The Life of a Microbiologist

Many people think that being a microbiologist means that you sit in a lab (alone) in a white coat with your nose down a microscope all day long.  Good think that’s not usually the case (or I’d have gone crazy a LONG time ago!)  I’m actually an environmental microbiologist which means that I study microbes that live in the environment- in my case, the ocean!  I love my job because I get to go out to sea on research cruises at least three times a year, and there are lots of opportunities to travel to exotic places to take samples of microbes and microbial DNA to bring back to the lab for study.  Some of my colleagues study microbes in soils, lakes, sediments, tar ponds, acid mines, and pretty much any part of the environment you can imagine, which means they get to combine travel and field work with their studies as well.  There is still lots of lab work to be done once we get back loaded down with samples, as well as bioinformatics (computer analysis, usually of DNA sequences) so work never gets boring with so many different things to do!  Check out a few pictures from my most recent trips to sea, and feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about the good life as a microbiologist!

Jody Wright is a PhD student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. ScienceGirl says thanks, Jody, for telling us what it’s like to be a scientist.