Eva Garmendia has always been interested in the small and invisible since she can remember. According to Eva, she was “[amazed] that there is a universe we couldn’t see and yet, we could study and understand it.” As an undergraduate at the University of Granada, she found genetics calling her name and spent her time outside of class in a genetics lab. During that time, she became interested in evolution. While studying abroad at Uppsala University in Sweden, she began her research in microbiology and was hooked. Eva noted that her interest was sparked by “the fact that microbes were alone ruling the earth for so long before multicellularity developed.” She completed a six-month project on the role of RNases in Salmonella Typhimurium. Eva saw how microbiology could help her study evolution citing “their power of rapid replication.”
Name: Eva Garmendia
Job title: Ph.D. Student
Institution: Uppsala University; Uppsala, Sweden
Website: http://evagarmendia.wordpress.com
Twitter: @evagaresp
As a PhD student now at Upspsala University, she studies the evolution of the bacterial genome. She is particularly interested in understanding why certain parts of the bacterial chromosome never change. Since bacteria have evolved for millions of years, the fact that some parts of the chromosome never change implies some value in keeping them around. She started working on two projects to explore these questions. She expected one of these projects to be straightforward and “easy-peasy” and the other as “more explorative and in search of unknowns.” But sometimes (or most of the time in science) things don’t always go as planned! Her “easy-peasy” project turned out to be quite a trickster and after two and a half years she finally had to let it go. Eva says, “that was a dramatic time but also a learning experience that taught me that sometimes we just need to give up sooner rather than later.”
Eva’s work in the basic sciences means the applications of her work aren’t always obvious. Yet, studies in bacterial evolution can have broad implications on many areas that are “more relevant” to society. Bacteria genome evolution occurs under selective pressure, such as during antibiotic treatment, genetic engineering and microbial interactions.
Science is not only confined to the lab for Eva. Currently, Eva is organizing food microbiology events for the annual SciFest in Uppsala. She has hosted science stands at museums including the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. She also organizes a graduate course on outreach and science communication. Her goal is that the participants will find inspiration to pursue science outreach. She believes that instruction in science outreach and communication “is essential in every university that forms future researchers.”
When not in the lab or helping others understand science, Eva likes to dance, take photographs and do yoga. However, it is not always easy to fit those activities into the busy schedule of a graduate student!
Eva’s microbial doppelgänger: Fragilidium subglobosum
F. subglobosum is a dinoflagellate, a type of single-celled eukaryote in found in marine environments. F. subglobosum is also a versatile character! It makes its own food through photosynthesis or preys off others depending on the circumstance.
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