Moving On Up In My Academic Career

Yesterday was the first day of the spring semester at Montclair State University! I had a busy day on campus meeting with some of my advisors and going to class. The class I'm taking is called Environmental Forensics, and as my professor told me, it's the first of its kind in the country. The class is about using chemistry techniques to answer questions about environmental contaminants, such as what the contaminant is, where it came from and how long it has been in the environment. I'm very excited to take this class. While thinking about thesis topics, one of the things I considered doing was an analysis of contaminants in the small stream behind my house. It has a number of discharge pipes and has a bunch of garbage thrown in there, and I would be really surprised if it is not contaminated.  The big project for the class is a small scale research project, so I think I will use that idea for my project.

Speaking of my thesis, I spoke with my thesis sponsor yesterday (the wonderful Dr. Josh Galster) and he says I'm ready to sign up for my thesis credits this semester! Even though I have been working on my thesis proposal and taking graduate classes for awhile, it has really hit me now that I am actually a graduate student. It's a very exciting and daunting task at the same time.

My thesis project was inspired by my time working for the Ocean County Mosquito Commission. I noticed during the summer of 2010 that despite there being a drought, there seemed to be a lot more West Nile Virus activity than the year before, when there was a lot of rain (I worked at the OCMC during the summers of 2009 and 2010). Was there something about there being a lack of rainfall that made the virus transmit easier? It was in this observation that my thesis project was born.

I got a glowing letter of recommendation from my boss.

I am hypothesizing that droughts influence an increase in the amount of West Nile Virus activity (basically, the number of birds and mosquitoes that test positive for the virus). This does seem counter-intuitive, since mosquitoes lay eggs in water, and more water equals more mosquitoes. However, when there is a drought, the water resources become limited, leading to clustering of birds and mosquitoes. Being in close proximity enables an increase in the rate of transmission of the virus, and voila! more West Nile Virus activity!