Whoosh! That's the sound we hear as we journey into the wonderful world of the small in a new microbiology children's book by Lindsey Millar. Today, we chat with Lindsey on about her process for creating books, the switch from the lab bench to science communication, and more!
(more…)Category: Meet a Microbiologist
Meet a Microbiologist: Tasha Sturm Turns Microbial Contaminants into Art
Peering under the microscope with Tracy Debenport
Science meets art on Tracy Debenport’s Instagram page, under.the.scope. It’s full of fluffy fungi on colorful agar plates and fungi transformed through the microscope.
Debenport didn’t set out to be a collector of fungi. In a previous life she was a video editor for a reality TV show. But in 2011, after a near fatal encounter with spinal meningitis left her with chronic neuropathy (a condition affecting the normal activity of nerves), she needed to choose a new path - one that doesn’t involve long hours at a computer. She returned to school and left with a degree in biotechnology. (more…)
Meet a Microbiologist: Marcos Voutsinos
While most of us worry about the ripeness of our bananas, Marcos Voutsinos has been preoccupied with something else: the banana freckle. Despite its innocuous name, banana freckle is actually a fungal disease caused by the fungus Phyllosticta cavendishii and characterized by “freckles” of fungus on the banana fruit, leaves, and stems. The fruiting bodies of P. cavendishii can spread up to 1 km during the tropical monsoonal weather making this microorganism a serious concern for the $600 million Australian banana industry. (more…)
Meet a Microbiologist: Jesus Romo
Growing up, Jesus Romo never thought he would become a microbiologist. “I actually wanted to be a paleontologist as a kid and [my parents] always bought me books about dinosaurs and dinosaur toys,” he says. Now Jesus is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at San Antonio studying fungus in the lab. When not in the lab, Jesus enjoys investigating fungi of another kind: the mushroom.
Originally from Coahuila, Mexico, Jesus immigrated to the U.S. with his parents when he was 10 years old. After a year of frustration and not wanting to go to school because he did not know the language, Jesus quickly became fluent in English. He attended the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) as an undergraduate while working six nights a week. Though he did well in his courses, he had no idea undergraduate research opportunities existed. He took a microbiology laboratory course in his last semester and the instructor thought he would make a good teacher and recommended he look into graduate school (more…)