3 August 2007
Emma Harrower
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
Dear Smithsonian Women's Committee,
I would like to
express my sincere gratitude to you for endowing the opportunity for
students each year to participate in the Research Training Program (RTP)
at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.
I am thankfully supported by the endowment this year. This program is
an incredible experience because it brings together young scientists
from around the world and shows them the exhilarating world of natural
history.
I found the lectures
presented to us by distinguished scientists such as Ted Schultz (who
studies army ant colonies), Ellen Strong (who studies snails in Lake
Tanganyika, Africa) and Liz Cottrell (who can simulate the Earth in
her lab) very enlightening because they are exciting fields but very
different from my own area of expertise - Botany. Having special access
to the Smithsonian's huge and varied collections was incredible and
I would have never been able to touch a 250 million year old fossil
plant, see mammoth flesh or hold a meteorite that was older than the
Earth were it not for the RTP. This extraordinary program has provided
me with an opportunity to rub shoulders with distinguished researchers,
such as Dr. Ken Wurdack (an expert on the plant family that contains
rubber and poinsettias), as well as conduct research from start to finish,
beginning with a project proposal and ending in a poster and presentation.
For ten weeks,
I worked in the Department of Botany under the direction of Dr. Paul
Peterson, an expert on New World grasses. Using the collections in the
US National Herbarium, I studied the physical characters we hope to
use to distinguish between two very similar species of Muhlenbergia
grasses. I also started a molecular project investigating the genetic
variation within and between populations that may support the current
interpretation that these are two separate species. This work helps
our understanding of the biodiversity on Earth.
Thank you for this
amazing experience. I feel fortunate to have worked with truly awe-inspiring
scientists in such a remarkable institution. This is an experience I
will never forget.
Sincerely,
Emma Harrower
Research Training Program
Class of '07