My name is Jess, and I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in Ecology at Penn State! I work in Dr. Erika Machtinger's lab, the Veterinary Entomology Lab, which is housed in the Entomology department (College of Agricultural Sciences). I graduated in May 2019 with a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science and a minor in Forest Ecosystems from Penn State. I defended my dissertation in February 2024, and will be graduating in May!
My curiosity about nature began when I was a child. I spent a majority of my time outside growing up; some of my clearest memories are of the days when I would go outside and find muddy bear tracks wandering across my driveway, or sneaking out the back door as quietly as I could to get a glimpse of the deer families bedding in the backyard without disturbing them. I owned horses, and my favorite thing to do with them was head to the mountains for trail rides. I was always interested in biology in general, but I remember very clearly the day when I was a teenager talking to my parents about what I wanted to study in college. My mom grabbed her phone and began Googling science/animal related career ideas; that was the moment I discovered wildlife biology as a sub-field of biology and realized it could be a career option for me. I decided at that moment, "this is exactly what I want to do."
I first got involved in research during my junior year of my undergraduate work when I was hired as a lab research technician in Dr. Machtinger's lab. During my time as a technician, I co-led a field study investigating the effects of tick burdens on immune function in white-footed mice. I took on my own project in the lab, as well, testing the efficacy of equine fly and tick repellents with both Lonestar and American dog ticks (Americana amblyomma and Dermacentor variabilis, respectively). Other experiences I gained during this time included maintaining colonies of house flies and parasitoid wasps in the lab and assisting with field work for a project on the ecology of mange in black bears of Pennsylvania. Perhaps most importantly, as a first-generation student, being in a lab setting gave me the chance I needed to ask questions about academia, research, and graduate school.
These experiences made me start to ask more questions about host-parasite--specifically host-tick--relationships and piqued my interest in the area of wildlife parasitology. My graduate research was born from these questions that I couldn't get out of my head after that first summer of small mammal trapping.
Now, I study behavioral interactions between ticks and their hosts, tick control methods, and the ways we can best educate people about protection from tick-borne disease (specifically university students)! I'm also a member of Penn State Extension's Vector-Borne Disease Team. With this group, I regularly participate in outreach events and present "tick talks" to the public.
My next step, starting in June 2024, will be working as a postdoctoral scientist for Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, CT, where I'll continue studying tick control.
My curiosity about nature began when I was a child. I spent a majority of my time outside growing up; some of my clearest memories are of the days when I would go outside and find muddy bear tracks wandering across my driveway, or sneaking out the back door as quietly as I could to get a glimpse of the deer families bedding in the backyard without disturbing them. I owned horses, and my favorite thing to do with them was head to the mountains for trail rides. I was always interested in biology in general, but I remember very clearly the day when I was a teenager talking to my parents about what I wanted to study in college. My mom grabbed her phone and began Googling science/animal related career ideas; that was the moment I discovered wildlife biology as a sub-field of biology and realized it could be a career option for me. I decided at that moment, "this is exactly what I want to do."
I first got involved in research during my junior year of my undergraduate work when I was hired as a lab research technician in Dr. Machtinger's lab. During my time as a technician, I co-led a field study investigating the effects of tick burdens on immune function in white-footed mice. I took on my own project in the lab, as well, testing the efficacy of equine fly and tick repellents with both Lonestar and American dog ticks (Americana amblyomma and Dermacentor variabilis, respectively). Other experiences I gained during this time included maintaining colonies of house flies and parasitoid wasps in the lab and assisting with field work for a project on the ecology of mange in black bears of Pennsylvania. Perhaps most importantly, as a first-generation student, being in a lab setting gave me the chance I needed to ask questions about academia, research, and graduate school.
These experiences made me start to ask more questions about host-parasite--specifically host-tick--relationships and piqued my interest in the area of wildlife parasitology. My graduate research was born from these questions that I couldn't get out of my head after that first summer of small mammal trapping.
Now, I study behavioral interactions between ticks and their hosts, tick control methods, and the ways we can best educate people about protection from tick-borne disease (specifically university students)! I'm also a member of Penn State Extension's Vector-Borne Disease Team. With this group, I regularly participate in outreach events and present "tick talks" to the public.
My next step, starting in June 2024, will be working as a postdoctoral scientist for Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, CT, where I'll continue studying tick control.