By SORTEE | March 21, 2022
[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
Name: Ellen Bledsoe.
Date: 06 July 2021.
Position: Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow.
Research and/or work interests: Community ecology, long-term community dynamics, data science, open science, DEI in STEM.
How did you become interested in open research?
I ended up in a wonderful PhD lab that is very strongly committed to Open Science. Before joining, I had honestly not spent much time thinking about the subject, and this aspect of the lab had little impact on my decision to join. I’m so glad, however, that I ended up in a group that helped me learn the importance of openness, reproducibility, and transparency in science!
What ‘ORT’ practice have you introduced into your research practice that you’ve found really helpful?
Version control (I personally use git and GitHub) has been a revelation! It was very daunting to learn–I was forced into it–but I’m so grateful I was. Not only does it help me keep track of my own code and make collaborating on code easier, but I’ve also been able to hunt down other people’s code from other projects to help facilitate my own code, which has, in turn, improved my own coding skills.
What was your worst kitchen disaster?
I’ve had my fair share, but the scariest was probably when a glass growler full of fermenting homemade ginger beer exploded, sending glass and sugary ginger liquid all over the kitchen. I’m so fortunate no one was in the kitchen at the time!
Tell us about a teacher who helped you enjoy learning
My undergraduate ecology professor was one of the most impactful teachers in my life. She made me excited to read my text book! Her class was simultaneously one of the toughest classes I took and one of the best. She was very good at getting students to actively synthesize information and apply it to novel situations, which meant we went way beyond simply memorizing theories and equations. She is the reason I decided that I wanted to become an undergraduate ecology professor myself.
Where to find you online?:
Twitter: @bleds22e
