, use of psychology, extraordinary intellect, combined with very hard, many decades of work. Nowadays, people like to do a little bit of everything, without going deep into any topic, but clearly, sustained focus and curiosity of science is at the core of Dr. Colwell’s enormous achievements.”

6320e — Rita Colwell (R) and Villy Kourafalou enjoy the informal gathering after the Distinguished Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the UM “SEEDS (A Seed for Success)” program and the RSMAS “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.” Photo by Laura Bracken, CARTHE Program & Outreach Manager

Professor Villy Kourafalou was thrilled with the audience’s overwhelming enthusiasm and the lively discussions at the networking events afterwards, but she was not surprised. “Bringing distinguished female scientists to RSMAS to talk about their amazing science achievements and their career pathways has been extremely rewarding. Rita Colwell, a larger-than-life scientist, graced us with her witty approach to life and science. It was a privilege to host her, and we are grateful for her generous time.”

Rita Colwell is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Founder and Chair of CosmosID, Inc., and Chair of the GoMRI Research Board. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and honors, including 55 honorary degrees, and holds many leadership and advisory positions in U.S. Government and nonprofit science policy organizations, private foundations, and the international scientific research community.
Villy Kourafalou leads a team of researchers, Ph.D. students, and postdocs at the UM RSMAS Department of Ocean Sciences. She is the co-Director of the Ocean Modeling and Observing System Simulation Experiments Center, lead for the Coastal and Shelf Modeling group; co-Chair of the international Coastal Ocean and Shelf Seas Task Team; and Principal or co-Principal Investigator of several GoMRI-funded projects.
Tamay Ozgokmen teaches and advises Ph.D. students, post-docs, and researchers at the UM RSMAS Department of Ocean Sciences and is the Principal Investigator of the GoMRI-funded CARTHE consortium with over 44 co-Principal Investigators from 27 universities and research institutions.
Learn more about the SEEDS program and the UM-based research consortia CARTHE and RECOVER.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies. An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research. All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available. The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP. For more information, visit https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

© Copyright 2010-2018 Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) – All Rights Reserved. Redistribution is encouraged with acknowledgement to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI). Please credit images and/or videos as done in each article. Questions? Contact web-content editor Nilde “Maggie” Dannreuther, Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University (maggied@ngi.msstate.edu).

Grad Student Flournoy Emphasizes the Importance of Student Exposure to STEM

6303a — Nikaela Flournoy. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Nikaela Flournoy’s scientific journey has always carried a societal tie, from her passion for research’s social relevance to her realizations about the relationship between society and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Though she is excited to see a greater emphasis on STEM in primary and secondary education, she hopes to help expand STEM awareness and curriculum to students from diverse educational and social backgrounds.

Nikaela recently completed her doctoral studies in the University of Alabama’s Department of Biological Sciences and was honored as a GoMRI Scholar with the Alabama Center for Ecological Resilience (ACER). She continues her ACER research as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Alabama.

Her Path

6303b — Nikaela working with Dr. Behzad Mortazavi’s lab group at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Nikaela learned about the possibilities of scientific research as an undergraduate student at Alabama A&M University. Her high school curriculum included standard science courses but they did not highlight the diverse opportunities a scientific career could hold. “I knew scientific research existed before I attended Alabama A&M, but I didn’t know the scope of it until I was offered the opportunity to work in a research lab,” said Nikaela. She worked as an undergraduate research assistant while completing her biology degree and completed a master’s degree in microbiology at the University of Iowa with a focus on virology.

Nikaela’s educational background provided her with different perspectives in the sciences. While her biology research fostered an interest in environmental microbiology, her virology research generated an awareness about public health and the societal relevance of scientific research. When the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, Nikaela was still unsure if she wanted to continue her scientific education through a doctoral program. However, the images of the oil as it entered the coastal environment and the expectation of downstream economic impacts inspired her to search for research opportunities where she could use her skillsets for the greater good. “Seeing the graphic imagery within the northern Gulf of Mexico inspired me to pursue research that would utilize my prior skillsets to investigate the interface between the environment and public health,” she said. In 2011, she joined Dr. Patricia Sobecky’s research investigating the long-term effects of Deepwater Horizon on the Alabama coastline, a collaboration with Dr. Behzad Mortazavi’s nitrogen cycling lab at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). Their work became part of the ACER project in 2015.

Her Work

6303c — Nikaela presenting ACER-related research at the 2016 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference in Tampa, FL. (Provided by NIkaela Flournoy)

Coastal saltmarshes help remove anthropogenic nitrogen from the coastal ecosystem through processes such as denitrification, a microbial process that reduces nitrate in saltmarsh sediments by releasing it into the atmosphere as nitrogen gas. Large-scale contamination events such as oil spills can potentially cause losses in saltmarsh vegetation, impairing the marsh’s ability to remove nitrogen. Nikaela analyzes DNA in samples from Deepwater Horizon-impacted subtidal and vegetated saltmarshes to understand resident microbes’ presumed contributions to nitrogen removal and its effects on microbial diversity.

