It has been quite some time since I wrote a post... and thought I should share some updates!
I was awarded the Department of Defense's SMART Fellowship for the remaining two years of my PhD!!!!!!!! I will be sponsored by the Army Public Heath Center's (APHC) Entomological Services Program. This means next summer I will be interning at APHC and then after I graduate (May 2018) I will work for APHC for 2 years. Yes - it is so incredible that I know exactly where I will be after graduation and have a government position guaranteed.. but I am still a bit nervous to live somewhere for 2 whole years, in a row, no moving around. That has not happened since I graduated high school! I am up for the challenge and am excited for the opportunity. A change in my academic advisory has also happened as my committee chair/advisor, Dr. Juliet Pulliam, took a very prestigious position as the new Director of the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis. I am so happy for her and am so grateful that she still wants to continue being involved in my PhD and research. Because of this, we are hoping that I get to spend my Spring 2017 semester in Stellenbosch, SA with her. For those of you who know me well know I am beyond ecstatic about that possibility - I love Africa! Now, most importantly, I am sincerely missing field work this summer... I have my backpacking pack always packed by my door as a reminder to get me the heck outside when I have the time. I keep seeing my Bangladesh posts in that "On This Day" on Facebook and it makes me happy sad. I had such a crazy and adventure-filled summer last year and hope that I can reach a fraction of that this summer. Frederick, MD is pretty incredible and I am so excited to work at USAMRIID this summer... if only I could actually START my work. The paperwork and miscommunications are making me a little nervous about my upcoming government career stint. I know this is just "how it is" but I must say that I have never been one to blindly accept that as an answer for anything. It is one of those things you have to ask yourself... do I walk away or do I dive in to try and fix some of the problems because the resources at your hands outweigh the cons? ANYWAY... I will get off of my philosophical soapbox. I recently attended the 10 day US-CAN Summer Institutes Epidemiology Summer School: Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Disease Spread at Ohio State University - Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI). It was so incredible to hear lectures about Metapopulations, R0 calculations, PDE models by the professors who literally wrote the methods on them. It was a bit too "mathy" for me a few times but I guess that will happen when you bring together such a diverse group of people with very different backgrounds. We had group projects during this workshop and I was on the "Leprosy in the USA" team. Though it turned into a somewhat different project than I thought it was going to be, I am happy with the type of analysis I was able to learn and it will be very helpful moving forward with my own dissertation analysis. I am sad to say there was some drama even though we were all graduate students that I thought would be above petty arguments. In the end our presentation was really great and I was happy with my contribution of the maps and risk index models. Wrapping up, my next two years will be a bit hectic with my fall semester being in Gainesville, traveling with Bonnie and seeing family over winter break, South Africa for the Spring semester and Maryland for the summers. I guess that might make staying somewhere for two years straight after all of that jumping around a little easier... such is life. I'm not getting any younger! haha. Well folks -- that's about my fill of sharing. Stay tuned for more clerical updates as I will not have any goat squats or scabies this summer. *sad face*. Some of the maps I produced for the Leprosy project:
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Steph CinkThis is my way to share both my personal and research experiences with my family, friends and those that are interested.
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