I have been following a closely connected path of scientific exploration and adoration of our planet my whole life. As an only child with parents working full-time, many of my early childhood memories occur in isolation within nature. I spent hours poking around at insects under rocks along the muddy ditches around our property. My parents taught me how to swim and open my eyes underwater in the heart-shaped pond behind our house. This built my confidence to explore the unknown murky depths of seaweeds and organisms lying below. When I was motionless, I would brush my fingers along a fish’s slimy scales, and then burst from the water splashing in a crescendo of bubbles and giggles with tiny dark green bits of algae clinging to my skin. Within the forty acres of forests, streams, and fields making up my own backyard in the middle of rural Michigan, I became obsessed with the “hows” and “whys” of our planet. Here, I began to make my first observations of different organisms and their environments.

2006-08-01: Backyard pond fishing for the bass I thought I could accurately identify by the names I gave each one.

2007-01-20: Plant Cell Science project to be created with edible cell parts.

Someone who shared my love for gaining insights into the way the Earth works was my aunt Cate. Without even knowing it, Cate began to share her relationship of gratitude and reciprocity with the Earth that would lay the foundation for the focus of my eventual career path. As a professional scuba diver, Cate would also paint vivid images of the ocean with stories of colorful branching cities made of coral and bursting with marine life. I became engrossed by these ecosystems in Key West, FL where we would visit my uncle annually. Over time, I began to notice visible differences each year as the reef lost its color and moved further away from the magical worlds Cate described. Without even knowing it, the effects of climate change had already become central to my interests. As I became more exposed to the entirety of the damage humans were inflicting on Earth, both my grandpa and Cate died, taking with them a lot of the hope I had for the environment.

After Cate’s death and my academic exposure to the entirety of the degradation humans were inflicting on the Earth, it would have been easy for me to lose motivation on this path. However, I now understand that what gives me motivation as a scientist is my awareness of how much we do not know. As a child, I had no idea the blue dye my dad added worked to block sunlight and prevent the photosynthesis of the tiny green specks in our pond. Nor did I have any clue that this same organism was also responsible for giving color to the corals I loved so much. Now, at 23, I know that algae have the potential power to lead to important analyses that could protect, mitigate and even reverse the effects of climate change. And with a graduate degree from the University of Michigan, I can continue to play an integral part in these scientific discoveries.

2013-05-26: Key West, FL