Nikaela extracts DNA from sediment samples collected from the Chandeleur Islands five years after it was heavily oiled during Deepwater Horizon and analyzes it using next-generation Illumina sequencing. She applies bioinformatic approaches to determine which bacteria are present and assesses their genetic potential to remove nitrogen. She then compares and contrasts those metrics between saltmarsh conditions to observe how loss of vegetation might impact the marsh’s denitrification potential. So far, Nikaela and her collaborators observed that the average denitrification capacity of vegetated marshes was four-times higher than unvegetated marshes. Denitrifying microbes were equally abundant in both types of marsh, suggesting that vegetation regulates the denitrifiers’ activity rather than their abundance.

Her Learning

6303d — The ACER group, 2016. (Photo credit: ACER)

Nikaela’s experiences working with Dr. Sobecky have provided her opportunities to experience many aspects of microbial ecology as it relates to innovation, engagement, and advocacy efforts for women in STEM. She believes that her sharpened drive is a reflection of Sobecky’s own enthusiasm and passion for their research. “Dr. Sobecky always emphasizes the importance of reading older literature, as it contains much of the foundational theory that most metagenomic principles are based on today,” Nikaela said. “She is a consistent source of resources, mentorship, and encouragement, which are critical traits for a graduate advisor. It’s important that young scientists like myself have mentors like Dr. Sobecky who encourage us to be resilient in our research pursuits.”

One of Nikaela’s most memorable moments during her Ph.D. experience was attending the Women of Color STEM Entrepreneurship Conference hosted by the National STEM Collaborative, a consortium focused on supporting minority girls and women in STEM. Sobecky’s involvement with the Collaborative connected Nikaela with the conference and offered her a unique experience that she believes she couldn’t have found anywhere else. “Never before had I been around so many minority women with advanced STEM degrees and careers in one space,” she said. “The outpouring of encouragement from women in all aspects of STEM was amazing.”

Her Future

Nikaela currently works as a post-doctoral researcher in Sobecky’s lab and hopes to eventually work in an administrative position at a historically black college or university (HBCU) and give back to the community that introduced her to research. “I got my start at an HBCU. I feel like it’s my responsibility as a research scientist and educator to teach at an HBCU and provide the next-generation of research scientists with the same opportunities that I had and more,” she said.

Praise for Nikaela

Sobecky described Nikaela as a scientist who shows the strength, perseverance, and work ethic that advisors always hope to see develop in the students and postdocs they mentor. She praised Nikaela for always seeking to learn and bring new knowledge to her research projects. Nikaela’s drive to share science with others and invest in other upcoming scientists particularly stood out to Sobecky, who said “She is dedicated to paying it forward and helping others learn more about STEM and to helping them develop professionally. Nikaela embodies the consummate scientist and science educator that our nation needs to help solve societal issues.”

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Nikaela Flournoy and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals. Visit the ACER website to learn more about their work.

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CARTHE and RECOVER Participate in Women in Science Day Workshop

Teachers used the rotating tank to demonstrate how eddies are formed. — at Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

This past Saturday we had the pleasure of participating in the annual Exploring Marine Science Day for 6th-7th grade girls, organized by the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science and the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE). We taught 50 girls from different Miami junior high schools about the effects of oil exposure on developing fish. Both of us were amazed at the enthusiasm and interest the girls showed and very impressed with their insightful and complex questions. We showed the girls videos and pictures of both control and oil exposed fish, and they showed great intuition when we asked them to identify which group had been exposed to oil and to brainstorm some of the traits that appeared different between the groups. We outlined some of the cardiac abnormalities that are the result of crude oil exposure in fish and we got some terrific questions about how that would effect a fish’s ability to catch prey, avoid predation, and whether these effects would be passed on to the next generation. All questions we are currently trying to answer! We were excited to tell the girls that these are questions real scientists are currently trying to answer and if they check back with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and our website they will see updates to those topics as we work towards the answers. At the end of our presentation all of the girls got the chance to look at different stages of Mahi Mahi embryos and larvae under microscopes, which was a big hit, and a great way to wrap everything up. We were both excited to show these girls that women do really cool science and we loved seeing a group of girls that were so interested and curious; we know that if any of them decide to pursue science they will do great!

Middle school girls were able to do hands-on marine science activities with female researchers and graduate students from both projects during the annual University of Miami workshop. You can view photos from the event here and here and read two RECOVER Ph.D. students’ reflections on the experience here!