Why did you decide to pursue a PhD in Environmental
Sciences?
“My degree is technically in biology and biochemistry with
a minor in Latin American Studies because I took so
many classes as a undergraduate and I enjoyed Latin
American studies, so I just minored in it. I decided to go
into the PhD in environmental science not necessarily
because I was 100% sure of the environmental science
track, but I met my advisor in undergrad. Her name is Dr.
Erica Bruce. I worked with her as an undergrad. I was a
transfer student at Baylor University, but I worked with her
for about two to two and a half years, my junior and senior
year. I realized that I really enjoyed the work that she did,
so even though it is not strictly environmental science, we
are more so focused on human health and toxicology. It
just so happened to be that her lab is technically in the
environmental science department. With that said,
environmental science does encompass human health
and human toxicology. Long story short, I chose this field
because my mentor/advisor was in the field, I really
enjoyed our relationship/mentorship, and I enjoyed the
work that I did as an undergrad, so I decided to just
continue with it. It is not exactly the same of course
anymore. In fact, it has changed several times throughout
six to seven years that I have been with her or in this lab,
the Bruce Lab, but that is just the gist of it.
When did you get involved with research?
“It was summer 2012. I was going into my junior year. I
applied for an internship kind of on the whim because I
hadn’t done any research prior to that. I knew that I
enjoyed the lab work that I had done until that point and I
had some contacts from my previous school. I was a
transfer student at Baylor, so I had contacts at a different
school and mentors there that advised me or
recommended me to different programs. I went ahead
and applied to an internship which was at the University
of Guadalajara in Mexico. I did a bit of study abroad. It
was only two months in the summer. That’s my first
official sorta research internship that I had. After that, I
decided I enjoyed it enough. It was working with animals,
so we studied the effects of hibiscus on rats with
metabolic syndrome, so these are large kind of obese
rats. I enjoyed the medical research or biomedical
research enough that when I came back to Baylor that fall
I looked for a lab that was looking for interns or
undergraduate researchers. My involvement started about
halfway through my undergraduate years. I wish I had
started sooner. I was a sophomore, almost a junior.”
What opportunities at Baylor University do you believe have
contributed to your success?
“Baylor University does a really good job of integrating its
transfer students. When you are a freshman, you come in
and you have a welcome week and you have all of these
activities to sort of get you connected, but as a transfer
student, you can sometimes become a lone wolf or feel a
little bit isolated. I decided that I would take all the
opportunities given to me. I joined the transfer student
club. I was involved in that and through them I got
connected with other STEM students, not necessarily for
research but a community of other research oriented or
STEM oriented students. Then through them I actually
heard about the environmental sciences department and
other science departments at Baylor looking for
undergraduate interns, so it kind of was like a word of
mouth thing, but it also was like Baylor designated
information. I think it is yearly that they put it out. There is
this “Science Research Fellows Program” that started
recently, but before it started it was called something else.
It was like “Summer for Undergraduate Research” and so
I had heard about it and I decided to look up different
mentors or advisors that were interested in not just
lecturing or teaching but actually mentoring next
generation researchers. I remember Baylor doing a lot of
sorta that outreach mostly via email and then you also
had panelists. I remember panels where the advisors and
some senior grad students that had done research had
sat down and talked to you about what your plans were
for the future, so sort of like professional development or
career aspiration type event or opportunities where you
got to talk to people in STEM specifically female mentors,
advisors, researchers, etc. and educators in STEM from a
lot of the different studies we have at Baylor. I remember
talking to some of them in panels.”
“Another thing that I really appreciate Baylor doing is
hosting and also sending undergrads and also grad
students to conferences. There is a lot of opportunity for
funding and to apply for different funding outlets to go to
either an internship or to a conference. I remember I
didn’t get an internship funding, but I got several
conference money here and there, so I got to go to two
SOT conferences as an undergrad with my lab group and
then as a graduate student of course with your PI funds.
There are several avenues at Baylor that I think led to my
introduction to research and to sort of kick start my career
as a researcher.”
