Washington University Tyson Research Center

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Reid Watson, Undergraduate Fellow Engineering is a tool that can be used anywhere. To me, ecology is something that really interests me, so personally, I’m very happy to be doing what we’re doing.... Could you elaborate on the connection between engineering and ecology research? There’s lots of different fields of engineering. I think that the engineering design process is a very broad problem solving method. I’m in the Engineering School but I’ve always been very interested in sustainability, conservation, camping, hiking, and just being outside. I really wanted a position in the Tyson fellowship as soon as I heard about it from the sustainability circles I’m in at WashU. I actually study computer science engineering, so I don’t study mechanical engineering, which is something that I miss a lot. I like to study art as well, which has similarities to engineering in that you need a creative mindset to solve problems. What work has your team been doing this summer? All of the projects we are working on are for the other research groups at Tyson. Natalie Mueller and her group are trying to re-domesticate ancient crops that were lost to time. She has a lot of small, experimental beds where she’s trying to cultivate these crops using their wild descendants. The issue is that they’re not domesticated plants so they are pretty hard to work with. The seeds are very small and they vary in size a lot. The winnowing process is trying to separate all the seeds from the chaff. Because of the small and inconsistent size of the seeds, they’ve been doing them by hand which is very time consuming. They have been in contact with chefs in the St. Louis area about cooking them but they don’t have the volume of seeds to make that happen. What we’re trying to do is build them some kind of winnowing machine to deliver to them so they can expedite the process. So basically, I plug it into my vacuum here (via Zoom, Reid shows his winnowing machine prototype, made from a vacuum at home] and I put all the seeds in the chamber and kind of shake it. Then the less dense material gets sucked through, into this chamber. The seed motor part stays over here and I can control the air pressure by covering the holes in the back. It’s not perfect, but we’re trying to find a way to do that for Natalie Mueller’s group. See Reid's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-reid-watson Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Michelle Pollowitz, Undergraduate Fellow Growing up, I used to have a garden. I really liked physically being connected with the earth, having my hands in the dirt, seeing the worms wiggling around and being able to raise plants on my own. So that's where a lot of excitement about plants for me started. Then last spring, I took Introduction to Ecology, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. We had a unit talking about diseases and their spread, and I c...licked with that. I found myself grinning in classes when we were learning about the subject material. WashU also offers a class called Disease Ecology, which is taught by Dr. Penczykowski, who is my Tyson mentor. I took that class and started in her lab in the same semester. I went from like zero to a lot of disease ecology, really quickly! It's been really cool to have taken the class and learned about the subject while also applying it to the research that I was doing in the lab. And now, I am continuing that research at Tyson. How would you explain the research that you're doing to just someone you meet casually off the street or with a very general science knowledge? We have our plants, Plantago lanceolata and Plantago rugelii, that are common roadside weeds. They get infected with a pathogen called powdery mildew. Powdery mildew is spread through wind dispersal, which commonly occurs along roadways with the movement of cars. We are focusing on the urban-to-rural gradient, which evaluates how humans are interacting with the ecosystem. When WashU moved to remote learning for the spring semester, Michelle went back to Maryland to live with her family. She recently moved back to St. Louis for the summer. She really values being connected with people, shown best through her feelings toward the Plant Disease team she works with. If you had to describe your research team in one object, what would it be? The first thing that popped into my mind was a fruit pie. Each person is definitely distinguishable, like the fruit of the pie. Everyone has their role and personality and can bring a lot of things to the table through knowledge and experience. My lab values that everyone is individually important. But we also come together and work collaboratively. You can tell the pieces are different, but overall it's cohesive. The flavor of the pie all works together. And then there is the crust, which is the research that is holding us all together. See Michelle's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-michelle-pollowitz Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Natalie Mueller, Assistant Professor of Archaeology Would you say you’re more of a historian or an ecologist?... I love that you picked those two words because the way that I define myself is a historical ecologist. I’m absolutely a combination of those two things. I think that ecology has traditionally been lacking temporal depth. What historical ecology brings to the picture is this understanding that people have been shaping and impacting and reacting to ecosystems for thousands of years. How does your research this summer reflect that? Indigenous people in eastern North America grew a lot of different native plants before they started growing the things that most of us probably associate with native