By SORTEE | September 5, 2022
[SORTEE member voices is a weekly Q&A with a different SORTEE member]
Name: Signe White.
Date: 12 July 2021.
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher.
Research and/or work interests: My postdoctoral current work focuses on the beneficial effects of microbiomes of marine diatoms on adaptation to increasing ocean temperatures. My former work in graduate school was on how parasites evolved in response to host genetic heterogeneity. I’m also interested in biogeography and coevolution..
If you had the power to change one thing about current incentives in your career path, what would it be?
I would incentivize studies that replicate previous findings. These replicated experiments should be just as important as “new” experiments in terms of prestige and impact factor. Replication should be encouraged and rewarded in the field of ecology and evolution to the closest extent possible. (I recognize that many long-term observational studies of natural phenomena are inherently difficult to replicate.) It goes without saying that I believe all journals should require raw data to be uploaded with the manuscript, including carefully detailed descriptions of how the statistical analysis was performed. Having the data analysis clearly outlined would help speed up the replication process. The tools provided by the original authors should make the data analysis portion of a replicated experiment relatively easy. If not, it is clear that there is an issue with either the data acquisition or analysis that can quickly be addressed.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in the town of Murray in western Kentucky, about 5 miles from the border of Tennessee. Murray is the county seat of Calloway County, a historically Dry county. My parents would have to drive to Paris, Tennessee (and pay the exorbitant TN sales taxes!) to purchase alcohol, a trip I made with them many times as a kid. My favorite thing about growing up in western Kentucky was being so close to Land Between the Lakes, a National Recreation Area that provided me with tons of camping, swimming, kayaking, and wilderness exploring, including a bison and prairie and a real-life 1850s-era working farm called the Homeplace.
Where to find you online?:
https://pswhite.weebly.com/