Can you tell me more about your current research and how
your research has an impact in society?
“I always appreciate people asking because more than
the actual science itself the bigger question is, “how is it
important and why should we care about this work?” In a
nutshell, I study how atmospheric pollutants, mainly
disease exhaust particles which are tiny nano-sized
particles or pollutants that float around in the atmosphere
and everyone is exposed to them over a lifetime
especially if you live in a large city or transited areas, but I
study how those particles affect brain cells namely the
blood brain barrier which I think are the coolest barrier in
the body because they literally keep everything that is
supposed to be outside the brain, outside the brain, kind
of like a goalkeeper. Then they keep anything that is
supposed to be inside the brain, inside the brain.”
“Another cell type that I study along with the endophilia
cells of the blood brain barrier are the microglia. Those
guys are kind of like the defenders of the brain, so
together they form sort of your first line of defense and
what is interesting about these cells is that when they are
healthy the rest of the brain is healthy. If these guys sort
of start to deteriorate, if the barrier becomes leaky or if it
is not functioning properly, then you can get
neurodegenerative diseases.”
“Another important association that I look into is exactly
how deep EP (exhaust particles) make that barrier leaky
and compromise that barrier and the microglia such that
down the line after so many years of exposure then a
person or a group of people might develop
neurodegenerative diseases including Alzhemiers. We
know there is a link to exposure to atmospheric pollutants
and Alzhemiers, and so the important question here, the
relevance of the work, is if I can understand or we as
investigators can understand how exactly the mechanism
of that pathogenesis or the beginning of that disease
happens then we can potentially restrict it, we can limit it
and we can advise either the treatment or disease or
prevention for disease. I think this is really cool too, in
terms of environmental science, is that we can actually
have an indirect regulatory power or authority over
regulations to be more protective of human health. We
essentially can influence regulatory or regulations of
atmospheric pollutants so that they are protective of
human health.”
“That’s sort of the big picture, ultimately, is to protect
human health by one, regulating atmospheric pollutants a
little better and two, understanding how the disease
happens, so that we can prevent it or treat it. All of my
work is very much benchtop science. We are in the lab
everyday, most of the day. It is not a problem for me. I
look at the cellular microscope. We run a lot of bio acids,
amino cytochemistry, so all of the big bio tools we use,
but I think environmental science and human health are
very much intertwined and that is one of the bigger
appeals to me of my project for my work.”
When did you learn you had a passion for environmental
science and human health?
“I don’t remember a specific instance where a lightbulb
went off and I said ‘Oh I love this.’ I do remember at a
young age having very good role models or I guess one
or two good science role models in my elementary school
and then also in high school. They never made me
question whether or not I could go into STEM. They more
so gave me a bunch of projects like the rest of the
students like science projects. They would make us look
at the typical leaf under a microscope or cell division
under a microscope. I remember looking at an onion root
or something under a microscope and painting it. The
painting came out really beautifully and I gave it to my
science teacher, Ms. Fisher which was kind of funny to
me because she loved to fish. I gave her the painting and
she told me that I would make a great scientist because I
paid attention to detail. I guess she was impressed by it.”
“ After that I kind of decided that I would look more into
cell biology. I enlisted into AP Biology. In that class, you
delved into cell biology, After that I realized I was good at
it. I really liked the material and so biology became sort of
my central focus or my central interest. That happened in
high school. I will say I grew up in Mexico. I grew up in a
beautiful tourist port, Puerto Vallarata. You should visit
one day if you can once the pandemic is over. Puerto
Vallarata is a tourist port, so I remember being fascinated
with marine life, but I feel like most kids are and I
remember going whale watching. At first, I wanted to be a
marine biologist, but then, at some point, my curiosity was
more so with things I could see through the microscope
and not macroscopically. Microscopic organisms are cells
and not macroscopically although I still love marine
animals.”
How has your identity/background played a role/ had an
influence in your career?
