About me Flashcards
Tell me a little about yourself (2 minutes)
I’m a PhD candidate in quantitative marine ecology at Simon Fraser University (defending in 2 weeks!).
Although I primarily work in marine ecology, my work broadly spans the field of quantitative conservation ecology across taxa, ecosystems, time periods (modern, paleontological), and geographical scope.
I work with cutting-edge statistical models, large datasets, and with a particular focus on data visualization.
My recent PhD work has focussed on the ecological portfolio effect. Ecological systems behave like financial portfolios in many ways. For example, we can think of streams of salmon as ‘financial assets’ and an entire watershed of salmon populations as a ‘financial portfolio’. If the salmon in different streams have a variety of life-history traits, genetic diversity, or different responses to environmental conditions, then they may respond differently if the whole system experiences some environmental or human stress. The whole system may be stabilized by this ‘diverse portfolio’.
My thesis work has looked at how we measure the ecological portfolio effect, how strong it is across taxa, how we can use the portfolio concept to manage metapopulations given climate change and uncertainty in future conditions, and how another financial concept — extreme risk — relates to ecological population dynamics.
Before that I completed my Masters degree in biology at Dalhousie University. I looked at global trends in invertebrate fisheries expansion. A big part of my research was focussed on global serial expansion and depletion of sea cucumber fisheries radiating out from Hong Kong. My Masters thesis ended up receiving the Canadian Governor General’s award as the top-ranked Masters thesis that year in science and engineering.
In general, I try to work in Pasteur’s quadrant of scientific topics as much as possible, which means that I try and take on problems that both have fundamental scientific importance and that have practical implications.
A major focus for me has been mentoring other graduate students and postdocs through modern skills in data-analysis and software development and statistical modelling.
I’ve had the opportunity to do that at Dalhousie, Simon Fraser, and the University of Washington, with scientific working groups, through running workshops, developing and teaching a course, running a weekly statistics help group, and through the 19 papers I’ve published at this stage in my PhD.
I’m interested in the Smith Fellowship because of the opportunity to work with other conservation scientists who are leaders in their respective fields and for the training opportunities in leadership and how to make my science matter.
When I’m not working in conservation biology, I enjoy hiking and biking in the mountains of Vancouver, cross-country skiing, unicycling, and juggling.
> Expectations of Smith fellows program?
- a fantastic, friendly, and enthusiastic group of other conservation early-career conservation scientists to work with
- networking… with scientists who are leaders in their respective fields
- some level of training to help me get my work out there… to help me make my work matter
- not a regular postdoc… all sorts of those
> If you were selecting applicants, who would you look for?
- diversity of skills, personalities, and backgrounds across applicants
- the right mix of demonstrated ability and future potential
- people who are enthusiastic about what they work on and about conservation biology in general, with the awareness that different people express that enthusiasm in different ways and different people are enthusiastic about different components of conservation biology, and that that diversity is a good thing
> What’s an example of a mistake you’ve made?
> What have you learned from past mistakes?
- going from env. science to quant. instead of quant. to env.
- programs (undergrad biology) doesn’t play to my strengths… wrote memorization… and don’t learn the skills to ‘do science’
- draw link to colleagues I’ve worked with… say at QERM, gives them a really strong foundation…
What have you learned about mistakes
- most mistakes aren’t as big a deal as they seem at the time
- we’re all human and it’s OK to make mistakes…
- it’s how we deal with ‘mistakes’ and ‘learn/recover’ from them that is important
> What would previous supervisors say your greatest strength is?
- incredibly thorough, independent, and I make those around me stronger scientists
- if I say I’m going to do something I’ll do it an it will be of the highest quality
- great teacher, and very patient, and genuinely enjoy teaching people new skills, making people better quantitative scientists
> Dream job?
- pretty close is the NWFSC
- conservation biology data manipulation and storage, statistics, and visualization consultant
> What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
- always looking forward… next best technique, programming language
- Stan…?
- teach others… learn a lot by assisting others… stats group… play with all sorts of data (experimental, block design… ) I learn a lot too
- applying for this… NWFSC
- I like to be 10 steps ahead of every one else… NWFSC folks are even further ahead
- stay on top of my game
> Questions for the panel?
- what do you like best about the Smith Fellowship program
- how do you think conservation biology needs to shift to meet the needs of society 10 or 20 years from now?
- what’s the biggest issue over the next decade?
> What’s a suggestion you have made that was implemented?
- I often make process-based suggestions in my work
- Kyles paper… setting hunting limits… should incorporate uncertainty… don’t model things correctly, underestimate risk, come up at provincial government debates multiple times
- I suggested to some colleagues and I, that we develop an R package that would allow fisheries scientists to do this, and this is better because of this…
- ss3sim as an R package
- what does the tool do, why is it better
> What’s your perspective on teamwork?
- my best experiences in science have also been the best examples of teamwork I’ve been a part of
- I’ve been part of 3 groups that have been nearly 100% graduate student driven and resulted in published work in conservation biology and fisheries
- reasonably well-distributed workload, we each contribute what we’re best at, we all learn from what the others are good at, we have to make decisions as a group — no one to lean on
- regular teamwork is what keeps me going, but for me personally, most of the actual grunt work (often coding, visualizing, and writing) needs to be done on my own (I’m an introvert and serious thinking requires plenty of time in my own head)
- so it’s the combination of the two… communicating as a team and getting fired up about what we’re doing, then going away and doing things, and then reconvening, and repeating
- I much prefer to lead by example than to lead by directing, but can pull that out if truly necessary
> What would previous coworkers say about you?
- that with my collaboration we can do things that neither of us could do on our own
- that they can trust that I will facilitate their work thoroughly, rapidly…
- they know that they if they hand me something, I do it quickly and amazingly well and exceed people’s expectations
What do you know about SCB?
SBC: a non-profit founded in 1985, scientific study of maintenance, loss, and restoration of biological diversity; ~10,000 members; mostly in the US, some chapters elsewhere
What do you know about Smith?
Smith: focused on linking conservation science and application; created in 1998 with TNC and the Cedar Tree Foundation (a fund created by David H. Smith); moved to SCB in 2005
What do you know about TNC?
TNC: founded in 1951; global; > 1 million members; ~35 countries and all US states; largest environmental nonprofit in the US
