I began working in the Pilon, Pilon-smits laboratory spring semester of 2001 after having Lianne as my professor for LSCC 102 in the spring of 2000. The overall objective for the project I worked on last semester was to find an efficient and cheap way to clean up Se pollution using plants (phytoremediation). We did this by insertion of a mouse gene Selenocysteine Lyase into plants, enabling a higher tolerance and accumulation of toxic Selenium compounds found in soils. I am now working on a project investigating a gene called AtNiFS and its role in metal homeostasis.
I am a native of Texas and lived there for my whole life except a little under two years in which I lived in Tennessee. I chose Colorado State University because of the Vet program, Fort Collins' climate, and of course the Mountains. I like to snowboard and rock climb in my spare time, and also have an unusual love for reptiles. I got my first snake in the fourth grade and by the time I was in sixth grade I had a Red-Tailed boa constrictor, two different morphs of Burmese pythons, a Ball python and a rather large Savannah Monitor lizard. I have aspiration to someday be a Veterinarian and work on exotic animals possibly at a zoo, and also hope to breed my own constrictors (Pythons and Boas).
I know this is not the Academy Awards, but there are a few people that I would like to thank for helping me be where I am today. I would like to thank Lianne and Rien for giving me this awesome opportunity to do research in their labs, for the immeasurable amount of knowledge they have given me, and for every thing else they have done for me these last two semesters. I would also like to thank my Pops, who lives in Texas, and also my Moms, who lives in Wisconsin, for helping me in every aspect of my life. Lastly, thank you Jason Burkhead for helping me get acclimated to the lab and for letting me annoy him with all my questions.