American agriculture, like maize and pumpkins and beans. Those plants were all domesticated in Mexico. They reached this area through trade probably around 900 AD. That probably sounds like a long time ago to you and most people, but in archeological time it’s not. For thousands of years before that, the people in this region were growing native plants. We still have some squashes that were domesticated here, like acorn squashes, and sunflowers that we still grow. But then there were a bunch of other species that were lost. Indigenous people stopped cultivating them probably about 500 years ago and they never made it into written records or oral histories that described how they were grown or cooked. But we know that they were important crops from the archeological record. So I’ve been collecting them, trying to understand what kind of ecosystem they live in and then experimentally cultivating them. The goal of the long-term project I am currently doing is to see if we can re-domesticate them. Between COVID-19 and increasing racial tensions, this summer has heightened cultural instability around the globe. Do these events affect your perspective of your research or science in general? Living through this time period will push my research in different directions or cause me to think about things differently than I otherwise would have right now. It pushes you to try to think about how you can make your research and the things that you’re intellectually interested in relevant to making the world a better place. See Natalie's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-natalie-mueller Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Lawton Blanchard, Undergraduate Fellow Given recent events, such as COVID-19 and rising racial tensions, do you think it is possible for science to be unaffected by cultural instability?... I say no. It’s been crazy watching how recent events have opened up people’s minds to seeing the extent of systemic racism in America and how that plays into things like a health crisis. Certain populations, especially Black Americans and Americans on reservations, are more susceptible to COVID-19. This is why it is especially important to consider race, race relations, and racial history in public policy and health policy. We need people doing science in both trying to cure Coronavirus and also understanding and chronicling mistreatment of ethnic minorities in healthcare. There are all these things that stack up on top of each other to create massive disparities. Something as impartial as a virus becomes racialized. You can’t just say ‘Oh, that’s other people’s problem. I’m doing science right now.’ That’s a very privileged mindset to have. What we really need to understand is that people can’t just turn on science and turn off the rest of their lives. What is your perception of Tyson’s commitment to creating a diverse community of researchers? I’m only a junior so I don’t have a view of the long history of Tyson, but I can look at previous years and those who have been at Tyson and pushed me to get involved. You know, a lot of my trans friends, non-white and non-straight friends who were interested in biology were able to get internships. Tyson seemed like a very inclusive bunch and I felt like, if I were to apply, I’d be judged based on my merits as a person. Everyone likes to say they base applications only on your qualities but putting that into practice is difficult. A group that notes its unconscious biases and really puts in that effort to make sure they have an inclusive environment for those who are willing and able and have the skills is what makes the difference for me. Even in the chat this summer, there was the diversity and inclusion channel which filled up with statements. Everyone puts their pronouns in bios for Zoom. If you had to take the day off for Juneteenth you could. Tyson does all of these things to make sure everyone has a space at the table, not just saying it, but putting boots on the ground to make sure the action is there. See Lawton's profile here: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-lawton-blanchard Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Jackson Potter, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science We make widgets that help people.... We’ve been interviewing researchers at Tyson to find out if there’s any special equipment that might help them with their research. That’s the main goal, to help facilitate research of people at Tyson by making them something, or finding the physical hardware, software, or products they need. Do you have any examples of something you’re making? Oh, sure. For Natalie Mueller’s ‘Lost Crops’ project she needs to separate different types of seeds from their chaff. There are some solutions, products that you can buy online that work pretty well, but she studies unique seeds; they are very small relative to the chaff. Currently we're trying to make a winnowing device that works well for the particular seed that she's trying to separate. What got you interested in the combination of engineering and ecology research? I’ve always been focused on mechanical design and machines. My wife is an ecologist. I’ve found that ecology equipment is a really cool application. It isn’t usually mass produced so you can make custom one-off machines for different needs. The designs almost always involve usability and environmental robustness. It needs to be suitable to different conditions and portable. They’re also usually somewhat safe to work on. It’s not like, you know, making something that’s going to explode. What’s the best part about your standard day of work at Tyson this summer? I like doing the work alongside the undergrads, making sketches of different solutions and doing the functional decomposition, helping them along with