future plans update
the more and more i think about it, the more and more i want to go to europe for a dphil.
here are my top picks in order of favorite to not so favorite:
1. andrew read, university of edinburgh.
research agenda: ecology and evolution of infectious disease, virulence, and transmission. more recently evolution of immune systems and responses.
model system: malaria
pros: amazing scientist, highly prolific, innovative in approach and method, relevant system and research, plus he's in edinburgh
cons: funding may be a problem, large lab and large number of applicants whom i may have to fight in order to win a spot in andrew's lab
2. jacob koella, imperial college london
research agenda: host-parasite interaction/co-evolution from the within-host and epidemiological perspectives.
model system: malaria parasite and mosquito host
pros: super interesting questions, again very smart, only person doing malaria-mosquito interactions, highly recommended as well
cons: so he moved from U of p. and m. curie in paris (he should've stayed!) to imperial college london (better school!) but he's at the sillwood
park campus in ascot, berkshire. where the hell is ascot, berkshire?
3. francois taddei, INSERM necker-enfants malades
research agenda: mutagenesis, molecular and evolutionary mechs controlling variability, error, survival, and adaptation
model system: e. coli
pros: again, very interesting very broad questions. part of a larger network of labs doing similar stuff, including miro radman who discovered SOS
repair. and if i worked with francois, i'd live in paris.
cons: though francois' work is arguably farther reaching, it's not as sexy as malaria and not as applicable. doesn't have the versatility of read
or koella who both address basic and applied scientific problems.
4. dieter ebert, university of fribourg
research agenda: host-parasite interaction, adaptive significance of virulence, adaptive significance of variation and sexual recombination
model system: daphnia
pros: again, i love the stuff he does. not as established as andrew but very daring in his approach, will be open to me exploring ideas on my own.
it will require lots of trips to the daphnia colony located in a rockpool in FINLAND.
cons: daphnia's not a very medically significant model. he's in fribourg, switzerland. which would be cool if you like the outdoors.
so yeah. jacob has gotten back to me and said that he'll be ready for applicants later in the year and that he'll let me know when that happens; also he asked me to say hi to bruce and rustom (booyah for connections). andrew hasn't replied to my email yet, bugger it. just emailed francois and dieter today, we'll see what they say.
according to rustom the chance of me getting in to any of these places is very high so hurray. duke can go fuck itself with it's 17 (17!!!) essays they want me to write for the md/phd application.
here are my top picks in order of favorite to not so favorite:
1. andrew read, university of edinburgh.
research agenda: ecology and evolution of infectious disease, virulence, and transmission. more recently evolution of immune systems and responses.
model system: malaria
pros: amazing scientist, highly prolific, innovative in approach and method, relevant system and research, plus he's in edinburgh
cons: funding may be a problem, large lab and large number of applicants whom i may have to fight in order to win a spot in andrew's lab
2. jacob koella, imperial college london
research agenda: host-parasite interaction/co-evolution from the within-host and epidemiological perspectives.
model system: malaria parasite and mosquito host
pros: super interesting questions, again very smart, only person doing malaria-mosquito interactions, highly recommended as well
cons: so he moved from U of p. and m. curie in paris (he should've stayed!) to imperial college london (better school!) but he's at the sillwood
park campus in ascot, berkshire. where the hell is ascot, berkshire?
3. francois taddei, INSERM necker-enfants malades
research agenda: mutagenesis, molecular and evolutionary mechs controlling variability, error, survival, and adaptation
model system: e. coli
pros: again, very interesting very broad questions. part of a larger network of labs doing similar stuff, including miro radman who discovered SOS
repair. and if i worked with francois, i'd live in paris.
cons: though francois' work is arguably farther reaching, it's not as sexy as malaria and not as applicable. doesn't have the versatility of read
or koella who both address basic and applied scientific problems.
4. dieter ebert, university of fribourg
research agenda: host-parasite interaction, adaptive significance of virulence, adaptive significance of variation and sexual recombination
model system: daphnia
pros: again, i love the stuff he does. not as established as andrew but very daring in his approach, will be open to me exploring ideas on my own.
it will require lots of trips to the daphnia colony located in a rockpool in FINLAND.
cons: daphnia's not a very medically significant model. he's in fribourg, switzerland. which would be cool if you like the outdoors.
so yeah. jacob has gotten back to me and said that he'll be ready for applicants later in the year and that he'll let me know when that happens; also he asked me to say hi to bruce and rustom (booyah for connections). andrew hasn't replied to my email yet, bugger it. just emailed francois and dieter today, we'll see what they say.
according to rustom the chance of me getting in to any of these places is very high so hurray. duke can go fuck itself with it's 17 (17!!!) essays they want me to write for the md/phd application.