Amanda is a 7th year PhD candidate in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology working in the lab of Ripan Malhi. Her work focuses on assessing the genetic effects of European colonization on a First Nations population in Canada examining both ancient and present-day DNA.
What have you been working on this past week?
This past week, I have been mostly writing my dissertation chapter 2, which focuses on the Y-chromosome of men in Canada, and I’m preparing to send it to my committee! I wish I could say I’ve been doing more for searching for a post doc position or searching for fellowships to apply for funding, but there just isn’t enough time in the week!
Do you have a work routine/schedule?
My weekly schedule consists of writing at least a little bit every day, usually in the main library with my writing accountability friends or in my new office! I order supplies for the lab on Mondays. I have mostly finished lab work so I’m not in the lab much these days except for lab cleaning days. I also have the Assistant Editor job for the journal Human Biology as my RAship, so I typically read new submissions and clean accepted articles whenever they come in. I also have weekly meetings- the 21st Century Scientists (join us for our upcoming Social Media for Science workshop!), Association of Biological Anthropologists, lab meetings, PEEC seminar lunches with the speaker, Ecolunch, Bioinformatics Coffee Hour group, and two meetings a week with my “writing ladies” at UIUC’s Writer’s Workshop (I highly recommend them!). For a more detailed breakdown of my last week, please see the attached graph. The lifetime totals for how long it took me to write each chapter are included, in case anyone is interested in seeing how long it takes someone who is taking her sweet time writing!
How do you unwind after a long day of work?
I go home, eat a decent meal (usually for the first time that day), then do more work while I watch TV. I might be a bit of a workaholic!
What was your biggest struggle this past week?
Computational analyses! I’ve been trying to get a package in R to work on and off for a while and it just won’t let me import the data! If anyone knows how to get Pegas to work, please let me know! I also have a PCA plot that I am puzzling over and learning all sorts of things that can affect them.
What is your favorite coffee place in campus? Why?
Well, I think I have every bitter tasting gene out there, so I don’t drink coffee at all (shocking, I know!). But I agree with Jacob from last week’s GEEB week in the life post, the Red Herring is awesome! It’s just a fun place with good values and food, and a long history.