the process. I don’t always get to do that as an instructor. A lot of time is spent administering the course, but not going through the content yourself. It’s fun that this summer I actually get to do it. That’s probably the best part of my day. See Jackson's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-jackson-potter Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Erin O'Connell, Research Technician Right now I’m in the field at Tyson, measuring thousands of seedlings.... Normally, we would have had a much larger team, and my responsibilities would have been keeping tabs on the group dynamics and safety. But since we ended up not being able to have people on site, all those responsibilities dissipated away, and I was left with primarily focusing on the research. With a team, you have conversations, or you’re sharing data. It's a lot more quiet now. It's nice sometimes to take a break and just sit and observe more than I normally do; just looking at the forest and the way the light goes through the trees, and how some of the trees are angled into the valley from the slopesthings you don't notice with people all around. I'm trying to appreciate those little moments a bit more. What do you miss the most about the Tyson community? Oh wow. Everything. I think the easy answer is Thursdays, when we would have had seminars as a communityit's really nice to see the field station come alive. What I miss the most about that is the random one-on-one interactions that I would have with people that I didn't even know, or knew only tangentially since they’re on another team. We've done a good job of trying to have a virtual community, but it's really hard to have side conversations on Zoom. Personal connections usually happen through proximity; I’ve kind of taken that for granted. I live with people, I work with people, I see people in the community and then I become friends with them because I'm around them. But when we're all physically separated from each other, those things aren't happening but personal connections are still important. So the whole COVID situation has made me realize how important it is to still reach out to people, even if I'm not physically near them. See Erin's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-erin-oconnell Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Michael Moore, Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellow What were your research plans for the summer, before COVID-19?... I would not have been in St. Louis. I would have been catching dragonflies in different parts of the country, looking at genetic differences across the continent. Instead, I’m using citizen science data to look at how the different dragonfly species have shifted in their ornamental traits across North America." In a recent Tyson seminar, you talked about the use of citizen science data. What do you think is the importance of collaboration between scientists and the general public and do you think it will become more common in the future? "I think it will be more common and I certainly hope that it is. The exciting thing about using citizen science data sets like iNaturalist or eBird or GBIF is that they offer mountains, literally a trove, of data to be used for the right questions. Perhaps the images that are uploaded to something like iNaturalist aren't as good as if I was out there catching these animals and taking really standardized pictures. But in most situations, the observations are perfectly good for answering a wide variety of questions and you can get answers on a much greater scale than you would if it was just me and a small team. So let me give you an example. This past summer, I was going to document how different dragonfly traits vary across the continent. I would have caught a bunch of dragonflies. I would have taken tissue samples so that we could measure differences in their underlying genes. And I would also have taken really nice, standardized pictures. I have a lot of experience catching dragonflies and taking pictures of them. For me over the course of one summer, I could have maybe sampled a few hundred dragonflies, maybe a thousand at most and that would have just been one species. With some of the iNaturalist projects that I've been working on, with some of the great observations taken by the citizen scientists, we were in one case actually able to look at some of these patterns in 10 different species. This kind of data certainly isn't perfect for everything, but it's absolutely a way that we can look at broad geographic patterns and where organisms live. And, as more people upload observations on platforms like iNaturalist, we will have a living record of real-time changes in biodiversity patterns. Obviously none of us want the environment to change. But purely from an academic standpoint, it's really every evolutionary biologist's dream to have this documented record of how these traits might change over the next few decades as the environment is changing. See Mike's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-michael-moore Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Chris Kuse, Undergraduate Fellow In past profiles your mentor, Rachel Becknell, has spoken about how much she appreciates having undergraduate help. Could you comment on this relationship?... Rachel’s definitely a good mentor. She’s there whenever we message her on Slack or even through texts. That’s very nice and she’s very understanding of all the chaotic things that can happen. In some ways it feels more like an acquaintanceship. It feels very genuine. Regarding how we help her, it’s sort of hard with COVID-19 and everything because most of the primary work would be weeding and root-washing, but we don’t get the opportunity to do that which makes it tedious on her end. The only real work we can