“ I am half Asian and half Mexican, so I call myself
Mexiasian. As an Asian minority which I just learned this
term we are a type of model minority, so the stereotype is
being smarter. However, being a woman is that you are
not as smart. I find that both stereotypes are not
pervasive in my life, but I found several instances where I
was assumed to be smarter than my peers because I was
Asian. In my opinion it is not just smarts, but also it is
dedication. I worked hard for all of my classes, none of
my classes were easy As. I always got picked to answer
questions first and it felt almost as if they thought I knew
the answer not because I was Asian, so this might be me
misconstruing things, but I also felt that they assumed I
was good at Chemistry or good at math or good at
Organic Chemistry because of a stereotype. Whenever I
would answer the question they were like ‘Yes!’,
‘Exactly!’, ‘Great job!’, but then my peers would answer
similar questions.”This might be me overthinking things
but I remember a situation where I answered a question
wrong and I was told, ‘Oh good job. That is okay.’ or ‘You
will be fine on the exam.’ or ‘You will do good on the quiz.’
It was a wrong answer which I guess is encouraging, but
then a peer of mine, he was a male, answered right, but
then the teacher who was also Hispanic said to him, ‘Oh
you will do better next time.’ It was a correct answer, but it
was not sufficiently correct. I do not know necessarily how
to take that whether I was Asian or a woman that he
assumed that I automatically was good or correct and my
peer wasn’t but that was one instance.”
“I will say that I had one situation recently within the last
couple of years where I was told that I had to start
thinking as a real scientist. That had never really
happened to me. I do not know if it was because this
professor is from a different generation not to make
excuses, but he is from a much older generation and if
you do not go by the hierarchy of academica and agree
with all of his suggestions he takes that as a sign of you
not being the right type of scientist or right type of
professional. I did not say anything at the time because I
kind of was taken aback, but I also did not know what to
say. I have been in grad school for three years, so maybe
I am not a real scientist. It kind of made me question
whether or not I was. He did apologize. I do not know if he
meant it to be offensive, but that is one thing I remember
distinctly and I think again that has more to do with the
stereotype that women aren’t as good scientists or can’t
balance work life.”
“I am also a step mom and I remember constantly being
asked by other girl grad students how I manage to do all
my work and also parent, but they do not ask the male
incoming grad students that are fathers how they
manage. It is micro. I do not let it bother me. Then again, I
do not think it is a pervasive thing in my life, but I am sure
that it is definitely still a problem especially in an
academic and university setting. Those are the three
examples I can think of of my background influencing
people’s perception of being as a scientist.”
What advice do you have for girls interested in environmental
toxicology and want to explore more on this field?
“I think the best piece of advice I received as an
undergrad going into STEM or deciding to major in
biology and biochemistry and do research in grad
school/as a career is by Dr. Dana Diana Dean. She is my
absolute favorite teacher of all times. She told me, ‘You
do not have to be the expert in the room or the smartest
person in the room, but you do have to be the person that
learns the most.’ I just thought that was just such a
beautiful expression of what science is because you are
never an expert at anything really, so feeling like you
need to be the expert at all times, always and in every
situation around people or in the room is just draining. A
lot of science, especially academia can be very ego
driven. She was just telling me not to compare myself to
other scientists and focus on furthering my development
and my learning because that is ultimately the goal of
science. The goal is to learn so that you can help others
and you can hopefully progress society or help a societal
need. My advice would be the exact same I got from Dr
Dean is to not be so hard on yourself and to not compare
yourself or strive to always be the best or the expert in the
room meaning don’t compare yourself, but always strive
to learn the most when possible. If you can apply that
mentality not just to STEM but to any career, I think a lot
of the heat that you feel from competition or from pride or
ego around you, you can just shake off and not let it move
you. Then, you can be much more spread headed and
focused on your journey and not on everyone elses’ and
feel much more peace because then you are not worried
about what people think of you whether it is a group of
people or a single person. You are not doing work for
people as in, you are not doing work to please people you
are doing the work because you care about fixing a
problem or care about the people you are trying to help,
not the people who are trying to judge you necessarily.”
Interviewed by: Zora Beaty
Graphic by: Smyrna Davalath
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