Life is a collaborative effort!

With as much time as I've spent planning out my dissertation project, I never would have imagined the opportunities that have sprung up by pure coincidence. From a conversation I had at my poster with a colleague of my advisor's about a presentation he had just seen about mosquitofish (also the topic of my poster) to an email to a researcher I had been in contact with previously who worked on the same project, a collaboration between myself, my advisor, Dr. Fred Leusch, and his student Phil Scott from Griffith University in Australia seems to have almost came from nowhere but has ended up taking us in some really good directions.

I'm really excited about working with Fred and Phil and for the opportunity to give my work a wider reach than it currently has. It's also a good chance to see things from a different perspective, both in terms of international scope and in the background knowledge that we all bring to the table. Nancy and I hosted them here at UF for a short visit and we had some really nice discussions and ideas for some very cool projects. I'm looking forward to finishing up my last year as a PhD student with being able to branch out of my own project and to learn new techniques and approaches from scientists outside of the CEHT.

Another great thing about the collaboration is the chance to meet new science friends as well. Phil and I had a chance to get to know each other at the Long Beach meeting and also had some fun in Gainesville during our non-scientific discussions :)

Phil and I walking around Lake Alice on a cloudy morning

Looking forward to an exciting yet busy year ahead. Lots to do to finish up but I'm happy to have such a great group of collaborators, labmates, and friends to go along with!