Jacob is a 1st year PhD student in Entomology, working in Adam Dolezal’s Lab. His research focused on factors that may impact pollinator health such as nutrition, pathogens, urbanization, microbiomes, and many others. He currently works on the Honey bee system, but is interested in native bees and pollinators in general.
What have you been working on this past week?
This week I worked on setting up an experiment in which I am testing whether certain fungal strains are able to metabolize certain polyphenols produced by plants. Overall this includes brood hunting in honey bee hives, brushing newly emerged adult bees from their frames, and sorting them into cages of about 50 bees each. The cages are supplied with pollen, honey, and sugar water to keep the bees alive and happy. Several different solutions with different mixes of sugar water, fungus, and polyphenols were distributed to groups of cages and we will be measuring consumption rates to determine whether or not the fungi were able to metabolize the polyphenols in question.
What have you been listening to recently?
I listen to a few different things throughout the week. My go-to is always NPR radio. I like to stay up to date on current events around the world, and am really into politics. I feel like NPR does a fantastic job at presenting news in an unbiased manner. I also listen to several podcasts like the Ted Radio Hour, RadioLab, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Stuff You Should Know, and many others.
Do you have any pets?
I have several! I have a 10 gallon tank with several guppies (there seems to be more every month) and a plecostomus. I also have two aquatic plants in that tank. I have a 25 gallon tank (will hopefully upgrade soon) with a red eared slider (turtle) named Pat (short for Patricia) whose sex is unknown. I also have two miniature schnauzers, Delilah and Opal. I have known Delilah since she was born about 9 years ago, I actually helped her mom throughout the birthing process. We have been best friends ever since – she is my whole world. Kendall and I also just adopted Opal, who is about 6 months old now. She is a pure white schnauzer which are rare, or so I am told, and she was rescued from a puppy mill. She is slowly gaining my love but she is still pretty insane and likes to bite (she is teething). I have been considering getting some pet birds, though I am waiting on those for now. I’m not sure if I would like to get a parakeet or cockatiel, or get chickens/ducks/quail.
Is there any other interesting fact you want to tell us?
Kendall and I just celebrated our 1 year anniversary (October 20th)! Besides that, some “fun facts” about me are that I absolutely love to cook and bake. I grew up cooking with my mom almost every day, learned so much from her and gained a passion for cooking great food and baked goods. I have lately been into fermenting foods like the veggies I grew in my garden to make giardiniera, but have also been baking breads like focaccia and making new salsas. Aside from cooking, I am also a licensed massage therapist and worked as a massage therapist for a large portion of my undergrad and masters. I haven’t really gotten into it here yet since I have been busy focusing on my school work and research.
This past week we had a friend visit us from the Chicago suburbs and she brought her deceivingly cute pup (He’s typically not very well behaved though he’s been doing better) so we spent some time at Triptych having some beers and catching up.
Kendall and I also came in over the weekend to check on our running experiments and bee babies.