help her with right now is labeling those bags. How many bags would you say you label a day? I usually do between 50 and 100. I like to do them while I listen to Ted Talks and podcasts and stuff. It helps. It’s a lot of tedious and repetitive work. We have to go through around 900 by the end of the program. Other than bag labeling, you have an independent project to work on, as well. What has that been like? I’m looking at soil nutrient analysis in relation to pH. Of the species in the research gardens, some are easy to establish and others are hard to establish. There are definitely challenges because I don’t really get access to the lab and stuff, which I would have liked to do. Rachel has to take all the soil samples from the research gardens, which is very tedious, then she has to do the nutrient analysis. What is the importance of your group’s research? The research is focusing on restoring prairies. There’s a lot more to prairies than people may think. They’re full of diversity and a lot of it has been taken away. But, it’s possible to slowly bring it back. I would say that a lack of biodiversity in our local environment will lead to low pollinators and not very many animals will be able to survive. It will, overall, just wreck the environment. See Chris' profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-chris-kuse Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Whitney Anthonysamy, Assistant Professor of Biology, St. Louis College of Pharmacy Where does your interest in nature stem from?... I grew up in a very rural area of central Illinois and, as long as I can remember, I've been interested in wildlife and being outside. I grew up playing in the woods; playing along the Kaskaskia River. I spent a lot of time looking for insects, catching minnows and tadpoles, and picking up mussel shells on the sandbars of the river. I can't remember this pivotal moment in my life where I thought, ‘Oh, I just love ecology and nature!’ That's just always how it's been for me. I was very fortunate to have parents that fostered that interest. They tolerated me bringing living things into the house. They bought me field guides and were really supportive when I chose to pursue a degree in zoology and biology in college. I think where I am today, ultimately stems from how and where I grew up. How has your scientific work changed due to the cultural landscape changes this summer? I work on the camera trapping project through the St. Louis Wildlife Project and we've been able to continue that. We've been very fortunate because we can do this outside and individually without coming into contact with people. The data that we collect from that, the images and photos, can be processed remotely. We've been super lucky to continue our work without too much interruption. Actually, it's provided an opportunity for us to ask additional questions. For example, we're looking at wildlife diversity in the St Louis area in several parks and natural areas and green spaces. We were able to get the cameras out at the beginning of the lockdown. We still have them out. Lockdown orders have been relaxed and things are not back to normal, but people are resuming normal activities. This is allowing us to ask some interesting questions about how wildlife might be responding to changes in human behavior, due to COVID. What's your favorite aspect of the research that you do with Tyson or the work you do with Tyson? I really love bringing undergrads, not just out to Tyson, but outside to do field work, introducing them to natural history and ecology, getting them excited about science and helping them make some connections. A lot of students don't have any idea what sort of wildlife are in St. Louis or they're really surprised to see so many animals showing up on these cameras when they're tagging photos. They say, ‘Wow, we have foxes!’ or ‘Wow, we have armadillos!’. It's just fun having a place to go out and get dirty and grab a net and play in the water. One of my favorite parts, too, is being part of a community. See Whitney's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-whitney-anthonysamy Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Ruth Ann Bizoff, Tyson Accounting/Administrative Support Coordinator This is my seventh year working at Tyson. It's been interesting being at home because of COVID. At first, I absolutely hated it. It's just so different and your weekdays kind of melt into your weekends because you're at home. But now I'm getting a little more used to it. I go out to Tyson at least once a week to gather the mail and make sure the invoices are being paid. But I think my... most important job there is keeping the hummingbird feeders full. You take care of rescue animals. Could you talk a bit about that? I am certified by the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Association, and I've been in wildlife rehab for twenty-plus years. I also work at a local shelter here, which happens to be closed for COVID-19, actually. They fostered out all the dogs that I walk. I currently have rescue animals at home, including my second clutch of orphaned baby birds. That's a very, very important part of my life. And everybody at Tyson has been very supportive of that, too. If there's a critter that's hurting out there, I’m the first person they call and I’m able to help most of the time. What do you miss most about being able to see the Tyson community in person? I miss the faces and the camaraderie. And even the background noises, the white noises in the back, you know, somebody vacuuming or somebody banging or clanking, or somebody emptying the dishwasher. I miss how if I want to complain about something I could just run next door and go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and complain and get it over with. After seven