When Carly Scott was 18, she told her mother she was never going to be an ecologist. Now she is headed to graduate school to study in an ecology and evolutionary biology program.
Scott, a UI senior, will be attending the University of Texas at Austin to work towards her doctorate in evolutionary biology after graduation in May.
Though Scott likes to refer to her major as mathematical biology, she is majoring in applied math with a biology option as well. During her time at UI, Scott has met few students in the same program, she said.
“Math bio looks a lot like using math and statistics as a tool to interpret information, especially when we don’t have all the data,” Scott said.
Scott is currently working in a UI lab that is related to what she hopes to pursue. Examining the hybridization of beetles in the southwest United States, Scott said she is writing a computer model to compare with live data collected from actual beetles.
Valerie Blackburn | Argonaut
As Scott pursues her education further, she said she is interested in learning more about evolutionary biology and genetics, specifically how social factors drive the choices people make that change the environment.
“And beyond that how as individuals and societies, we make these choices with our environment, and those choices can have direct genetic implications — beyond just habitat loss,” Scott said.
Though she has gone through multiple periods of doubt, as many college students do, Scott said she loves what she does because of how rewarding it is.
Working with computer software is incredibly frustrating, Scott said. She estimates she spends probably three-quarters of the time she is working on projects frustrated.
“But when it finally works, it’s such a high,” Scott said. “It’s so rewarding because, like, you did it for yourself. Nobody spoon-fed you the answer. It’s the same reason I really like doing math. When you solve the problem, you solved it yourself — it’s all you.”
Research is rewarding because the majority of the time, it does not work, Scott said — especially on the first try, or the tenth try or the fifteenth try. And then the researcher can either quit or work at it until it does work.
“There’s a lot of setbacks all the time, but I still really enjoy it,” Scott said. “And that’s kind of how I know I think this is what I want to do. Like, I can still be that frustrated and that let down, that disappointed, and still come back the next day.”
Valerie Blackburn | Argonaut
John Tokle, a recent UI graduate and friend of Scott since new student orientation in 2015, said Scott is very ambitious and does things because she is genuinely interested in them.
“The things that click with her — she goes all in,” Tokle said. “You wouldn’t go out of your way to get that involved if you didn’t really love it.”
Earlier in her career at UI, Scott worked on a different project where she built a computer model that simulated interactions between bacteria and a type of virus called bacteriophage.
Scott spent the summer of 2019 working on a research program in Ecuador through the College of Natural Resources. Scott analyzed data on perception of water quality and also studied water ecology, sampling ponds to look at the effects of urbanization on water quality.
In her free time, Scott said she enjoys rock climbing, hiking and getting out of town — going on adventures whenever she can. Tokle said Scott has grown to become more of an adventurer, pushing boundaries and trying to experience the world.
When Scott first came to UI, she tried a lot of “social-science-type” things along with math and science and ended up minoring in anthropology, she said. She said it provided a way to think differently apart from math and science.
She said everything she has pursued at UI, even that which she is not interested in pursuing further, has been critical in helping her learn what she likes to do and how different fields tie together.
“Even if you work in an experience that’s not directly related to your major, it’s invaluable to becoming a well-rounded person and, especially in science, a well-rounded scientist,” Scott said. “I think people have a tendency to shy away from things that aren’t connected directly to their goals, but I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable going into graduate school or doing research as a career without being exposed to different fields.”
Jordan Willson can be reached at [email protected]