Recent Posts

Informational Interview with Dr. Manuel A. Luján, postdoc at California Academy of Sciences

By Heidi Wipf, Conviron Scholar About four years ago, during a trip to the Venezuelan Embassy in San Francisco, a tropical biologist stopped to have his photograph taken outside the doors of the California Academy of Sciences - a planetarium, aquarium, rainforest, and natural history museum located…

Informal interview with Dr. Chia Sin Liew, core facility bioinformatician, University of Nebraska

By Yen Ning Chai, Conviron Scholar Dr. Chia Sin Liew is a bioinformatician working for the bioinformatics core facility at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Her jobs include maintaining the computing servers and providing bioinformatics services to the researchers at UNL. She obtained her Bachelor…

Informational Interview with Dr. Robert Gaeta, Plant Biotechnology team leader, Bayer Crop Science

By Alex Clarke, Conviron Scholar Background Robert did his undergraduate at SUNY Cortland before moving to California to work as a technician in molecular biology. He pursued a Master’s degree at Fresno State, where he worked with C. elegans and performed plant transformations with nematode…

Informational Interview with Dr. Liana Nice, Research Scientist and Project Manager, NSIP LLC

By Kate Harline, Conviron Scholar Dr. Nice has a PhD in plant breeding from Cornell University and works at a small plant breeding company.

Informational Interview with Dr. Alexandra Erwin, Director of Talent Development at BioKansas

By Aleah Henderson-Carter, Conviron Scholar Alex Erwin is a recent graduate from the University of Kansas Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. She is now a member of staff at BioKansas, a bioscience networking organization which represents a variety of biotechnology companies and academic…

Informational interview with Dr. Viktoriya Coneva, Postdoc at a PUI

By Hannah Thomas, Conviron Scholar Current position: Post-doc research associate at Kenyon College in Ohio. This position is unique in that it has a strong teaching and mentorship emphasis. She teaching 1 class every semester and mentors 5-6 undergraduate students in the lab. A typical workday: Because…

Informational Interview with Dr. Claire Bendix, patent agent

By Heidi Wipf, Conviron Scholar Dr. Claire L. Bendix is a patent agent for the Intellectual Property group at Morrison & Foerster LLP. Since beginning her career in IP as a scientific analyst in 2017, Dr. Bendix finds the work to be continually engaging, the work environment to be supportive,…

Informational Interview with Katherine Rose Brian, pesticide regulatory specialist

By Daisy Dobrijevic, Conviron Scholar