why 'Princess Tradescantia'?


I'm currently an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler in the Department of Biology. I spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCentproject summary), and before that, completed my Ph.D. in Chris Pires' lab at University of Missouri.

I like analyzing large biological datasets, especially those which compare genomes. I am committed to open science, including open access publications, open source software, and data sharing. I also believe in honesty and openness about life, trials, and tribulations.

My dissertation work originally focused on the monocot plant family Commelinaceae. In particular, I was interested in patterns of hybridization for between species of Tradescantia (spiderworts, wandering jews; see left for a picture of Tradescantia hirsuticaulis I took in Arkansas during my fieldwork). I became so enamored with the genus that my lab mates began referring to me as princess of the genus. When a 'Princess Tradescantia' sign showed up above my lab bench, the name stuck. The concept of "princess scientist" is an interesting one, and I've written a bit more about it here.

The topics I cover here span the breadth of my professional and personal interests. They are not the views of my employer, collaborators, friends, family, or the barista who served my coffee this morning.

Emerging themes in my blogging include:
Here are some of my favorite posts:

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Kate, I like this data-centric overview of your blog. I plan to steal the idea. I hope that's OK.

Unknown said...

Absolutely, I post things to share! I will also co-opt the reference of "data-centric" to describe my method.