As an undergraduate, she also conducted research on crayfish ecology and conservation throughout the Appalachians. As a graduate student, Garrison began her education at East Carolina University working under the direction of Jason Bond, who is now chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn. When Bond came to Auburn in 2011, Garrison followed so she could continue her studies under his direction.
This June, Garrison will assist with the third annual Bioinformatics Bootcamp at Auburn. The Bootcamp is a weeklong training workshop in genomics and computational biology for researchers interested in working with modern genomic data resources. She also regularly mentors Auburn undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom come to her seeking bioinformatic or molecular wet lab training and assistance. A recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Garrison is the first author on a research paper that was recently published in PeerJ and featured online by Science magazine. Although much of her research takes place in a lab, her field work has taken her all over the world including Costa Rica, Italy and Spain.
1. What does a typical day in the life of Nicole Garrison entail?
There isn't really a typical day for me. I do a variety of different jobs, but mostly I keep to the molecular lab associated with Auburn's Museum of Natural History. If I'm not sitting at the computer working on biocomputing, learning to code or writing, I am likely extracting DNA. Every once in a while I get to go outside and collect spiders, usually for an outreach program.
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