Jessica Henkel: Stuck
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2015
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ecologist Jessica Henkel finds the keys to her research truck missing, as it's parked on a remote beach with one of the biggest tides of the season about to come in. Jessica is a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the National Academy of Sciences and a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University. She has a B.A. in English from Stony Brook University and a M.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of New Orleans. Jessica is interested in how environmental and anthropogenic change and habitat degradation are impacting the coastal habitats of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the communities that rely on them. Her dissertation research investigates the migration ecology and physiology of near-arctic breeding shorebirds that stopover in coastal habitats on the Gulf of Mexico. When not wearing mud boots or waders, Jessica can be found advocating for coastal issues or marching in the Mardi Gras parades of her adopted city of New Orleans.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.0 | Is NYU a scientist? |
| 0:06.0 | I felt it. |
| 0:07.0 | And I just thought, well, |
| 0:10.0 | it was that golden moment. |
| 0:12.0 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everyone, I'm Ben Lilly, and welcome to the Story Collider, |
| 0:26.9 | where we bring you true personal stories about science. |
| 0:30.1 | It's a reminder we have events coming up in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Maine, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City. |
| 0:34.9 | Go to storycollider.org for more info. |
| 0:38.2 | This week's story is from Jessica Henkel. |
| 0:40.0 | It was recorded in April 2015 at the Coshlin Science Museum in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:45.2 | As part of a special event showcasing the Christine Mirzahn Science and Technology Policy Fellows. fellows. |
| 1:04.0 | So I had been told that the key to any PhD was simple perseverance. |
| 1:06.5 | And I knew perseverance. |
| 1:10.4 | I had learned perseverance during my master's research, |
| 1:11.6 | investigating the microseatellite, investigating the population genetics of endangered sandhill cranes when plate run after plate run failed to successfully amplify the limited amount of DNA I had from these critically endangered birds. |
| 1:23.6 | And I had learned perseverance when my dissertation research plan was completely upended by the largest oil spill in American history. |
| 1:33.4 | But my belief in my own fortitude was thoroughly tested one day back in November of 2010 on a remote beach in coastal Louisiana. |
| 1:42.5 | So on the southwestern edge of Louisiana, there is the |
| 1:45.6 | parish of Cameron. And the communities of Cameron Parish were once referred to as the Cajun |
| 1:50.3 | Riviera, due to its miles and miles of relatively sandy coastline and Cajuns. However, the hurricanes |
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