by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
Student Natalie Dawson got motivated to earn a Ph.D. in biology after doing research as an undergraduate that sent her island hopping in near-arctic conditions.
"One of my field sites for my research was working in Alaska for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and I just fell in love with the state," she said. "I had two weeks to meet as many people as I could in the entire region. I hitchhiked on float planes, fishing boats and school buses and came up with money for a larger project."
Dawson, who started doctoral studies at Idaho State University and transferred to UNM in spring 2004, studies genetic diversity and migration patterns of terrestrial mammals in southeast Alaska.
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After doing her undergraduate research, Dawson said she got a job with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska.
She has also worked for the U.S. Park Service in Colorado and the U.S. Geological Survey in Montana.
Student Marita Campos-Melady began her doctoral studies in psychology immediately after finishing her undergraduate degree two years ago.
"Most people took time off to get work experience," she said. "But some schools want you to get started right away, because sometimes people lose their motivation and focus when they take time off."
She is researching alcoholism in New Mexico, and her Ph.D. program covers the cost of tuition and provides her with a paid teaching assistantship.
"You can be a professor, a clinical practitioner or you can just do research," she said. "I'd like to work with substance-abuse recovery in a hospital or a clinical setting, which we really need here in New Mexico."
Student Nicholas Andrews has completed four years of a seven-year medical Ph.D. program.
He said he knew as an undergraduate he would go on to medical school.
Andrews didn't combine his studies with a doctoral program until he started working as a researcher in the last two years as an undergraduate, he said.
"I started working at Sandia Labs. I was doing research in a chemical lab," he said. "I really enjoyed going in and learning stuff that nobody else knows. So doing the MD-Ph.D. program seemed logical for me, because it would allow me to train to become a doctor and continue to push the frontiers of research."
Seven years is a long time to dedicate to post-graduate studies, Andrews said, but the strengths of the dual doctoral program make the time commitment worthwhile.
"I've really enjoyed my time in the lab, and the patient contact that I had during my first year and a half," he said. "When I finish my dual degree here, I'll go onto a residency and, more than likely, a fellowship of some sort."
