If ever there was aTwitter accountto exhort a dearest and grasp for the open ocean and its many freakish and howling dweller , it would beRebecca Helm ’s . An Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina Asheville , part - timescience communicator , and full - timesalp appreciator , Helm on a regular basis blesses timelines and scientific daybook with the diversity and complexity of marine biography . Having latterly take on aNASA - funded community science initiativelooking at life at thesea ’s surface , Helm ’s work continues to shine a light on undiscovered and poorly sympathise niches of sea ecosystems . However , as she distinguish us here , the route to success is pave with seasickness and accidental jellyfish collation .
What do you do ?
I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina Asheville .
What did it take to get here ?
I grow up in Arizona and loved the ocean even though I almost never expire . I drop dead to college at Eckerd College and then moved to South Africa as a Fulbright Fellow . After that , I went to calibrate school at Brown University where I bugger off my PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology . From there I moved to Woods Hole Massachusetts to solve as a postdoctoral researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , and then to Washington D.C. as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History .
How would you describe what you do ?
I hit the books life in the open ocean .
What ’s the most common misconception about your crinkle of study ?
That nautical biologists are always on ships and dive in SCUBA gear . For good or worst most of our time is spent onshore , at a computer , or in a laboratory .
Picked up any strange skills in your line of work ?
I get super seasick and I ’m majestic to say I can puke overboard in the middle of a conversation without missing a beat ! In fact , tons of nautical scientist get super seasick , so there ’s always a picayune crew of us on any ship when we first strike the big sheik that are sick and wander the deck of cards and talking and now and again throwing up . You get very tight to people you form with very quickly when you go to sea ! It ’s taken a long time to get used to it , and medicinal drug does serve , but I now see it as just another part of the job . Definitely not the most pleasant part but going to ocean emphatically makes up for it !
Memorable stumble on the business ?
Oh , we ’ve had all sorts of mishaps on various ships . But one of the more memorable happened in a lab at shore . I had a big tank of jellyfish and one dark a mess of composition towels tipped over into their tank . When I come in the next mean solar day you could see all these perfectly folded paper towels just floating around INSIDE the jelly ! They ’d use up all the towels and were well-chosen as could be . They eventually spit up some very slimy towel and went about their jellyfishing while I tried to collect all their snooty towels from the armored combat vehicle .
What do you never leave the house without ?
I ’ve got a mini microscope that I fetch with me everywhere I go .
What ’s one small-arm of advice you ’d give to someone want to embark on the same career ?
It ’s strong , and the route is n’t always easy , so find well citizenry who will support you inside and outside of science . check that they have it away how much you care , and do n’t be afraid to ask for help and advice if you need it . It takes a Greenwich Village to produce a maritime biologist !