years, it's a part of your life. They're family basically. You argue with them, get along with them, ask their advice, help them when you can. It's a big change to all of a sudden go from all that to my office at home. It’s quiet. What do you hope people will learn from everything that has been happening? I am in my late fifties, and COVID and the Black Lives Matter protests have been life-changing. I'm happy to be witnessing this historic time. I'm not happy that it's happening, but I'm grateful that I understand what's going on and that I can learn from it. I hope people learn to respect other people, learn compassion and empathy. I hope some people even open their wallets and donate to different causes if they can. I hope people respect what the scientists are saying as far as the virus is concerned. I just hope people open their minds and learn from this. I'm a pretty passionate person, and I’m trying to do my best in my own little corner of the world. I hope other people do, too. See Ruth Ann's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-ruth-ann-bizoff Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Solny Adalsteinsson, Tyson Staff Scientist I was originally educated in science culture to ‘be a scientist first’keep all that human stuff, your personal life to yourself, so that you can do good science. It’s now become clear that we need to be understanding of each other, figure out what’s going on in the lives of the people we work with and give each other a break, if that’s what we need. We need to try and factor in more of the human element in ou...r day-to-day interactions as scientists. Each summer Solny Adalsteinsson and her tick and wildlife team collect field data for her long-term experiment about the effects of fire on tick-borne disease risk, including the study of tick parasitism in birds. This summer that work, gone remote, includes a research synthesis and consideration of the human dimension she’s found lacking in science. Our current, cultural shift is towards a greater recognition of systemic racism present in the U.S.and in many places around the world, unfortunatelyand taking action to dismantle it. We’ve engaged our lab group this summer in taking a closer look at the ways in which scientists and the science they do are influenced by, and complicit in, systemic racism. I’ve been learning and thinking about how we can face these issues head on and in doing so improve our science and make the science community a more equitable and just space for everyone. That’s what we as mentors in my lab group this summer are trying to emphasize and integrate into our students’ training. Our undergraduate fellows are learning to code, read scientific literature, and identify birds and ticks. They are also learning about systemic racism in this country, particularly how it relates to science, so that they can be good scientists and good community members. See Solny's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-solny-adalsteinsson Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

HUMANS OF TYSON-REMOTE Katie Westby, Tyson Staff Scientist I’ve been at Tyson for a long time. I was a visiting researcher there during my PhD, then a postdoc for 5 years, and now I have a new staff scientist position. I do research and I’m going to be helping with things like strategic planning and helping other researchers with their applications.... For the last few months I’ve been writing up all the work we’ve done in the last couple of years, mainly looking at urbanization and mosquitoes: how do artificial light at night and land-use impact mosquito populations? I just submitted a National Institutes of Health grant to hopefully start looking at newly established mosquito populations in Southern California. I want to collect them and see if they’ve adapted to the hotter, drier climates out there. How has COVID-19 affected your research? Honestly, I got really lucky. I wasn’t planning on collecting any data this summer so it hasn’t really affected me that much. But a lot of people at Tyson can’t collect their data at all this year. It’s been devastating, especially for the students. They have a limited timeframe to collect data, do a thesis or internship. If you’re a grad student working in the field it’s hard to lose a whole field season. It’s definitely been devastating for a lot of people. What is the best, and worst, part of your standard work day at Tyson this summer? I think the best part is being able to sleep in a little later. The worst part is the lack of comradery. I miss my people. You know, normally I would have known you relatively well by the time we do this interview. I miss being around everybody and being able to pop into people’s office and see what they’re doing. For the Tyson Summer 2020 field season, what has your morning routine looked like? You mean compared to what it normally looks like during the summer at Tyson? Oh, it’s night and day. Normally during the summer I’m running a team of students and I’m rushing to get there at 7:45 a.m. to eat something real fast and then find my team and make sure they know what they’re doing. Now, I sleep in a little bit, maybe go for a walk before it gets hot, and then I kinda settle into my desk. I mean, it’s completely different. Normally every day in the summer feels like a marathon. Now it feels like I’m hanging out in a shallow pool, just sort of floating around. See Katie's profile: https://tyson.wustl.edu/ht-2020-katie-westby Explore more Humans of Tyson: https://tyson.wustl.edu/humans-of-tyson-2020

The Tyson Conservation Corps is looking for a new Assistant Student Coordinator to work with our amazing Research and Conservation Team. If you are a Wash U student please consider applying. Learn more and apply here: https://tyson.wustl.edu/tyson-conservation-corps