Interview by N.L.
1.What is your job as a scientist?
I am working on a project with an ecologist, Rob Gegear, who is also at WPI. He is interested in why bees are dying off at very high rates. This is an important problem, because bees pollinate many plants that in turn create seeds and fruit that other animals eat (including humans!) Dr. Gegear has been doing some experiments in the lab to try to understand the effects pesticides have on the ability of bees to learn which flowers have the most nectar. Our students are working on a computer model of a 'virtual bee', to try to predict what would happen to the bee population over many years when bees are stressed by pesticides. We are also using the model to look at how changes in bee behavior can also cause changes in other organisms that depend on them, like flower populations, or birds that depend on eating seeds that come from flowers.
I also teach students in the classroom. I have taught bioinformatics, genetics, neurobiology, simulation in biology, and biostatistics, and I work on committees that try to improve the quality of the students' education.
2.Are you the most successful person in your family?
No. My family is actually full of scientists and engineers, and I would say we are all pretty successful. I have one brother who is a computer scientist, one who is an electrical engineer, and one who is a geologist.
3.Do you consider yourself underrepresented in science?
Women on the whole are underrepresented in science, but in biology, we are quite well represented. At WPI, for example, the biology faculty is about half female, and we actually have more women than men who are biology students. Women are still somewhat underrepresented in biology in the highest paid positions, but I think we are making progress.
Liz Ryder, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
1.What is your job as a scientist?
I am working on a project with an ecologist, Rob Gegear, who is also at WPI. He is interested in why bees are dying off at very high rates. This is an important problem, because bees pollinate many plants that in turn create seeds and fruit that other animals eat (including humans!) Dr. Gegear has been doing some experiments in the lab to try to understand the effects pesticides have on the ability of bees to learn which flowers have the most nectar. Our students are working on a computer model of a 'virtual bee', to try to predict what would happen to the bee population over many years when bees are stressed by pesticides. We are also using the model to look at how changes in bee behavior can also cause changes in other organisms that depend on them, like flower populations, or birds that depend on eating seeds that come from flowers.
I also teach students in the classroom. I have taught bioinformatics, genetics, neurobiology, simulation in biology, and biostatistics, and I work on committees that try to improve the quality of the students' education.
2.Are you the most successful person in your family?
No. My family is actually full of scientists and engineers, and I would say we are all pretty successful. I have one brother who is a computer scientist, one who is an electrical engineer, and one who is a geologist.
3.Do you consider yourself underrepresented in science?
Women on the whole are underrepresented in science, but in biology, we are quite well represented. At WPI, for example, the biology faculty is about half female, and we actually have more women than men who are biology students. Women are still somewhat underrepresented in biology in the highest paid positions, but I think we are making progress.
Liz Ryder, Ph.D.
Director, Program in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology